Page 101 of Prince Charming

“I happen to disagree. But I think we’re talking about different girlfriends.”

What did he mean by that?

“What I mean is, the woman you are seeing is pretty horrible.”

“She’s damn near perfect.”

Ow. Ow. Ow. An enormous ball of pain swirled in Marianna’s belly.

Okay then, now she had her answer. If he liked a mean girl, that was his business.

“When she’s not fucking avoiding me,” he finished, taking a left at the lights. She realized he was heading to her place and not his. Something sour pooled into her mouth. She didn’t realize how mad he was at her until he snapped responses.

She’d regrouped and licked her wounds. Accepted she’d failed again, and then she’d spent as much time with the kids as she could.

They were fine. Healthy and cared for.

They could be in a worse situation if not for Galina.

In amidst her family drama, she hadn’t accounted for Tag’s feelings.

Reason #543 of why she wasn’t any better for Tag either.

She was another form of Sofia when she thought about it. She might not be a cunning bitch, but Marianna was using Tag, wasn’t she? Using him to keep her heart beating, for a piece of normalcy, for the way he made her feel good.

Her heart wanted so badly to crawl across the console and climb into his chest.

“You are being vague.” She all but huffed. “You know I don’t catch these things.”

“And you are not being direct. Say what you wanna say now you’re not ignoring me.” He pulled up outside of her building and turned to face her.

Moody eyes, stern face. So, so handsome.

He still stole her breath.

Her stupid heartwanted.

“I was not ignoring you.”

“Felt like it.”

“Well.” That was fair. “I was not.”

“You didn’t come to me.”

God, did he have a response to everything? Marianna scrunched up her nose, laced her gloved fingers together to stop from reaching for him. Because that’s all she wanted to do. She wanted to touch him and smell him and climb onto his lap.

“I had thoughts to work through.”

“And have you?”

“Da. I think so, yes.”

His sigh took her by surprise because it was as big as the whole of Colorado. She swiped her gaze to him in time to see him reaching over and then snapped open her belt, plucked her from the seat and Tag plonked her into his lap sideways. “Don’t like you being so fucking far away.”

His face went immediately to the side of her neck.

Marianna sighed because her world righted again.

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