Page 122 of Arrogant Puck

“Do you see me right now?” he asks. I look into his wild eyes. “This is the real me. Someone wants to fuck with someone I love, they’re not going to get away with it. So, tell me where he lives.”

“No, Slater because I fucking love you back and I don’t want you to do something stupid!”

“It wouldn’t be stupid.”

“Reckless,” I shout, pleading. Tears fall from my eyes. “Whatever you want to call it! It’s in the past. Let me go, please.”

He shakes his head. He grabs the door and shuts it. “You’re not going anywhere, and neither am I.”

I walk the room, pacing, trying to calm myself down. But my thoughts are racing, my nerves are shot. I can’t believe this is happening.

“What were you looking for anyway?” I ask.

He shrugs. “I wasn’t looking for anything, Sage. I was just trying not to go off the deep end.”

“So, just snooping for fun?” I scoff. “Seriously?”

“I was not expecting to find anything.”

I sit down on the bed and cradle my face into my hands. I can’t help the surge of emotions that overtake me. I start crying. Like full blown ugly crying, snot rolling down my face, my chest heaving.

He places a hand on my shoulder and then wraps me in his arms. I tangle myself on him, crawling onto his lap after he sits next to me.

“Talk to me, baby. What’s going on?” he whispers.

But I can’t talk. I cry. I can only cry.

Because as much as I’m upset that he found out the way that he did, a part of me is relieved that he knows, that I didn’t have to tell him.

“I got you,” he murmurs against my hair, and it’s all I need to hear to know that he was telling the truth earlier.

That he loves me.

Chapter 42

Calm down.

Calm down.

The words repeat in my mind like a mantra as I hold her trembling body against my chest. Every muscle in my body is coiled tight with the need to fucking kill. I have the insane urge to hunt down the piece of shit who destroyed her and make him pay for every tear she’s ever shed.

But I can’t. I can’t go off and kill her ex-boyfriend because I’ll just end up in prison, away from her, away from everything I’ve worked for. And then who would protect her?

Calm down.

My heart feels like it’s being crushed as I watch her crumble in my arms, but underneath the rage and pain, something else is building. Understanding. Everything about her has finallyclicked into place—how she didn’t want to sleep with me, how she kept her walls so high, never allowing me in completely.

And suddenly, a rush of triumph runs through me despite everything. Because she’s here. She’s clinging to me like a fucking lifeline, and this is exactly what I’ve needed. My demons seen, and now I get to see hers. Now I understand so much more about what makes her tick and what she needs from me.

I would do anything to make sure she’s taken care of. I know now that I would lay my life on the line to make sure she’s safe. An idea starts brewing in my mind, one that I don’t know if I can pull off. But I’m determined. First, though, I need to make sure my hockey career is still intact because I’ve missed practice all week.

“I got you, baby,” I murmur into her hair once her sobs have quieted to occasional hiccups. “You’re safe with me.”

I run my fingers through her hair, gentle and soothing. “Look at me.”

She pulls back, her eyes swollen and red from crying. My heart aches at the sight of her pain, but there’s also something beautiful about seeing her this vulnerable.

“No more pills, okay?” I cup her face in my hands, needing her to hear this. “I’ll tell the drug dealer to fuck off. And as for us, we’re good, baby. You don’t have to worry.”

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