Page 18 of Tangled Up With You

Chapter Ten

Connor

It had taken everything in me not to get completely shit-faced during the reception after what I overheard earlier that day at the church before the wedding.

The conversation between Ivy and Lennix had been playing on a constant loop in my head all damn night, and I couldn’t get it to stop.

I wasn’t sure if I’d chosen the right moment or the wrong one to take a piss earlier, but either way, now I knew everything she’d been feeling all these months I’d gone radio silent, and if I hadn’t already hated myself, I sure as fuck did now.

“Honey, you have nothing to be embarrassed about. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Ivy made a scoffing sound that was anything but happy. “I’m not so sure about that. I slept with a notorious playboy and was stupid enough to think something might actually come of it. I mean, come on, Len. The guy hasn’t exactly hidden the fact that he doesn’t do relationships.”

Lennix’s voice had gone gentle.“That’s why you looked so sad back there, isn’t it?”

Hearing that she was sad flayed me right open.

“You really felt something for him?”

“I did. I felt something big. I thought...”My stomach plummeted to the floor as I waited for her to finish.“I thought we could have something like Rae has with Zach and your mom has with your dad. I wanted what my mom has with Micah, and I let myself start to see a future with him. Like I said, I was an idiot.”

I couldn’t stand that I’d hurt her. That I made her feel like a fool. Because the truth was, everything she’d been feeling, I felt too. It was why I ran. It scared the shit out of me to feel that way for someone else again. The only thought that had been going through my mind as I slipped out of her bed before the sun had started to come up and got dressed as quietly as possible, was that I couldn’t go down that road again. First Dusty, the man I’d held up on a pedestal, tossed me aside. Then Amber broke my heart. Losing the two of them had crushed me. That had been a dark time in my life. But I knew it would have been so much worse to lose Ivy. In the years I’d been with Amber I’d never felt even half of what Ivy made me feel.

I left her before she could leave me because there was no chance I would survive that.

After hearing what I heard, having to watch her dance the night away with that fucking giant nearly drove me to the brink of insanity.

A tiny voice in the back of my head kept telling me to get the hell out of there, that I was torturing myself by sticking around just so I could watch her like a fucking creeper, but I couldn’t. I had to see this through, because if she went back to that asshole’s room, I was going to have to rip his goddamn head off.As it was, I wanted to break every bone in his hand for touching her all night long.

That dress she’d been wearing had left me in a constant state of arousal. There was nothing more confusing that being pissed off and sporting a hard-on at the same time. So much of the blood in my body was centered in my dick that I felt lightheaded. The copper color of her dress looked perfect against her creamy skin and made the rose-gold shade of her hair shine like it was about to catch fire. When she turned at the end of the aisle to take her place and I saw the only thing covering her back were two flimsy straps that crisscrossed all the way down to those sexy little dimples above her ass, I went hard enough to pound nails, and it never let up. It was a wonder I’d been able to function at all.

Knowing TannerFuckingFine got to spend the whole night feeling all that silky-smooth skin when they danced drove me crazy. Every time he touched her hair, tucking those strands behind her ear, I wanted to kill him.

The level of intensity and consistency that I continued to watch them with was bordering on disturbing, but I couldn’t make myself stop. When they started walking out of the tent it felt like someone punched right through my chest and was squeezing my lungs in an iron fist. My feet moved with no instruction from my brain whatsoever, taking off after them. I didn’t have the first clue what the hell I was doing or how I could possibly stop them from leaving together. I only knew I had to dosomething.

I watched from a safe—albeit stalker-ish—distance as the two of them stopped a few yards outside the tent. I thought I was going to ground my molars into dust when she lifted up on the toes of those fucking heels and kissed his cheek.

I watched with bated breath as the two of them talked for minute, but then, to my unbelievable relief, the giant jackassstarted backing away, and a minute later, the two of them headed off in separate directions.

Blowing out the gust of breath I’d been holding in my lungs, I set into action, following Ivy at a distance as she started off for the barn while Tanner headed back toward the lodge. I knew exactly where she was headed. She once told me that when she needed to clear her head or take a break from people, she liked to go out to the goat pen. For some reason that crazy woman’s favorite animal on the whole ranch was a psychotic goat with crazy eyes that tried to physically maim everyone it came across. For some reason, I couldn’t help but think that was so perfectly her.

Of course the wild little butterfly would connect with a psycho goat.

I could hear the smoky cadence of her seductive voice coming from out back as I moved down the alleyway between the horse stalls, but it was too far to make out the words. I paused just inside the open barn door, trying to figure out what the hell I was going to say.

My heart was beating in my ears so hard it was a wonder I could hear anything beyond that, but the shuffle of footsteps on the ground just outside managed to break through. A second later she stepped through the opening into the barn, that fresh lemon and basil scent of hers filling the air and erasing other harsher smells all around us completely. Or maybe it was just because I was aware of every single little thing about her to the point of obsession.

Her heels clicked slowly across the dusty concrete floor as she came into view. Those sapphire eyes landed on me a second later, not an ounce of surprise on her beautiful face, like she’d already known I was there. Her cheeks held a rosy glow, her skin looking dewy and soft, even under the harsh overhead lights.

The woman was incapable of looking bad, no matter what. I was willing to bet she’d still take my breath away on day three of the flu. She could look like an extra onThe Walking Deadand I would still want her.

Ivy stood opposite me across the alleyway, her back pressed against the rough wood of the stall, her arms crossed over her chest, pushing her tits up. It was nearly impossible for me not to stare, but somehow I managed to keep my gaze above her neck.

“What are you doing in here?”

“I—” I thought about lying but quickly decided that would be the wrong move. I needed to start making things right. I couldn’t do that if I lied. “I saw you come in here.”

Her brows rose high on her forehead. “And... what? You followed me?”

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