Page 144 of Dirty Like Zane
“No.”
“You want me toleave?”
“No.”
“Good. Because I’m not goingto.”
She stared at me for a moment. “What did you say to Dallas,Zane?”
“Doesn’tmatter.”
“Zane.”
I swiped my hand through my hair, smoothing it back from my face. “What do you think I said to her? I told her she’s a fake-ass bitch and she’s never gonna see meagain.”
True enough, but actually what I told her was worse than that. I little more colorful. With the shit Maggie told me replaying in my head, wasn’t too hard to completely lose my shit onDallas.
Didn’t even care that I made her cry. Really couldn’t remember why I’d ever put my dick in her in the firstplace.
Okay… so maybe I’d been frustrated with Maggie refusing to trust me. I kept thinking she was using her hatred of Dallas as an excuse to treat me like some class-A asshole she could never forgive—and maybe I’d let that blind me to the fact that I should’ve kicked Dallas’ ass to the curb longago.
Didn’t even rate with me that Dallas was still hanging around trying to get her claws in me, because I didn’t care. That was my bad, though. I should’ve seen it, but I didn’t. I didn’t realize how Maggie would take it. That she’d think I thought a lot more of Dallas than Idid.
True, I didn’t have any particularly negative feelings toward Dallas until tonight, but that didn’t mean I hadfeelingsfor her. Just because I’d fucked her more than once didn’t mean I cared about her any more that I’d cared about any other chick I’d screwed over theyears.
BesidesMaggie.
The fact was, Maggie was precious to me. She was mywife.
Even angry and PMSing and tearing me a new one, Maggie Omura was worth more to me than a lineup of Dallases, naked and willing. And a chick like that making fucking degrading comments abouther?
Fuck.That.
“And by the way,” I said, starting to pace a little, “you ever hear anyone talking about you like that again, you tell me.” The whole thing was fucking agitating me. That she didn’t give me a chance to make it right before this. Or at least tell Jude or someone. “Or you tell Jude. Or Jesse or Brody or Shady, or whoever’s nearby. That shit does not stand,Maggie.”
“Okay,” she said, but I really didn’t feelit.
“You feel me on that? I’m fucking serious aboutthis.”
She eyed me carefully as I paced back and forth in front of her. “You may be serious,” she said, slowly, “but I really don’t think you want to hear all the shit people say about me behind your back,Zane.”
That stopped me cold. “What are you talkingabout?”
She sighed a little, in that way she did when I was being an idiot. “I’m female, I’m young, I’m mixed-race, and I’m pretty, and I work in a business that’s driven by money, men, and sexuality. You think I haven’t heard every sexist, racist, ignorant and cruel comment there is? Not to mention that if we go public with our marriage, every other girl from here to Tokyo is going to hate on me.Publicly.”
Well,shit.
I never really thought of it like thatbefore.
Personally, I thought the fucking world of Maggie. Always had. Pretty much everyone around me in the Dirty world treated the woman like solid gold, and that’s what I was accustomed to. Comfortably accustomedto.
It never occurred to me that anyone would look down on her or be mean to her because she was young or pretty or had darker skin thanmine.
Definitely hadn’t occurred to me that anyone would hate her because I lovedher.
JesusChrist.
I sat down on the couch. And I tried to really feel the weight of it; how hard this was gonna be forher.
