Page 67 of Pulse
Ren nodded at her sister once before saying, “That’s the moment I was waiting for.”
Frowning, I glanced at Monica as Ren tugged on my hand. She shrugged, looking totally defeated, and made her way across the studio to the stairs. I didn’t have to wonder about the things Coach was going to say to her. Nothing good was going to come out of that conversation.
Ren dropped my hand as we entered the kitchen and I stood in the middle of the room noticing that there had been more storage built in. It was smaller in here now, where as before it had been cavernous. I rubbed my eyes and wondered when all the secrets would stop. A year wasn’t the longest amount of time in the grand scheme of things, but so much had changed since I’d been gone. I felt like I’d missed the most important time in Ren’s life when she made pro. I wasn’t sure how I was meant to feel about that.
Ren curled her hands into the front of my T-shirt and pulled. I stepped forward and she melted against my chest.
“What?” she whispered, knowing that something was eating me up. Something more than the shit that just exploded out in the studio.
“You knew all this time?” I asked. “After everything…”
“I gathered you would’ve worked it out all on your own, but I guess not.”
“When-”
“The moment Hammer grabbed me.” She said it with an air of nonchalance that got under my skin.
I opened my mouth but shut it again, clamping down on whatever I was going to spit out at her. I wasn’t in my right mind back then. I wasn’t in a good place until she’d come back. There was nothing I could say.
“You never ratted her out?” I asked. “Why?”
She shrugged. “It was my leverage.”
“For what?”
“A lot of things. She never made my life here very welcoming,” she said. “It was manipulative, but I used it to get her out of my face. And Dean-”
I hissed.
“Ash,” Ren scolded, “he was only trying to protect me and I tried to protect him too in a way. She’s not good for him.”
“Nothing will ever keep me from your side,” I said, swallowing my anger. “Least of all pansy ass fuckers like those Twins. I don’t give a shit about what’s good for him.”
“What is it with you men?” She shook her head at me, her pretty brown hair tumbling around her shoulders.
“Dean hates me because of Monica.”
“That much I gathered, but it’s more than that.”
It was a statement and as per usual Ren hit the nail right on the head.
“It was competition, nothing more,” I said. “I was good, Dean wanted to be better, but he could never match me. Monica was the wound and everything else was the salt.”
Ren stared at me like I was a puzzle. Couldn’t blame her. I couldn’t figure out most of the shit I did myself.
I ran my palm across her waist, tugging her against me. “I never looked at her like that. Not even once.” I didn’t know why we were even talking about her. I’d told Ren time and time again, there was no one else. Not then, not now, not ever. “I love you.”
Her face began to light up and my heart began to thump erratically in my chest in answer. She was either going to give me a heart attack or I was going to come in my pants every fucking time she looked at me.
“I love you, you animal,” she said and crushed her mouth against mine.
It was my thing to dominate and take from her, but this time, I let her kiss me the way she wanted. Her tongue swiped greedily at mine, delving deeper with each caress and I held her against me, rubbing my hands up and down her back. I’d never get tired of kissing her, tasting her, fucking her… Ren was mine.
She moaned into my mouth and I pulled away slightly, sucking softly at her bottom lip.
“Spitfire,” I muttered between kisses.
“I need to cool down,” she said, her lips curving against mine.
