34. Briar
Briar
W hen I turn back, Kai is gone. Jenson lifts his finger accusingly, his mouth opening before I cut him off.
“Don’t you point at me. I’m a customer, just like anyone else here. I don’t need a lecture, Jenson.”
“You threw yourself into a dangerous fucking situation.” Rage simmers in his voice. “You could have gotten yourself seriously hurt, jumping in between them. And if you don’t care about yourself, you do understand that distracting him could have gotten Kai seriously hurt?”
That stops my self-righteous indignation in its tracks. “I didn’t think about that.”
“You didn’t think at all,” he snaps. “Jesus, Briar. Look at me.”
My throat feels thick as I stare at the ground and shake my head. He’s right. And I didn’t stop to think before I was climbing in. I’ve been here for hours, watching him go through the motions, one person after another hitting the mat.
I hated every second. But I couldn’t walk away.
Kai was getting tired. Slower. And I let my own fear take over. Another decision made without thinking through the consequences.
My eyes blur. Water drips down onto my cheek.
“Briar.” Jenson’s voice softens. I startle as a finger nudges beneath my chin, the faintest, featherlight touch. “Please, look at me.”
He touched my face. Barely, but he did.
I peek up at him. His eyes tighten at the corners. “I seem to be good at making you cry.”
I swallow around the tightness in my throat. “Only when I deserve it.”
I shouldn’t have gone into that ring. And I shouldn’t have lied to him.
And it’s as though he can read my mind. “You shouldn’t have lied to me.”
Another tear. It looks as though he’s fighting with himself when he speaks again. “But I shouldn’t have reacted like that.”
Jenson doesn’t touch my face again. But he reaches out, lifting a dark lock of my hair between his fingers. His steely eyes lift to mine.
“Will you come somewhere with me?”