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“What do you want me to say, Cash? I refuse to stand in line, waiting for my turn for your attention. I just can’t do it. I would rather be alone for the rest of my life than to be watching out the door like some little puppy waiting for someone to come home and love me. It isn’t going to happen. I refuse to teach my son that kind of behavior is okay.”
“Damn it. This is my fault. You should never have been put in this position.”
“You think?”
“I am fucking it up again,” Cash sat heavily on the edge of the cot. Running a hand through his hair, he looked at Reese. “Beautiful, just give me a minute to get it together.”
“You can have all the minutes you want. Unlock the door. Let me out of here and take all the time in the world.”
“Like you couldn’t have picked an easy one,” he muttered to himself.
Reese’s eyes narrowed as she moved toward the door. “Cash, open the door. I am done playing this idiotic game.”
“Me too, Beautiful. Me too,” Cash stood, taking a step toward her, backing her against the bars.
Reese put her hands out, pushing on his chest. “Open the door,” she demanded.
Cash lowered his head, distracting her from his next move. Reese never saw the handcuffs until one side was snapped securely to her wrist.
“What the hell?” Reese’s eyes grew wide, looking at the cool metal secured to her wrist.
Cash moved fast. He had her connected to the bar behind her head before she could move. Seeing the fire light in her, Cash backed away quickly. He hadn’t wanted it to come to this, but she wasn’t going to listen to him willingly. Now Reese had no choice.
“You are going to give me ten fucking minutes to tell you what I need to without breaking my nose or sending your knee into my nuts,” Cash informed her. “I have tried to get you to listen to me. Now you are going to hear me out.”
“Have you lost your damn mind?” Reese yelled at him as she pulled on her wrist. The only thing she managed to do was rattle the metal together. Neither budged. She was stuck handcuffed to a cell with the man who tormented her dreams. Reese wasn’t sure how this day could get any worse.
“Yes, yes I have,” Cash yelled back at her. “You locked the damn door with that look on your face, and I lost my damn mind. You looked like I ripped out your soul. Your eyes had this emptiness and the hurt, damn, I can still see the hurt. It still haunts me knowing I put that look on your face.”
“Cash,” Reese tried to interrupt him.
“No, Reese. You won’t let me in the door. You won’t answer the phone. You shut me out completely. Now you are going to shut up and listen to me. After I am done, it is up to you. I can’t promise I will not end up at your house trying to find any way I can to make you see you are it for me.”
“Ten minutes.”
“I am never going to get away with anything around you, am I?” He snorted.
When she didn’t say anything, he started explaining. “Ash is my ex-wife. We got married right out of high school. The best way to explain it is like a marriage of convenience crossed with an occasional friend with benefits situation. We didn’t love each other any more than friends, never did.”
Cash tried to gauge her reaction, but all he could see was a pissed-off woman ready to rip him to shreds. The fact that it turned him on like nothing else ever had was something he decided to keep to himself.
“Her father was a controlling asshole. Her dad and mine were good friends because they were like two rotten peas from the same fucked-up pod. He was going to marry her off to one of his friends. She came to me one night crying. Ash told me he sold her to the highest bidder. I thought she was joking, but she wasn’t. Her father made a trade with one of his business associates, and she was part of it. Her dad got a piece of land he had his eye on for years and the other guy got a hot, young wife.”
Reese wanted to sympathize with his story. She had her own messed-up father to deal with right now. However, it didn’t explain what they were doing coming out of his house in the middle of the night like she watched them do.
“Here was this crazy girl I grew up with, sits beside me in my geometry class, sitting on the tailgate of my truck asking me to help her with this insane plan she hatched. She was going to do whatever she could to get away from them. If I didn’t agree, she would find someone else to marry her.”
“Ash already knew I was headed out of town to a trade school after we graduated. She said I was the perfect candidate because she knew me, we got along well enough, and the school I picked was close enough to commute to the one she was going to. The woman was hell-bent on making her plan work. Once Ash decides something, god help whoever stands in her way. She is a force all her own. I never stood a chance.”
“I am sure she will be happy to take you back. You can tell her I was just a moment of temporary insanity or just leave me out of it altogether. Let me out, Cash. I am sure you have better things to do with her than standing here telling me about your ex-wife,” Reese tried again and giggled her cuff to draw his attention.
Cash ignored her. He had to make her understand there was no one else. He couldn’t do that unless he kept talking. He knew he should have told her more about him from the beginning, but his mind went straight to all the things he wanted to do to her whenever she was near. Images of Reese under him won out over talking every time.
“She wanted to be a lawyer from the second she knew what one was,” Cash smiled. “She loves it, and she is damn good. Getting out of town was her only shot at it. It was the perfect plan thought up by a desperate eighteen-year-old because she was left with no other option. She knew her father wouldn’t let her leave by herself. He would find a way to make her do what he wanted. He and Mitchell probably know one another. The loophole was being married. He would have no say in her life if she were married.”
“So, you married her. Gold star for you,” Reese clapped her hands, making sure to jiggle the metal on metal again. “Is this your type? Women who you think need to be rescued. I don’t need to be rescued. I promise I am perfectly fine.”
Cash glanced at his watch and glared at her.
