Page 24 of Wild Obsession
Chapter Nine
Dylan
I gave Jamie a day.One single day after she got back from Montreal to come to her senses and pick up the phone.
The call never came.
It shouldn’t have surprised me.She never thought of me in the way I wanted her to.Which made it all the more maddening that I still thought of her as often as I did.
I was back at her front door, waiting for someone to answer.This time, my stomach wasn’t in knots, and my head was definitely not in the fucking clouds.
I was just mad.Really fucking mad.
When she opened the door, the hint of guilt on her face did nothing to cool me down.
“Dylan.I was going to call you.”
“Sure you were.Right after you thought up a bullshit excuse to feed me about why you ran off with my kid again.”I didn’t even try to keep the acid out of my tone.
She stepped back, arms crossing, pink coloring her cheeks.“I didn’t run off?—”
“Stop.”I was done listening to her spin her selfish fucking actions.
How many times had she called me inconsiderate, told me I hadn’t tried hard enough, said I was to blame for not having built a better relationship with Hunter from the start?
Too fucking many.
No more.
“Please come inside so we can talk about this like adults.”I knew every move she had—the hair, the hips, the softened voice.None of it was going to work today.
I followed her to the kitchen and stayed on my feet when she offered me a chair.
Mojo came bounding in before either of us could speak, and I crouched to scratch behind his ears, grateful for the interruption.“Where’s Hunter?”
“He’s at the park…” She bit her lip, a worried frown settling over her face.“With Eric.”
“Good.”
She looked stunned.Like she’d expected me to snap about my son spending more time with the man I considered my nemesis.
“I need to say something, and I need you to actually hear it this time.”
“All right, I’m listening.”Her gaze dropped to Mojo as he trotted off to his bed.
“What you did was shitty.”My throat was tight, but I forced out the words I’d been practicing for days.“I don’t care why you did it.I don’t care if you’re sorry.I need you to understand that he’s my kid too.You want me to be more involved—you’ve begged me for it.And I want that too, but every time I show up, you find a new way to lock me out.”
I raked a hand through my hair, breathing deep.“When are you going to let me be the father you keep asking me to be?”
The words hung between us.I’d said them a hundred times in my head, in the car, in the shower, at three in the morning when sleep wouldn’t come.They’d never sounded this raw out loud.
She wrapped her arms around herself and stared at the floor.
The floor, where three days ago Chantel had been half-naked, after coming apart under my mouth.Fuck.
I dragged my attention back to Jamie.
“I’m sorry,” she said, voice cracking.“I’ve never tried to keep you from him.I know it feels that way, but that was never my intention.”
