Page 81 of Wild Card

And she seems to feel the same.

Oh, Jesus, help me.

Déjà vu washes over me with the icy truth.

He pulls her into his chest like he’s done to me several times.

His hand moves up and down her back soothingly, his lips at her ear. “Hollywood, you and I?—”

I can’t stand here anymore, my heart threatening to splinter.

A sound echoes from my throat, and both their heads swing my way. Her eyes grow wide as he steps back. I don’t wait for what happens next, taking off back to the bedroom. I’m almost through the doorway before I’m off my feet and caught in Talon’s hold.

“Let me down.” I kick the air, thrashing to get free.

“Calm down, Princess.”

“Don’t call me that! Don’t call me anything. Let me go. I’m leaving.”

“You’re leaving?” The door slams behind us.

“Yes! I’m leaving.”

He sets me down. “Why the fuck are you leaving?”

“You know why!” I shove him, stumbling back when he doesn’t budge.

Anger flickers in his eyes. “I wouldn’t waste my breath if I knew.”

“Oh, we wouldn’t want to waste your precious breath would we, Talon Simms?” I seethe, the image of the beautiful woman flashing in my head.

“Warning, Willow, I have no fucking idea what the hell is happening here.”

He doesn’t know? How could he not? I just walked in on him consoling his best friend’s fiancée.

A woman he noticeably loves and can’t have.

“Because I won’t be the other woman.”

“There is no other woman.”

“Liar. Do I have a fucking beacon signal to attract the biggest liars into my life?”

His gaze grows steely, anger setting on his face.

“Please tell me. Is it like a birthmark, or a tic, or something?”

“You need to calm your ass down and explain that.”

All the emotions from long ago resurface and my temper gets the best of me.

“I dated a guy that was like you. Smart, handsome, charming. He took my virginity and claimed to love me. Things got rough with us and I broke it off. Then last year, I walked into a family dinner and learned he was in love with my sister and now they’re getting married. We had our relationship problems, but the asshole didn’t have the decency to break things off before he started fucking her. For-fucking ever, I beat myself up over being so blind. Then little things began to make sense, and the signs were there all along.”

Through my rampage, his face has morphed into something much worse than rage.

Pity…

But now that the gates have opened, they aren’t closing.

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