Page 66 of Recovering Ivy

“Don’t baby me, Zane. This is too much. Every time I start to think I can do this, I’m reminded I can’t afford to…”

“Don’t fucking say you can’t afford it.”

“I can’t! You’ll break me. Five days in, and one minute I’m floating on cloud nine dreaming like a stupid fucking teenager about how much I already love you, and the next minute I’m at DEFCON 1 ready to wring your neck.”

When Jaxon chuckled, it pissed me off even more that we were having this conversation in front of people and I looked even crazier than I really was.

“Ivy.”

“I can’t do this,” I whispered, then turned to Violet and Olivia. “I’m sorry I ruined our lunch.”

Without looking back at Zane, I made my way back to his room and gently clicked the door closed. As much as I wanted to slam the door, I refrained. I already looked like a lunatic. And with my luck, the door would break off the hinges and a painting would fall then they’d all think I belonged in the nut hut.

I hated being stuck; I avoided the feeling at all costs. Yet there I was in Zane’s house with no way to leave. My stuff was in storage, some of my clothes were here, and apparently, Linc had some of my belongings as well. I felt like I did when I was first moving out of my mother’s house. No plan, no money, and nothing that was worth anything.

The door opened, and I didn’t need to turn around to know Zane had followed me. The electricity that simmered between us when we first met was ever present.

“Ivy.”

“Please leave it alone,” I begged.

“Not a chance.”

“Seriously. Leave it alone. I need to think.”

“That is the last thing you need to do. When I left, you were happy and smiling about our plans for this evening. Then I come home to a shit show and you telling the girls someone’s gonna leave you. What triggered it?”

My body locked tight and I did what I always did when my back was pressed in a corner and I was trapped – I spewed venom.

“Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe, just maybe, you don’t know what’s best for everyone around you?”

“Yes.”

“Perfect, then stop trying to manage my life. I don’t want you moving my shit. I don’t want you meddling in my relationship with my mother. You think because you’re Zane fucking Lewis you can tell me how to live my life and what to feel. I know what I know. There’s not a damn thing you’ll ever tell me that will change my mind. You’ll leave. And if you don’t, I will. Is that what you want? You want to waste your time knowing at the first sign of trouble I’ll leave you before you can leave me? That’s what I do, Zane. I bolt before I can feel the sting of rejection. My mother is right.”

“Enough, goddammit. First, that woman is not a mother. She’s a trifling bitch who has brainwashed you. I don’t care if it takes me five days, five years, or fifty. I will undo everything she’s taught you. Mark this, baby, that jealous piece of shit has never been right a day in her miserable life. I’ll give you this, there may be nothing I can tell you to convince you you’re not what she says you are, but I can show you.”

“You are hard headed and mostly deaf. Did you not hear what I said? I’ll leave. Cut your losses and move on. Tell Linc to take my stuff back, hand over the evidence you have to the police, and be done with me.”

“Again, I’ve been called worse.”

“Zane,” I growled.

“I won’t let you leave.”

“So you’ll hold me captive?”

“I won’t let you leave, Ivy.”

“Fine. You’ll leave me.”

“I will not let you leave, baby.” Zane’s voice had softened and my anger spiked. He wasn’t listening.

“End this now and save yourself the trouble.”

“I promise you I won’t let you leave.”

“Why the fuck not? I’m nothing, trash someone like you should toss aside. I’m not good enough for you. Let me leave.”