Page 131 of Broken Pieces
His hands stop moving. He openly and shamelessly checks her out. His jaw clenches. I see his head tilt. It’s deliberate, like he’s memorizing every inch of her. Before his stare drops to her ass, and it lingers.
Heat floods my chest. Heavy. Possessive as fuck.
The air feels thinner.
My grip on the wrench tightens until my knuckles ache. I could bash it through the bench just to stop the urge to put it through his fucking head.
He keeps watching her until the door swings shut and she’s gone.
Then his eyes flick to me.
I stare back.
I slam the hood of the car harder than I need to.
The bang echoes through the shop, and Mason flinches just enough to feed the fire already clawing at my chest.
“You eye-fucking her or are you just fucking dumb?” I ask, voice sharp enough to cut steel.
His head lifts.
There’s surprise in his eyes for half a second, before that fucking smirk slides across his face, slow and smug.
“Didn’t know she was yours.”
Yeah. This prick and I? We’re gonna get along real good.
“She’s not.” My voice stays calm, smooth as oil, but my hands are curling into fists. The kind that would have already broken jaws by now. The kind that wouldn’t mind doing it again. “Doesn’t mean you get to stare at her like she’s yours to take.”
He shrugs; it’s casual, real fucking smug.
“She doesn’t seem like the kind that needs protecting.”
I step toward him. Only one. It’s enough to make the air shift.
“No one said she did. But if you wanna keep chewing your food with your own teeth, keep your fucking eyes off her.”
Rainer doesn’t say a word. He doesn’t move, but I feel the weight of his eyes, steady and silent, watching every second.
I turn back to the bench, muscles tight, heart beating loud enough I can feel it in my fucking throat. My hands won’t stop shaking. Not from rage. Not from whatever the fuck Mason stirred up.
It’s from fear.
Because I’m not supposed to be this guy who wants to knock another guy’s teeth down his throat just for looking at a girl.
But then again, she’s not some random girl.
She’s Skylar.
There’s no version of this where I come out clean.
No path I walk down this road that doesn’t cut me open.
Every step drags me deeper towards her, drowning in something I never wanted in the first place. And still, I keep fucking going.
Rainer’s boots sound across the concrete behind me. He doesn’t speak straight away, just stands there, his silence pressing against my back. That old-school kind of silence that cuts deeper than any words.
When he finally moves, he strolls up beside me, coffee in one hand, gaze sharp beneath the brim of his cap.
