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Not that Hayden heard a word I said. Railing on, he growled, “There was no reason to lie. If you can’t even be honest with me, then—”
Reaching my threshold of patience, I hauled off and slugged him in the arm to get him to shut up and listen to me already. “I didn’t lie, you asshole! You have everything all fucking wrong.”
He blinked at me once, then furrowed his brow into a deep frown. “I have what wrong exactly?”
“I just said. Everything! You have it all wrong. Because I didn’t lie. I never had and never will be anything with Diego.”
“Then why the fuck would you come to the place where he works to see him?”
“Oh Jesus,” I cried, lifting my hands and balling them into fists because I wanted to slug him again. So bad. “I really don’t want to
explain this to you, especially when you’re being this damn annoying. Gah. Sometimes, I just want to strangle the life out of you.” My fingers un-balled just enough so I could mimic the act. “Why do you always have to be so insufferable and intrusive and just so damn—”
His mouth slammed into mine, his fingers gripping my hair and teeth biting my lip.
It had to be the most brutal kiss I’d ever experienced, nothing soft or gentle about it, just sharp angles and ripe anger. I punched him once in the front of the shoulder for pissing me off and actually thinking this kind of distraction would actually work to settle me down, then I gripped his hair just as tightly as he was gripping mine, and I climbed him, kissing him back with the same savage intensity because—shit, I needed an outlet for all the energy and anger that coursed through my veins.
And he was a really awesome kisser.
He backed me into a wall and lifted me, his touch merciless and fierce but oh-so fucking possessive and hot that I melted in his arms, hiking my legs up and wrapping my thighs around him until he was pushing his erection right up into that hot nook that craved sustenance. When his tongue thrust deep, I almost couldn’t tell if it was in my mouth or pussy because I literally felt sparks in both places.
“Goodness gracious!”
Startling a pair of old ladies who were entering the building and found us devouring each other alive, Hayden tore himself away from me so abruptly it left me open and exposed and wilting down the wall like a rag doll.
“Well, I never,” one woman announced, pulling her purse in tight as if she thought we were going to rob her, while the other fanned herself and grinned, wistfully saying, “Oh, to be so young again.”
Hayden answered neither of them, just fisted his hand and set it against his mouth to help hide the stain of arousal on his cheeks.
After the women bustled past, eyeing us repeatedly as they went, he finally slid his gaze to me, his eyes dark with anger and lust. Hand reaching out, he rasped, “Come on. Not here.”
I nodded because he was right about the location, but I refused to take his hand as I peeled myself from the wall and straightened my shoulders rigidly, then stalked past him toward the door. He took my elbow, his grip surprisingly gentle.
We walked to his car without speaking. He opened the door for me and then shut it for me as soon as I was inside. And we still didn’t say a word when he slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine. In fact, we were probably a few blocks down the street, before he cleared his throat and licked dry lips.
“If—” he started, only to need another moment before he repeated, “If you’re willing to tell me why you were at Preston Estates on Saturday, I’m finally ready to listen. Rationally.”
I almost wanted to refuse him. But then, he really was being so damn composed and reasonable about it, pulling himself together to talk it out peacefully, it would’ve been immature of me to refuse now.
“Fine,” I said before heaving in a deep breath to begin my tale. “I was having a really bad day. I’d been working overtime at the café a lot because the turnover there is awful. Then I had to deal with my father and everything that’s been happening with him because of his leg and unemployment and hospital bills. Not long after he lost the limb, Miguel was diagnosed with diabetes, which has been a nightmare all on its own. So when he got sick with the flu last week, I just lost it. He was probably at the tail end of it that night, but I just…” I shook my head. “I’d had enough. I’d spent all that evening paying bills until our bank account was in the negatives. Literally, the negatives. I wrote a hot check for school lunches, banking on the fact they wouldn’t cash it until after Friday when I got paid, because his school always deposits their checks late. And then Miguel told me he was hungry, and—and I didn’t even have a can of freaking chicken noodle soup in the apartment for him. So I tried the neighbors, except none of them answered their doors. I even tried Kaitlynn up on the fourth floor.”
“She was at the company Halloween party that night,” Hayden supplied quietly.
I nodded. “Yeah, I learned that later. But at the time, I had no one to turn to. And I suddenly felt so tired. I wanted—no, I needed—someone else to take over for a minute. So I thought of Diego. He’d been asking me out nonstop and acting like he really liked me. And he’d told me he lived at Preston Estates and was in the movie industry, and he always brought me the most amazing bundles of roses. I’d never been impressed with all his bragging and talking about himself, but I thought he was rich, at least. And maybe, I don’t know—it was stupid—but I figured if I finally agreed to go on a date with him, he’d help me out just a little and maybe buy me some, you know…”
“Chicken noodle soup?” Hayden supplied softly.
I rolled out a lame hand. “Yeah,” I whispered, feeling my chin quiver. “I wasn’t thinking. It wasn’t a smart plan. I know that now. But at the time, I just—I was…”
“Desperate?”
“Yeah.” My chest shuddered as I exhaled a harsh breath, disappointed in myself over how I had behaved. “I chickened out when I saw him. He was serving drinks at some event going on in the ballroom, and then he picked some guy’s pocket right in front of me, and I—I turned away and stalked off, more mad at myself than anything for even considering the idea. I walked around blindly for so long I got lost, and I somehow found my way in front of your mother’s door. When she came out and insulted me, it was like the last straw, you know. I’m not entirely sure why I went into her apartment. She left the door open as she stalked off, but that’s no excuse.”
“Maybe you wanted to pretend like you were someone else for a little bit, someone from a different world who wasn’t dealing with the problems you were dealing with.”
He sounded so understanding and patient with my plight that I hugged myself and bowed my head shamefully. “I wish I could have a redo of the entire night all over again.”
“I don’t,” Hayden answered with such assurance that I looked up to blink at him in confusion.
