Total pages in book: 235
Estimated words: 227851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1139(@200wpm)___ 911(@250wpm)___ 760(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 227851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1139(@200wpm)___ 911(@250wpm)___ 760(@300wpm)
I try to hide my smug smile. A little.
“Answer me!”
When she’s screaming at me? No. Stew. Fucking stew, just like I’ve stewed since you walked out on me.
I turn away, ordering more water and advising the staff there’s some glass on the floor, looking over my shoulder when I hear Drew release a despairing curse. Sam catches my eye, looking . . . what’s that look on him? Pissy? I turn back toward them, wondering what’s going on. Then I see Ava’s brother and it all makes sense.
“What the fuck is he doing here?” I say, spotting Kate hurrying to the dance floor.
“I don’t know,” Drew answers, his head batting back and forth between everyone, while Sam sneers at Ava’s brother. “I’m sensing some couple’s therapy is on the cards.”
“You dick,” I mutter, as Dan spots me. I hold back my snarl. Only just. He makes his way over, determined. Here we go. I haven’t got time for this. Where the hell is my wife? I push off the bar. Scan the crowds.
Nearly bite my fucking tongue off.
“What the hell?” I whisper, seeing her hauling some tall, dark-haired dude into her body. Then onto her mouth.
I double over to try and stem the pain in my stomach, my eyes on the floor, my body heaving. Did I just see my wife kissing another man? Nausea grabs me, and I look up, hoping I imagined it.
I didn’t.
I slowly unbend my body, standing up tall, watching as she virtually eats the bloke alive.
What. The. Fuck?
“No, Jesse,” Drew yells, practically circling my waist with his arms to hold me back.
I’m like the Hulk, my whole body expanding, the red mist not creeping up on me, but attacking.
I can’t stop it.
And no one can stop me.
I steam through the people before me, enraged, and grab him, hauling him off my wife and launching him halfway across the dance floor with a right hook that’s loaded with a week’s worth of anger and frustration. How the fuck it doesn’t knock him out cold, I don’t know. Trust my wife to pick the one man in this bar who’s as tall and built as me. Tactical.
The brave bastard comes back at me, taking me off my feet and slamming me onto the hard floor. I grunt, winded, blinking, feeling disorientated. This fucker has just kissed my wife. I roar and fling myself up, going back at him, cracking his bloody nose again before getting him up against the wall and finishing him off, sinking a knee into his stomach.
It ends the brawl, and he folds to the floor, coughing, his face a mess, and I sniff, wiping my nose, trying to control my shakes. Another epic fail. I need to leave before I kill someone.
I turn to find Ava but get tackled from the side and shoved through the crowds. “I fucking told you, Ward,” Jay seethes.
“I need my wife, Jay.” I search around me, seeing Sam, Kate, Dan.
No Ava.
“I’ll bring her out.”
I spot her standing on the edge of the dance floor, her face a picture of shock. She’s shocked? What the fucking hell did she expect me to do? Fall to my knees and beg her not to kiss another man? “Fuck you, Jay.” I fight him off and bowl through the building crowd, grabbing Ava. “Get your fucking arse outside.” Of course she struggles, yelling and kicking.
“Out,” Jay roars, fighting me as I fight with Ava. All out of patience—I can’t imagine why—he shoves me aside with force and seizes Ava. “I’ll carry her out if you remove your stubborn fucking arse.”
“Fine,” I snap, happy to let Jay take the punches, my face throbbing as I follow him out of the bar, watching Ava going loopy in his arms. Crazy. Her dress is riding up her thighs, her boobs not far from spilling out. Jay’s struggling to contain her, his hands slipping across her torso. “Keep your fucking hands exactly where they are,” I warn.
“Get the hell off me,” Ava screams, bucking and turning in Jay’s grasp as he walks her out calmly.
“Ward, how the fuck do you put up with this?”
I laugh dementedly on the inside when Ava looks at me in shock. “She drives me fucking crazy.” I overtake Jay, wincing at my achy jaw. “Be careful with her.”
The cool air hits me when I make it outside, and I’m surprised when Jay gives me a civil and calm goodbye. I think he must feel sorry for me. I feel sorry for me too. And Ava, because I’m about to lose my baggage in a really unpleasant way. My mood doesn’t improve when everyone piles out of the bar. Including Dan.
“Fuck off,” I bellow. “All of you.” I am not airing our dirty laundry in front of everyone, especially not her brother.