Page 21 of Legacy
He was smaller than me, but only by an inch or so, so I could only just see Kate's puzzled face as she turned towards me.
“What's going on?”
“Nothing, Kate. Why don't you go and see Conner?” Pocket locked eyes with me, stepping out in front of her like he was protecting her. Protecting her from me? It just added insult to injury. I stepped around Duke.
“There a problem here, Legacy?” Pocket sounded wary, but the way he eyed me up and down just riled me up as before.
Slightly behind me, Duke mumbled something under his breath. I couldn’t quite catch what it was, but I was pretty sure he was calling me a fool, or something along those lines.
I knew I was a fool.
I had no right to be jealous.
Kate wasn’t mine.
“Legacy?” Pocket waited for me to answer him. I didn’t. If he kept pushing me, then I would blow. I didn’t have any right to, but I would. Jealousy was a funny thing. It didn’t make sense. When that green-eyed monster raised its ugly head, then all you could do was get out of the way.
Or blow up and threaten violence to a friend because he dared take a woman you didn’t want to admit you had feelings for on a ride on the back of his bike.
It meant something, though. Having a woman clinging to your back always meant something. Having her trust you with her safety, with her life.
“You and…” My eyes flickered towards Kate. She was staring at me, eyebrows arched upwards in shock or maybe it was guilt. I didn’t know. All I knew was that looking at her was a mistake. It just made the jealousy worse.
Pocket was a good man. But he wasn’t the right man for Kate. Kate was Paul’s woman and she always would be. I didn’t want to see her with anyone else.
Unless that person was me.
Fuck.
“Don’t worry about it.” Thrusting my hands deep into my pockets, I shook my head. This was all wrong. I had been about to step up to a brother and pound his face, and for what reason? Because he was friends with someone I cared about? Even if it was more than friendship, I still had no right.
Kate wasn’t mine.
She was never going to be mine.
“I hope—” Fuck. I blew out a breath. “I gotta go.” There was nothing else to say. If I said out loud the words I was thinking, then everyone would know what a jealous fool I was. Instead of just suspecting it.
I needed to move on from this weird infatuation I had with my best friend's widow. I hadn’t been in her life for ten years. And she was right: I was bulldozing them, trying to make up for my absence by taking over their lives.
I had no right.
If she liked Pocket, if he made her happy, then I couldn’t stand in the way. No matter how much it felt like someone was gutting me.
Holding my head high, I walked away, stalking through my club brothers. They were all staring at me, clearly bemused by my little outburst.
“Legacy,” Kate called out. I didn’t stop, I didn’t turn around. If I did I couldn’t guarantee I wouldn’t fly off the handle again.
“Elliot?” she tried again, using my birth name this time.
“Let him be,” Pocket said softly, but his voice carried. I could just picture them standing side by side. Maybe he had even taken her hand. “He needs to clear his head.”
Yeah. I smiled ruefully to myself. I needed to clear my head. Give it a shake so any thoughts of Kate were tossed away.
No more remembering how she felt pressed against me on the back of my bike. Or how she looked at me when my finger was in her mouth. The feel of it. The hard little sucks.
I closed my eyes briefly.
I had to forget all of that.
