Page 128 of It Should Have Been You

Releasing her to cup her face in my hands, I keep my eyes on hers, urging her to walk away. “Believe me, you want to go to bed.”

“Why?”

“Because Ineedyou to go to bed, baby.”

She drops her hands and steps back, the cut of rejection playing so visibly on her face, and it stings like a bullet to the chest.

“I’m drunk.” She nods in understanding. “I need to go to bed.”

She’s beautiful. The sexiest woman I’ve ever set eyes on, but we can’t go there tonight.

I walk her to the stairs, not trusting myself to bring her to her room. I wait until she reaches the top step to open the front door.

“Goodnight, Logan,” she whispers over her shoulder.

“Goodnight, pretty girl.” I wink, wanting to see that smile just one more time tonight.

I feel like falling to my knees when her lips tilt and a quiet laugh escapes her throat before she disappears into her room.

Thirty

“You okay, boss man? You seem a bit out of it today,” Kyle’s voice cuts through my reverie. He’s leaning against the counter, brows furrowed.

“Fine,” I grunt, not having the energy to force anything beyond that. “I’ve got business in the city later so I’m going to take off early.” I don’t. I’m just desperate to get away. Maybe a change of scenery will help. “You okay to cover here?”

“Sure.” His eyes light up. “We’ve got a bachelorette party coming in soon. I’m sure me and the guys can accommodate them.”

I shake my head. “For fuck’s sake.”

“Come on, man. A bachelorette party coming in for tattoos. You know they’re up for making some bad decisions.”

“I’m guessing you’re the bad decision.”

His smile is so wide it looks painful. “Bingo.”

“Just keep your cocks in your pants until you close up, and don’t get yourself in any trouble. I’m not having your mother in my ear.”

“I can do that.”

I don’t know who he’s trying to convince, but he’s failing.

I took Kyle under my wing when he was just a teenager after he got himself in some trouble with the law. His mother worked in a diner not far from the studio in the city and needed someone to guide him. He’s twenty-six, but I feel just as responsible for him now as I did when he was sixteen.

When I leave the shop, his tongue is practically wagging.

It’s in the silence of my truck, I regret leaving. I need distraction. I need noise. Something to drown out the thoughts consuming me.

I look down to see my hands gripping the steering wheel before catching sight of my reflection in the rear-view mirror.

I look just as I feel—like shit.

“Get it together,” I grit out before blasting the radio on and driving away.

But no matter how hard I try to drown it out, the darkness creeps in.

I haven’t slept in days. Three days to be exact. Ever since Beth came home drunk and I had to send her to bed. Holding her, feeling her in my arms, almost knowing how she tastes, opened up more than wanting her—and fuck, did I want her. But it awakened something more terrifying.

I went to sleep that night still feeling every soft curve of her body in my arms, but when I woke, fear took its place. The nightmares have gripped me every night since, shaking me awake. A nightmare that’s been haunting me for years, but it’s different now, more real. I wake in a cold sweat, my heart pounding in my chest as I stumble from the bed and a make a beeline for the bathroom where I lose the contents of my stomach.

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