Page 9 of Spark

It finally pulled up out front, but she couldn’t leave without trying to explain again. In her short time with Dex, he’d made her feel special. She’d never felt so beautiful in her life. “Dex…”

“It’s okay. I’m sorry if I did something…if I…” He shook his head like an agitated bull. “’Night, Hattie.” Then he turned and walked back inside.

She watched him go, and an almost uncontrollable urge to run after him, to try and make him understand—to tell him she’d changed her mind, that she wanted to climb back into his bed with him—was almost too much to resist.

But she didn’t, because it was too late. He was gone. She’d blown it.

Chapter 4

Apparently, Dex’s family weren’t as worried about having boundaries between them as he was. Given they hardly knew one another, sending him to pick up some random family friend—another stray like him—because her car had shit itself that morning was pushing things a bit far for him. But what could he do? It wasn’t like he could say no after everything they’d done for him.

The girl’s name was Sutton. She’d moved to LA a month ago after some family drama or some such bullshit. Fucking awesome. Now he had to make small talk with some woman he’d never met and pretend he was all happy and festive and shit because it was Christmas morning.

Well, Christmas was his least favorite day of the fucking year.

He didn’t do Christmas. Growing up, he’d usually spent it alone. They hadn’t done the whole turkey, tree, presents deal. After his dad walked out and left them, it had been just Dex and his mom. Money was always tight, so if there was a shift available, she took it, even if that shift was on Christmas Day. He usually ate in front of the TV—grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and a Coke—and if he was lucky his mom would give him a gift when she got home.

Whatever. It didn’t do him any harm. Though he knew it had upset her.

Now she was gone.

No, he wasn’t a fan of all this bullshit, but it might’ve been nice to spoil his mom at this time of year, get someone else to cook for her, the whole nine yards, the turkey and stuffing all that crap. Get her some gifts since she never got anything for herself. He’d never gotten the chance.

Growling, he shoved the useless thoughts from his head and rubbed away the ache that started in the center of his chest.

Awesome. Now his mood was even darker.

He hadn’t been himself for the last two weeks, not since Hattie had freaked out on him and run away. He’d tossed and turned every night since, hard and aching, positive he could still smell her, taste her. Then the memory of her fleeing his shitty hotel room after he’d gone down on her would fill his head, and yeah, would totally fuck his day up.

To say he felt like a giant piece of shit was an understatement.

Christ, had he done something to hurt her? Scare her? She said he hadn’t, but maybe she’d just said that because she would have said anything in that moment to get the hell away from him. Maybe the scars on his body turned her off? Repulsed her?

Idiot that he was, he’d been hoping to get her number after.

Maybe get to know her better. Take her out or whatever. See if they had something more between them. He’d thought there was more. No, they hadn’t done a lot of talking, but he’d felt it as soon as she’d walked into Woody’s.

Getting it so wrong, being shot down by Hattie after being celibate so long, after finally wanting a woman again, yeah, it had him questioning a lot of things about himself. The main one was what the fuck was wrong with him? He hated to admit it, but his confidence had taken a serious beating.

And masochist that he was, he’d gone back to Woody’s nearly every night since, hoping to see her, to talk to her. Christ, apologize for whatever it was he did.

He shoved his fingers through his hair. He liked his cousins, he did. But being around all the happy was not something he was looking forward to. Drinking himself into a stupor in front of the TV in an attempt to get the most beautiful blue eyes he had ever seen out of his head sounded a lot more enjoyable.

Or at least productive.

Screw all the family crap. He had three brothers scattered around the country that his father had helped make and then abandoned, all to different mothers.

The only one of his brothers to make an effort was Zane, and look how that had turned out. Dex had let him move in with him and Chloe when he’d needed a place to stay, and while he was deployed, his brother had made a play for her, more than likely as soon as his plane left the runway.

Dex had never really worked Zane out. He’d always tried to compete with Dex, from the moment they met. He’d been where Dex had, done what Dex had…but better. There was always some big story that went with it. Dex didn’t get it. He’d never been competitive like that.

It soon became clear that Zane had weird fucking jealousy issues. He hated the fact that Dex had actually known their father, that he’d had a relationship with the asshole. Zane let that shit stew, let it twist and poison his head, and somewhere along the way he decided he wanted what Dex had, and that had included Chloe apparently.

So, no, family wasn’t his thing. Getting close to anyone always ended badly for Dex.

Still, for some insane reason, he’d wanted to get to know Hattie. He’d been drawn to her like he never had to another person in his entire life.

He pulled up outside Sutton’s apartment and tried to shake off his shitty mood.