Page 61 of Sold to the Single Daddies

“I don’t want to see where it happened!”

After setting Lucky down Mills turned to me and yanked me up. He put me down on top of the desk and braced his hands on either side of my thighs.

“I didn’t fuck Melanie. Are you going to trust me?”

I shoved against his chest.

“You were holding her!”

“I hugged her back! I didn’t realize you’d react like this over a hug!” He groaned at the ceiling and blew out a deep breath. “Just…stop. Give me a minute to calm down. I don’t want to—”

“She had her hands all over you. She slipped her hand into your back pocket! Why did she do that if she didn’t feel like she had the right to? And maybe if it wasn’t the woman you fucked before me, I wouldn’t feel like this. She’s made it more than clear that I’m just a stepping-stone back to her. And now you’reholdingher!” The tears were starting to escape but as mortifying as they were, I couldn’t stop them.

“Jesus Christ. I’m telling you I didn’t do anything with her. Despite how it looked to you, I didn’t do anything! Can’t you trust me that much?”

“No!” I wiped at my eyes and shook my head. “I know what I saw. If there’s nothing there, why did you hold her? Why did you let her touch you like that? How am I supposed to trust you? I barely know you!”

“I hugged her. If she’d touched me for much longer, I was going to tell her to stop. How the fuck she slipped a thong into my pocket without me noticing, I don’t know. What I do know is that she came in, we chatted, I gave her a donation for the charity she runs, and then she left. Fuck, Reagan! Most of the time we spoke, I talked about you and Lucky!”

“How am I supposed to believe that? Tate and West have made it clear they want something more with me but you haven’t. I had to trick you into touching me. You’ve been so closed off since I got here and now you expect me to just innately trust you? How, Mills?”

I saw the moment I said the perfectly wrong thing. Mentioning Tate and West during our fight did something to him and the new, softer Mills vanished.

His mouth was twisted in a cruel line as he leaned closer.

“Yet you expected me to blindly trust you when you showed up here with a kid, smelling like desperation? No home, no job, no fucking car. Just a woman wepaidfor… You and everyone else thought the worst of me when I didn’t immediately trust you but you can’t return the favor and trust me now?”

I clutched my hands over my stomach as his words hit like physical blows. I blinked up at him as my anger fled and only hurt remained.

He turned away and didn’t notice my change of expression. He was still in the middle of a fight he’d already won and he was kicking a dead horse without realizing it.

“You and everyone else think the worst of me, don’t you? How fucking easy my family opened up for you and let you in, though. A complete stranger who got knocked up in a sex club. Everyonehas trusted and accepted you, Reagan, but you aren’t returning a fucking iota of that to me. I didn’t fuck Melanie. Like you said, I have you in my house, tricking me into fucking you. Why would I need her?”

I pushed off the desk and scurried around it. Those stupid butterflies were rotting away in my stomach and I felt like vomiting. He hated me. He had to. Why else would he talk to me like he was? His blows were low and especially cruel, meant to cut. Hewantedto hurt me.

He spun around and opened his mouth to continue his tirade but he stopped dead in his tracks and made a sound I’d never heard a grown man make. It was closer to a wild animal in pain than it was human. The anger pinching his eyebrows disappeared and his chest rose and fell even faster.

“Fuck… I’m… I didn’t mean that, Reagan. I’m sorry. I just—”

I wiped my eyes as fast as the tears came and held up my hand to stop him from coming closer to me. I sucked in a shaky breath and shook my head.

“I… I have to go.”

“No, angel. Stop and let me make it right. I shouldn’t have said that shit. I just… I got upset and… Fuck! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Just stay here and talk to me.” He edged his way around the desk. “I fucked up. I don’t feel like that about you, Reagan. I just said it to… Shit.”

“You said it to hurt me.” I saw the confirmation in his haunted eyes. “You did a good job. I can’t be here right now. I have to go. Just let me.”

“Angel, please. I swear to god I didn’t touch Melanie more than what you saw and I swear to god I didn’t mean that shit I said.” He tugged at his hair roughly. “I can’t stand to see you cry. Please, just let me make it better.”

I picked Lucky up and walked out of the barn, Mills following silently behind. Jolene swore when she saw us coming andquickly turned away. I didn’t stop. I walked into the house and upstairs to my room. At some point Mills stopped following me.

CHAPTER 41

Tate

I stared at the staircase with a deep scowl on my face. It’d taken Mills less than two hours to somehow ruin what we’d established with Reagan. She was closed away in her room and she wasn’t coming out. She’d been kind enough to our feelings to lie and say she just didn’t feel well but it didn’t take much to hear the tears in her voice and to understand that she was hiding from all of us. Not just Mills.

I blew out a deep breath and glared over at Mills.

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