Chapter 10 #2
I didn’t need another man in my life, who was jealous and protective about me. I already had enough of that to deal with from Viper and the rest of the guys. Gunner had seemed easier going, less violent about something like that, but now he was proving me wrong.
“You can’t tell me who I can see or not see!” I said. Then Gunner banged the table with his fists, making me jump.
“Dammit, Brooklyn! Listen to me!” he barked and gritted his teeth again. “I’m serious here. This isn’t some game. You need to stop associating with them,” he said. I whipped my head away from him, pursing my lips together in angry disbelief.
I couldn’t believe this was actually happening. I barely knew him…and he knew nothing about me, and he was already dictating whom I could or could not see!
“I don’t need to listen to this,” I said, picking my purse up from the table, ready to get up.
“Brooklyn…please, just listen to me,” Gunner said and reached for my hand, but I had already moved it away from his grasp.
“They’re just friends, Gunner, and I told you they’re like family to me. I didn’t peg you as the kind of guy who’d get jealous of my friends,” I said, whirling away from him. I could hear him following me through the bar as I made my way outside.
“Brooklyn!” I heard him call my name as I burst through the doors and out on the streets now.
“What?” I snapped, whipping around to face him.
“I’m not jealous. This has nothing to do with my feelings.
I just want you to stop hanging out with them.
Okay?” he said. I could see that he was still angry but that he was trying to control his rage.
The veins on his neck were pumped and throbbing, his face was darkened and for the first time, I felt a little frightened of him.
“No, it’s not okay! Not unless you admit that you want me to stop hanging out with my friends. We’re not even dating…I don’t even know the first thing about you!” I was screaming now, and he was standing in front of me, clenching his hands on his sides.
“I won’t admit that because it’s not true. I don’t care how many friends you have or who you see. I just want you to stop seeing them!” he growled. I rolled my eyes once more.
“They’re my friends!” I said. Gunner pressed his eyes closed and took in a deep breath.
“You need to listen to me,” he said.
“Why?” I countered him, and he had nothing to say. He just stood there, glaring at me and trying to keep his temper in check.
I had enough protective people in my life who were trying to tell me what to do.
I didn’t need another one added to the list. Despite how angry I was with Gunner’s behavior though, I still wanted him.
My attraction towards him hadn’t gone anywhere, and I wished that we could just move on from this thing.
I wished we could just turn back time to the previous night when I was lying in his arms in his bed.
Maybe it was a wrong move to try and get to know him.
“I’m not jealous of who you hang out with,” he finally said in a low breathless voice, and I rolled my eyes at him yet again. Crossing my arms over my breasts, I glared at him, waiting for an explanation. Then his cellphone rang.
“Yeah,” he said, answering the phone while still looking at me. I could see the ferocity in his eyes…the very eyes that I had been so attracted to…the ones I was still attracted to. But it felt like he was impossibly out of my reach now.
“Yeah. Now?” I heard him speak into the phone, and then in the next moment, he snapped it shut. It was one of those cheap kind of burner phones, and just like how bare his apartment was, Gunner’s life looked too simple to be believable. He was hiding something.
He fixed an icy blue stare on me again as I stood in front of him with my arms crossed.
“I have to go,” he said in a low grim voice, and I widened my eyes at him. This was unbelievable!
“Where? We’re in the middle of a conversation,” I said as he pushed his phone back into the pocket of his dark jeans.
His wide muscular thighs moved, and I remembered how strong he was when he drove into me, how I was nothing but a helpless toy in his hands.
I wanted that back. I wanted those moments back with him.
“This is not a conversation, Brooklyn. It’s an argument, which you seem to be winning,” he said.
“Try harder then. Give me an explanation why I shouldn’t be hanging out with the Dragon Knights,” I said, recognizing the tremor that had now entered my voice. Gunner took in a deep breath and shook his head.
“I shouldn’t need to give you an explanation. You should be able to trust me,” he said.
“Trust you based on what?” I screeched. He shrugged his shoulders.
“I have to go, Brooklyn. Be safe,” he said and then turned from me. I watched him as he walked towards a Harley that was parked against a lamppost, and I felt my mouth go dry. He was just leaving…like that! Without an explanation!
We were supposed to be on a date.
I watched in silence, my nostrils flared and my breathing heavy, as Gunner swung his legs over his bike, strapped on his helmet and then rode off into the night.
My hands were quivering as I slipped my phone out of my purse. I needed human company to stop myself from going mad. Gunner had asked me to trust him…but how could I? Especially now?
The truth was that there was nobody I could really trust anymore now that Luke was gone. I knew it was my fault that I had harbored hopes with Gunner. I should have known that he was just like all the rest.
“Viper,” I said when I heard his voice at the other end of the line. “Hey, my shift at PJ’s got cancelled. Are you guys at the bar?” I asked him. He said they were and that they’d wait for me, and I slipped my phone back into my purse and started walking in that direction.
Just a few nights ago, Gunner had insisted that he didn’t want me going home alone at night, and today he’d just left me here by myself. What was so important that he couldn’t stay and explain himself to me? He made it seem like he had nothing important going on in his life to begin with.
I needed to cool off, and I needed to do that with several drinks.