Page 54 of Rough

“What the fuck did she just say to you?” Boyd demanded as he watched her car disappear around the corner.

I drew back. I didn’t like this side of him, the tense, snarling anger that seemed to simmer beneath the surface. I didn’t like the way he was talking to me. I especially didn’t like all the thoughts rushing through my head right now. I wanted to throat punch Karen for messing with my head.

“Is it true, Boyd?”

“No,” he said immediately before I even clarified what I was asking.

“You’re lying.”

He shook his head, like it would make things clear. “Lying about what? What did she tell you, Audrey?”

“That Rob told you to seduce me to keep me from talking about your accident. To make me forget about looking at it or to ensure I was crazy for thinking you’d been so gravely injured.”

Boyd started to speak, then his mouth snapped closed, then opened again, and my heart dropped to my shoes. Oh shit. Karen had been right.

I’d questioned myself, wondered if I needed a new prescription for my glasses. Doubted my medical assessment. All that time, he’d been telling me I’d exaggerated.

Tears filled my eyes, and I started stumbling blindly for my car door. “When you open your mouth, you better not lie to me.”

“Hang on.Hang on, Audrey.” Boyd tried to block my way, but he seemed smart enough not to touch me.

I spun, glared. “Step back, Boyd. I really don’t want to see you right now.”

“Just give me a minute to explain.”

I shook my head. “I knew it was too good to be true. I knew a guy like you had to be pretending if he was interested in a woman like me. I was right. So was Karen.”

Boyd pushed my door shut when I opened it. “That’s not true,” he insisted, keeping his hand on the top of the door. “I told you, Audrey. It was fate. I felt it at the arena. I knew it then. I’ve known it all along. You’re mine.”

I shook my head. “I’m not yours, Boyd. I’m not anybody’s. You knew what I wanted all along, and you used it against me. I was as easy as all those buckle bunnies, wasn’t I? Now step out of my way. I have to get to work.”

Misery washed over Boyd’s face, but after a moment, he opened my car door and stepped back.

“I don’t want to see you again. And don’t call me.” I got in and slammed the door.

“Wait, Audrey!” he shouted, but I’d already started the car. I drove away.

I sure as hell wasn’t watching in the rear-view mirror to see what he would do.

I’d been a fool, but it was over now.

Boyd Wolf was already history. I would find someone else. Someone normal and kind. Maybe dorky like me.

Someone human.

Christ, I didn’t know a breakup could hurt this badly. I was so stupid. I should’ve just fucked him in the med room at the arena. Been one of those women who had a little ride on Boyd’s huge dick, then pulled up their jeans and walked away. They’d get an orgasm from him but keep their hearts intact. I’d been so much worse than them, and I’d judged them harshly. I’d fallen for him and that made me the dumbest of them all. I pulled in at the hospital and dropped my head to the steering wheel, giving into the sobs that had choked my throat the entire drive.

23

BOYD

Fucking fuck.If I’d thought I was a screwup before, it was nothing like what I felt now. Disappointing Rob was par for the course. But hurting Audrey Ames? The female I wanted to spend the rest of my life with?

That cut like a fucking knife through my chest.

I sat in my truck, my thumb hovering over the screen of my phone.

Don’t call me, she’d said.