Instead of relief, Perry grabs Walker by the throat. Sloan and I gasp, but don’t move forward. Perry backs Walker against the wall.
“You swear on Jeremy’s life that you’re done. That you won’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.”
Walker grunts and struggles against Perry’s hold. “I promise,” he grits out.
Perry’s eyes darken, increasing his grip. “Say you fucking swear.”
Walker begins to choke and Perry releases him forcefully against the counter. Walker brings his hands up to rub his swollen neck. “Jesus, I swear. I won’t do anything.”
My relief is short-lived as the sirens from outside penetrate the walls. He looks to Sloan—then to me.
He grabs me first, hugging me so hard I can’t breathe. “Watch him, please. I won’t be here and you need you to be strong for both of us.” He pulls back and holds my gaze. “Can you do that?”
I nod and he leans in to kiss my cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Sloan’s waiting for him by the door. He takes her hand and walks outside as the sirens get closer. When they reach the sidewalk, she wraps her arms around his waist and she rests her head on his bare chest.
“We’ll figure it out,” she whispers. “It’s going to be okay.”
He shakes his head, already convinced this is the end. But he doesn’t argue with her. Instead he kissed her hard. “I love you, Sloan.”
A tear falls down her cheek and onto her lips. “I love you.”
I never wanted to see him like this—handcuffed and shoved in the back of a cop car. It was inevitable. Even though I expected one of them to down for far worse things, this is bad enough. He’s leaving four people who need him more than ever right now and my only hope is that we’re strong enough to hold it together until he can come back.
37
The Fire
Perry- Now
When I walk back to the apartment, Tess has the bedroom door closed. That’s never a good sign. One thing I’ve learned over the years, if a girl is angry, they want you to go to them. They may act like they don’t want to talk or they may even tell you to get the hell out—don’t do that. It only makes it worse.
I knock gently on the wooden door before pushing it open halfway. Tess has her back to me, angrily shoving laundry into her dresser drawers. This scares me the most. Tess hates doing laundry. I lean in the doorframe and continue to watch her. She knows I’m standing here. I can see the tension in her shoulders as she takes her frustration out on a pair of jeans, folding them violently.
“You mad at me?” I ask in a small voice.
Tess chuckles. “Why would I be mad at you?”
Again—this is a trick. She’s fucking furious and I know why. The only problem is, she has it all wrong.
“Can we talk about it?”
She slams the drawer shut and turns to face me. The smile she gives is borderline terrifying. “No, I don’t feel like talking to you right now.”
I swallow hard. She’s not going to make this easy on me and I didn’t expect her to. The last thing I want is to have a fight about something she has nothing to worry about. When she moves to step past me, I grab her arm.
“Let me explain.”
Her eyes meet mine with a fury I’ve only seen from her a handful of times, the last of which she socked me right in the throat.
She pulls her arm from my grasp and sighs. “I knew it would suck when the time came for you to choose her over me, but I didn’t realize how much it would physically hurt.”
“Tess, I didn’t…”
She shoves me in the chest and I stumble against the door. “You fucking did! You left me on that street to see if she was okay.” Her hands are shaking and she takes a step back. “How do you think I felt? Watching that smug smile on her face because she knew she won again. What if I wasn’t okay? Or don’t you care about me?”
I don’t let her get past me again and pull her into my chest. She fights it at first, but then her arms relax and wrap around my waist. I plant a kiss in her hair. “Of course I needed to know if you were okay.” I tilt her chin up so she has to look at me. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, but…”
“But, what? That’s all that matters, right?”
Tess shakes her head. “It’s not actually. You don’t love me the way that you love her.”
“That’s not fair.”
She tilts her chin back up to me in anger. “Yeah, and why’s that?”
I take a breath. The line I have to walk is narrow. Our situation is unconventional at best.
“You knew this would be hard for me. Last week I proposed marriage to her and now I’m just supposed to shut all my feelings off. You had almost a year to get over Walker and I get—what? Like three days to get over someone I spent seven years with.”
Tess pushes back from me. “If they were seven solid years, maybe I’d be a little more sympathetic. You knew she would do this. You knew as soon as she found out about us, she wouldn’t let you walk away, and you still ran to her.”
I shake my head. “I told her it was over.” Tess scoffs as if she doesn’t believe me, but my expression remains serious. “I mean it, Tess. I want you.”
Her eyes soften when she looks over at me. “You told her that?”
Unable to take any amount of distance between us, I drag her into my arms. After planting a kiss to her lips, I cup her cheek. “Yes, but that’s not something you blurt out in the middle of the street. You may think Sloan’s a terrible person, but she deserves an explanation and I needed to give her one.”
“I get that,” she says in a small voice.
I smile and kiss her once more. “Do you? Because you looked like you wanted to stab me.”
She slaps me playfully in the chest and goes back to her laundry basket. “It still sucked though,” she says over her shoulder.
I walk up behind her and kiss her neck, wrapping my arms around her waist. “I have an idea how I can make it up to you.”
Her body tenses, but she grabs one of my hands and pushes it lower. My fingers brush the button of her jeans, my pulse pounding. I kiss her neck and then whisper, “I want to touch you here.” I run a finger up the seam of her jeans, feeling the warmth penetrating through.
She gasps a small moan, tilting her head back against me.
“Please do,” she breathes.
Hearing those words from anyone else might be amusing. The eagerness she feels isn’t funny because I feel it too. I’ve never wanted anyone more than I want Tess.
All of her.
I unsnap the button and slip my hand down the front of her pants, over her panties. My fingers trace he dampened fabric, her arousal causing my own pants to tighten. I release a groan when my fingers slip inside, gently stroking along her folds. Her back arches and I rub her clit for another moment before spinning her around.
This time when she faces me her intentions are clear. She’s not angry or upset like she was moments ago. There’s a lust in her eyes, and I’ve been ignoring it for far too long.