Page 41 of Rush
Nausea overcame me, and I pressed my palm against my stomach. It was a twenty-thousand-dollar ring… Hunter would expect it back, wouldn’t he? That was why I needed it, right?
“It’s… It’s…” My mouth flapped uselessly.
“Do you want to go back to him?”
I was stuck. Frozen. Confused. Torn.
“He stood there…” I began, my throat tightening. “He stood there… His cock was still hard and covered in her… He stood there and didn’t give a fuck. He stood there and threw me out of my own home!”
Ryan snorted.
“Don’t,” I said. “Don’t…”
“Don’t what? Confront you with your heart’s desire?” He rolled his eyes.
My heart’s desire? I stared at him, tears welling in my eyes. I didn’t know what that looked like anymore.
14
Ryan
“Doyou want to go back to him?” I asked again. “It’s a simple yes or no, Jade.”
Jade was staring at me, her eyes full of startled confusion. Whatever was going on inside her head was a mystery, but it must be some epic back and forth.
I couldn’t take this shit anymore. She never knew… All this time, I’d been hung up on her, wanting more and never being able to have it, and she still didn’t realize the effect she had on me. I was wrapped around her little finger all those years ago, and I was still wound around her. Our week together had only served to entwine my heart with hers tighter than ever.
The problem was, she was blind to it. Blind to me. Why couldn’t I just tell her and be done with it? Oh yeah, if she didn’t feel the same, then she would be gone forever, and I wouldn’t have her in my life at all.
Did I really want her in my life?
“You just don’t get it,” I said angrily. “You’ve never gotten it!”
“What’s there to get?” she asked. “I’m a mess, and apparently, I’ve always been like it. Fucking clueless, obsessed with the wrong things, the wrong people… I’m a big fat failure! You try coping with having your entire life’s work flushed down the toilet!”
“Hunter was your life’s work?” I scoffed, curling my lip. “That’s not shallow at all!”
“You don’t get it, either!” she screeched, our argument getting completely out of hand, faster than any punch-up I’d had with Cole over the years. It was spreading like wildfire on a day of total fire ban.
“Then explain it to me, Jade.Explain it.”
“My friends hate me, Hunter hated me to the point he cheated behind my back, and I’ve worked my entire life for this…” She spread her arms wide. “Homeless, dumped, overworked, and underappreciated. Byeveryone.”
“Fuck you,” I said angrily. “Fuck you very much.”
“I didn’t… I didn’t mean…” Tears spilled down her cheeks. “You…”
“It’s far from over, Jade. It’s a shame you don’t see it.Fuck your ring.”
“The ring has nothing to do with Hunter.Nothing.” She was seething, her eyes full to bursting with a fire I’d never seen in her before.
“Then why do you care about it so much?”
“It’s a twenty-thousand-dollar ring…”
“It’s not about the money,” I retorted. “And you know it.”
“How would you know?” she asked, scowling at me. “You’ve only been around a few days. How do you know what my life is like?”
