‘No,’ he bit back quickly, holding my gaze, letting me see he meant it, but just as fast he turned his back on me. I wiped my face and sniffed back my tears as all of those feelings of abandonment came flooding back, it was my dad and Alex all over again and I’d sworn to myself I’d never let that happen, yet here I was. This time was different though, this time the pain was a thousand percent more.
‘Then what, Gabe?’
‘I also promised to never hurt you Mia, and I just did. I’d rather hurt you by making you leave me than by ever physically hurting you or scaring you. I don’t ever want to be the person that puts that look of fear in your eyes again, so if I have to break my promise, as well as your heart and mine to keep you safe, I will. Please go, I’m not sure how I can do this if you’re going to continue be nice to me, I don’t deserve it.’
‘You’d never intentionally physically hurt me Gabe, you just got carried away because I made you mad, you thought I was breaking up with you. Please don’t do this. Let me help you, I love you, Gabe.’ I put my hand on his shoulder and he spun around and grabbed my shoulders and shook me hard.
‘For fucks sake Mia, for once in your damn life will you do as you’re fucking told,’ he hissed as his eyes lit up with fury again. ‘Is this what you want? To make me so angry that I hurt you? Will that give you a reason to finally hate me so you can move on?’
‘Gabe, please,’ I begged. ‘I don’t want to hate you or move on. I want to help you. You need to calm down and come inside.’ I reached up and touched his face. It was changing so quickly from anger to pain, confusion then love and back again, like a revolving door filled with too many emotions for him to handle. I was so worried what he was going to do if I left him alone. He batted my hand away from his face.
‘Don’t fucking touch me,’ he snapped.
‘Gabe, let me help you, something’s seriously wrong with you, this isn’t you. Please baby,’ I begged as I tried to take his hand, my heart aching for the state he was in, as well as for me.
‘Just. Fucking. Go,’ he roared in my face, then turned and shot his fist straight through his car window, chunks of glass flying everywhere.
‘Gabe,’ I gasped and quickly jumped back as he turned to face me again. I could see from the look on his face that he’d lost it, I realised that there was no reasoning with him in this state. I was suddenly worried that he might accidentally hurt me if he continued to lash out, but I was trapped between two cars with the car park wall behind me and all six foot one of furious emotional male in front of me. I backed up against the wall feeling terrified, not so much of what might happen to me, I was sure he wouldn’t take his aggression out on me any more than he already had, but I was scared of what it would do to him if he did accidentally hurt me while he was venting. I just knew he wouldn’t be able to cope with that, the thought that he’d physically hurt me would be abhorrent to him. Just as I was about to scream at the top of my lungs to try and snap him out of it, I heard someone else’s voice.
Everything went in slow motion as I saw Gabe turn around in that direction, blocking my view of whoever it was. I saw a fist come flying towards Gabe’s jaw and I winced and quickly covered my eyes, hissing through my teeth as I heard the sound of another punch meeting bones and a car shuddering as a body was slammed back into it. In that split second I knew I needed to step in, I couldn’t take him getting hurt again. I loved him so much that I was prepared to risk getting hurt myself to protect my man, I’d fight to the death if I had to. I opened my eyes and gasped in shock when I saw his attacker.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you so much for reading The Honeymoon Period. If you enjoyed it, please could you spare a moment to leave a review for me? They mean so much to authors, they help new readers discover our work and make all the long hours sat alone at our keyboards creating these stories so worthwhile!
CJF x
Mia, Lexi and Gabe’s story continues in book five of The Austin Series
Love & Loss
For more information on the series, please check out my social media links:
http://www.cjfallowfield.co.uk
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Acknowledgements
Thank you again to all of my readers and fans, your continued support, messages, ratings and reviews mean the world to me.
Georgia Le Carre, author of The Billionaire Banker series, thanks so much for your continued support and also Lan LLP, author of Beginning with Forever, another fabulous book that I'd recommend. They are amazing, generous and talented ladies.
An extra special thanks to Amy from Kentucky. She kindly agreed to be my Beta Reader to test out my first drafts moving forward. Her honest advice and observations were invaluable in helping reshape a couple of areas of this book.
Hope to see you all back for Love & Loss! CJF x
The Honeymoon Period (The Austin Series) Page 48