Page 43 of After All This Time

"Yes, please."

And just like that, he shifts his full attention back to her.

"Gives you a reason to come find me at the end of the night," Her smile is pure sex, and the wink she throws him might as well be a written invitation into her pants.

I feel my face twist before I can stop myself, and I look away as she saunters off to another customer.

"Change it," Tobias says, and my eyes snap to his.

"Excuse me?"

"That look on your face. Anyone would think you're jealous."

"You're shitting me."

"I'm not the one looking like I'm ready to pull her hair out," he says, his eyes serious as if he's trying to read between the lines of whatever I'm not saying.

"This look is because I'm amazed we can't go anywhere without running into your sexual history. Pennsylvania, here—it doesn't matter where. It's always the same thing."

"So you are judging me."

"No, but I hate the double standards, and I know you're not ignorant enough to miss what I'm saying." He goes still, watching me closely, waiting for me to continue. "If I'd slept with as many men as you have women, and did it so openly, I'd be called every name imaginable. You know it. And that's not even the worst of it—men would use it to decide if I'm wife material or worth keeping. But you guys? You all go around doing whatever the hell you want, and it's just… nothing. No judgment. No consequences."

I turn and start walking, needing to move, needing to breathe, but I feel him behind me like a shadow, matching me step for step.

"I don't agree with that shit, Mills. I wouldn't care how many people you've been with, and it wouldn't change how I felt about you if you were my girl."

I stop short, spinning to face him, and in his eyes, I see the exact moment he realizes what he's just said. He clears his throat, backtracking quickly, though he doesn't break eye contact.

"You know what I mean—whoever it was, it wouldn't bother me if she'd been with two or two hundred guys."

"Well, then you're the exception to the worldwide fucking rule."

"Whoa, hold up." He reaches out, his hand lightly brushing my arm and nearly dropping the three beers he's holding in the process. "How did this get so deep? All I was saying was that you had a look."

"Sorry, I'll try to keep my face in check." The words drip with venom as I force my mouth into the fakest, most ridiculous smile I can manage. "Is this more what you're looking for?"

His lips twitch like he's trying not to laugh. "It'll do. For now."

Chapter 17

Tobias

I'm confused.

Amelia confuses me.

I don't know what just happened between us at the bar. Actually, no—that's bullshit. I know exactly what happened. She was jealous. The kind of jealousy that burns hot.

Now I'm sitting across from her in the booth, my head a fucking mess. Everyone else is talking, their voices blending into some meaningless background noise, but I'm completely checked out, like I'm stuck underwater, and the only thing in focus is her.

She wasn't pissed at me. Or maybe she was. Fuck, I don't even know at this point.

There was an edge to her words—something fierce and raw. Was it anger or something deeper? I can't tell. But whatever it was, she wasn't wrong.

This world has different rules for women and different expectations—crueler ones. You'd have to be an idiot not to seeit. The way society picks women apart, judges every choice, every partner, every fucking breath they take.

Hell, I'm frustrated for them.

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