Page 48 of The Stallion
As someone who spent most of her time socializing with friends, it was difficult for me to stay confined to this house. Stubborn as I was, I had a breaking point and was nearing the edge at an increasing rate.
Dallas wasn’t forcing me to do anything, but what else was I supposed to do in a city where I had no one to go out with and all there was to do was drink and gamble?
The sound of a car engine shutting off jolted me from where I'd curled up in bed, and without even thinking, I threw off the sheetsand ran out into the foyer, catching Dallas just as he was closing the front door.
“I can’t do this anymore.” I rushed out, sounding frantic and panicked, nails digging into my palms at my sides as I struggled to keep my composure.
I needed to get the hell out of there.
I wanted him to make me stay.
I was a living, breathing goddamn contradiction and all I wanted to do right now was scream.
“Bria…” He sighed as he dropped his gym bag to the floor and turned to face me.
“No, don’t you‘Bria’me right now. You did this.Youopened a door to something I couldn’t refuse,youbrought me here, and I’mfuckingbored. I’d ask you to give me something to do, but I refuse to play your maid.”
I honestly didn’t even know the words that were coming out of my mouth, speaking before they processed through my mind—literal word vomit.
Dallas chuckled lightly, stepping toward me as he ran a hand through his disheveled hair.God, how I wanted to run my own fingers through it.
“Maid? That’s the first thing that comes to mind when you look at me? That I’d want nothing more than to have someone as pretty as you to clean up after me? I bought you the SUV you wanted and handed you its keys. I’m not holding you hostage, Bria. You can come and go as you please…”
His tone was calm and soft—comforting. It caught me off guard, diffusing me like a ticking time bomb about to explode and level this entire neighborhood.
“No, but… but you—and you didn’t even—fuck.” I started tripping over my words, knowing he was right.
He had done nothing to indicate that I was trapped here.
That I couldn’t leave on my own free will.
I was doing this to myself, hiding from my truth. I was looking for someone else to blame, and he was the closest and easiest target I could find—Dallas was my scapegoat, and now I felt like a complete asshole.
“What do you want from me?” His tired eyes softened as he held his palms out to me in explicit submission, and I stared at them with contemplation.
What did I want?
I desired his touch like an attention-starved whore.
I craved an emotional connection that I had lost long before Connor had left me.
I was desperate for something more, even if it was all fake.
What do you want, Bria?
The answer to the question he had asked me when we first met was more evident than it had been in days, a whisper in the deep recesses of my soul.
Dallas.
Can we fall together?
Losingallsenseofself-control, I threw myself at him like a pile of dirty laundry, capturing his mouth with mine, hungrily—fucking starved.
Without faltering, Dallas parted his lips, letting me in as he returned the same fervor, driving his tongue into my mouth with a voracity I felt deep down within my core.
That little voice telling me that this would be a reckless and impulsive decision could go straight to fucking hell.
I was dropping my walls and embracing this for what it was—a second chance to heal.
