Page 75 of Darling Venom
The worst part was that Terry had caught me being a scumbag. He saw the bulge in my pants when I jumped to my feet to shut the door in his face.
His eyebrows shot up as if to say, it’s not my mind that should be getting out of the gutter.
Whatever.
Shit happens.
It’d been nearly a month since I’d had sex. Since I had Allison in my office, to be exact. After Charlotte had stormed into my life like a contagious disease, my mind had been elsewhere.
Namely—on Kellan.
I was sure Charlotte had felt like shit when I all but threw her out—especially after she’d helped me clean my house for four hours. Then her stomach began to growl, and I remembered I probably should have fed her.
&nb
sp; But spending more time with her seemed counterproductive to, oh, I don’t know, NOT GETTING INTO HER PANTS.
Terry stopped me by placing a hand on my chest as I marched back inside. “Tate. Talk to me.”
I peeled his hand off my chest, charging up the stairs. I felt like a fucking kid. He followed me.
Why was I running?
He couldn’t ground me.
It was my goddamn house.
“What’s going on? That room is wiped clean.”
“Yeah, well, as you said, it’s been a long time coming.”
“Can I at least crash there? I won’t bring anything in. I’d be grateful to sleep in an actual bed.” His words jarred me.
“No. It’s Kellan’s bed.”
He stalked to my room after me. “I’m proud of you.”
“I don’t care.”
“Look, I’ve dated them old, and I’ve dated them young, and I can honestly say, nothing brings you back to life more than a young, attractive, fun—”
I whirled toward him sharply when I reached my bedroom door, seeing red. My eyes were dead as I hurled him against the wall. His back crashed into it so hard, a painting dropped to the floor, its frame cracking.
“You don’t know what you’re saying. I don’t want you to talk about her, think about her, or refer to her in any way. Am I understood?”
His eyes widened.
Mine, too.
I was not that guy who used his physical strength to put a point across. But I couldn’t stress it enough—I didn’t want my piece-of-shit father around Charlotte.
“I wasn’t insinuating anything. Just trying to make you feel better.”
“You could have made me feel better by taking care of your own kid.”
He bared his teeth. “How much longer are you going to hold this over my head?”
“Until you stop blaming my ass for what happened,” I snarled back.
