Chapter Twenty
Tandy
He didn’t finish what he was going to say. And I really want to know. “What? What do you bet?”
He gives me a secret grin and nuzzles into my neck. “I’ll tell you later, baby. I don’t think you’re ready for that just yet.”
I frown and keep looking into his eyes trying to discover what he was going to say. He runs his thumb over the swell of my bottom lip.
“You know where this is going, right, baby?”
“Please don’t hurt me.”
The words are out of my mouth before I can think through how they might come off to him. He pulls back, away from me.
“You think I’d hurt you?”
Shit!
“Not on purpose.”
I quickly try to correct my words and instead, help him understand my intent behind them. “Never on purpose, but…I think you’ll grow tired of the novelty and be onto other things, other women. But I…I won’t ever be the same. I want you, but…I can’t…”
Hurt like I did when I thought you didn’t need me anymore. I can't keep pretending this is going to end any other way but with me patching up a broken heart.
“I should go home.”
The words have him leaving me lying on the bed as he pulls on boxers.
“Running away again?”
He turns with his back to me.
“What?”
I sit up and grab the cover to wrap around me.
“You gonna ghost me and not answer my calls again too?”
For a moment I’m too stunned to do anything but then I’m moving, up and off the bed I was just so happy in.
“Ghost you?! Ghost you?! You…ass! You’re the one who ghosted me! You…No! I’m done. I…”
I’m so hurt and so angry I can’t see straight. “You’re the one who went off for the weekend to get fucked without your human shield standing in your way.”
He turns cold eyes towards me with a look of disbelief written across his handsome face, “Are you serious?”
I start searching the room for my fucking clothes.
“You…I…”
He sputters like that until I find my leggings and jerk them on. I’m halfway out the door before he forms a complete sentence. Guess coming up with lies isn’t as easy for him as it is for everyone else. “I left because I didn’t want to see you go off with some dipshit who you couldn’t wait to fuck!”
“You’re crazy. I’ve never…there hasn’t been…this is just an excuse to lay the blame at my feet and make yourself feel better.”
“I was going to end the tutoring because of it.”
He reaches out for my arm but I move so he can’t grab me. “I was wrong. I realize that now.”
“You don’t make any sense, Rip. I’ve never been with anyone except you.”
“It was your fucking nephew, okay. I didn’t realize he was your nephew, and I thought…”
Oh God. My stomach lurches where I’ve not eaten anything that wasn’t covered in chocolate for days now. This is…worse than I could ever have thought it would be.
“So, you go off to fuck someone because you thought I was banging my nephew?”
There goes any hope we have of making this work. I don’t want to get in a fight with him and he go fuck every girl he meets because he’s mad at me. A hollowness settles in me that leaves me feeling burnt up and fragile like a leaf in a fire.
“I didn’t fuck anyone!”
“Sure you didn’t!”
“Was that why you were so upset? Because you thought I went off to fuck someone else.”
I take off running. All that is on my mind is getting to that front door, so I don’t have to answer his question. I make it down the stairs just fine but when I yank the door open a yelp is jerked out of me and I am staring at the coach who is just as shocked to find me on the other side of the door as I am to find him.
“Miss Tandy.”
It gives Rip time to catch up with me. He comes up behind me with no shirt on, which I know because I back right into said bare chest when the coach comes in.
“I think the three of us need to talk.”
The words are quiet but firm. He doesn’t shout them or demand them, he just says it in a fatherly way that leaves no room for argument.
“I’m not pregnant!”
I blurt it out before I can stop myself. “And I can’t be his tutor anymore.”
I also have rampant verbal diarrhea and can't seem to keep my mouth shut.
“So, there’s no reason for us to talk about anything. It was nice to meet you, but I have to go.”
Steel bands wrap around my waist and lift me from the ground. Rip’s arms.
“You’re not going anywhere until we clear this up between us, sweetheart. I have no problem tying you to my god damned bed if I have to.”
He starts for the stairs. “Can you give us a few minutes, Coach? Come on in and relax. Kitchen’s that way. Help yourself.”
He tips his head towards the kitchen and then starts up the stairs. I wiggle and squirm to escape but he moves us, so I am draped over his back. He takes the steps two at a time and doesn’t let me go until he’s tossing me on his bed.
I try to move quickly so I can stand on the other side of the bed but I’m not quick enough. He lays his weight over me, trapping me.
“You were crying because I hurt you, weren’t you?”
“I wasn’t crying.”
He rolls us so he can swat my ass.
“Don’t lie to me, baby.”
Don’t lie to him? Is he even listening to himself?
“I wasn’t…stop! Rip, stop!