Total pages in book: 235
Estimated words: 224334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1122(@200wpm)___ 897(@250wpm)___ 748(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 224334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1122(@200wpm)___ 897(@250wpm)___ 748(@300wpm)
“Get the bags, John.” I take the steps down to the street and pace to the van, set to help him.
“Leave them!” Ava screams.
John gives me a look to suggest he’d like nothing more than to get in his car and leave us to hash this out, but he won’t. He won’t risk the potential backlash. Not from me, but from the law. So he goes to the van and starts taking the boxes out, and Ava, annoyed, hops in Kate’s van.
I swing the door open. “Out,” I demand, my vocal cords tight.
She fights to close the door again, a fucking pointless exercise. “Just fuck off.”
“Mouth!”
“Fuck off,” she screams in my face, her cheeks turning pink, her voice breaking.
“Watch your fucking mouth!” I decide physical force is the only way and wrap my arms around her, pulling her out of the van, dodging her flailing arms, manhandling her until I have her secured against my chest.
“Get off me,” she hisses as I carry her to my car, squirming, kicking, prying at my hands.
“Shut your filthy mouth, Ava.”
She boots me in the shin, and I hold my breath, grunting through the pain. I catch Sam’s eye. He looks as disturbed as he should.
“Stop making a scene, Ava,” I warn, mindful that the cops could show up at any moment, courtesy of any one of our spectators, and arrest me. And that won’t be fucking pretty for anyone. I’m surprised when Ava actually listens and settles. Really surprised. Exhausted?
Me too.
I open the passenger door and put her in the seat, and she can’t help but have one more burst of defiance, smacking at my hands as I try to put her belt on. Raging, I take her chin and force her face to mine. She breathes heavily, her expression pure filth. “You had better stay fucking put.” She doesn’t answer, just yanks her face free from my hold and looks away. I slam the door, take a few breaths, and look up, wiping my nose with the back of my hand. John jerks his head, summoning me, and I wander over, listening for the sound of Ava making an escape. I look back. She’s still in her seat, watching. I can see her chest pumping from here.
“Wow,” Kate breathes, and I laugh under my breath. I realize my behavior was extreme. Would I do things differently? Can’t say I would. “She would never go back to Matt, Jesse. Trust me on that.”
I gaze down at the concrete. I notice she didn’t say she’d never leave me. I feel something skim my face and see John’s boulder fist popping me one on the jaw in jest. I’m in no mood for it. “Don’t, John.”
“Calm the fuck down.”
“Stop fucking telling me to calm the fuck down,” I snap. “Everyone, just stop fucking telling me to do that.” I stalk off, get in my car, and skid off, my hand screaming when I grip the wheel too tightly.
“How did you know I was here?” Ava asks. She’s not done? She wants to fight some more?
“It doesn’t fucking matter.”
“It does matter. I was fine until you turned up.”
I look at her, aghast. Fine until I showed up? “I’m fucking infuriated with you,” I yell. “Did you kiss him?”
Her face. How can she appear so stunned? “No! He tried and I beat him off. I was just leaving.”
I smack the steering wheel, really fucking hard, and it does my hand no favors. “Don’t ever fucking tell me I’m possessive and over the top, do you hear me?”
“You are stupidly possessive.”
“Ava, in two days I’ve caught two men trying to get in your knickers. God knows about the times when I’ve not been there.”
“Don’t be stupid. You’re imagining things. How do you know Mikael?” she fires.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“I bought the penthouse, Ava. How do you think I know him?”
“He thought it was very interesting when I told him that we had been seeing each other for a month-ish. Why would he?”
Jesus fucking Christ. “Why the fuck are you talking to him about us?”
“I wasn’t, he asked the question and I answered. Why would he think it’s interesting, Jesse?”
“That man wants you, trust me,” I yell, at a loss. My time’s up.
“Why?”
I’m hitting the steering wheel again. “He wants to take you away from me!”
“But why?” she shouts.
“He just fucking does!”
She withdraws, backing off, settling in her seat, but her eyes remain on my profile, burning into me, her gaze now asking the questions instead of her mouth. I have nothing to offer in this moment. We both need to calm the hell down before we talk, because if I share anything about Mikael now, she’ll spin off the handle with me, and this relationship needs only one psycho at a time, or we both might end up dead.
I swallow and force my foot off the pedal, slowing down the car, hoping calmer driving might lead to calmer moods. I glance across to her, seeing her hair in disarray, her olive cheeks tinged pink, her hands twiddling together. What is she thinking?