Page 74 of Defying Ella
I ignored her. “What are you trying to do, Jared?”
His nostrils flared as his eyes devoured me in one quick sweep. For someone so done with our relationship, he sure paid a lot of attention to me. He straightened to his full height, attempting to intimidate me, I’m sure. Too bad for him, it didn’t work and never had.
“Nothing that concerns you, Sparky.”
“Stop calling me that.” I ground my teeth.
He smirked, lowering his face until he peered into mine. “You liked it before.”
“You weren’t using it like a patronising piece of shit before.” I shrugged one shoulder. “Things change.” I took in the distance he’d put between himself and the woman. With every word, he tried to edge me further and further from her. “Including your interest in random strangers, it seems.”
“I – Don’t be ridiculous. We were just about to leave.” He glared at me with half-arsed challenge hardening his features.
“Oh, okay, I won’t keep you then.” I bared my teeth in some semblance of a smile. “Seeing as you’re perfectly fine and not slipping back to a normal you despise just to spite yourself or anything.”
I turned, fully planning to leave him. He grabbed my arm and leaned in close.
“People need to stop grabbing me,” I growled, frustration boiling over. Our gazes clashed and I let my irritation colour my expression. “If you want to go back to pretending you’re nothing but the rock star manwhore, go ahead. We’re done, right, so why should I care?”
“It’s not like that, Els.” His grip tightened almost to the point of pain. Desperation flickered in his green eyes and he released me.
He wrapped his arm around the woman, daring me to argue as he led her out. I wished I could say that the sight of him wrapped around another woman didn’t shove an icepick deep into my heart, but I’d be lying.
That didn’t mean I’d let him win or that I’d allow myself to cry over him any more than I had. I wasn’t delusional enough to believe that his act had anything to do with me.
The need to leave persisted but my feet failed to move in the right direction. Instead, I positioned myself at the corner of the bar, with a clear line of sight to the door. Daphne chatted in my ear while we ordered a round of drinks and I tried to tune in to get to know her, but every cell in my body focused on the door.
Not even ten minutes later, he slunk back in, his gaze shifting from side-to-side, scanning the crowd. The woman didn’t follow, and his clothing looked far too smooth for him to have fucked her in some back alley.
Having seen enough, I stepped away from the bar and directly into his path. His eyes widened for a split second before his well-worn pissed off mask slipped into place.
“What do you want now?” he asked with a sneer on his lips that would have riled me up once upon a time.
Now I knew better.
I crowded into his space, ignoring my acute desire to stay the hell away from him. Painting a sickly sweet smile on my lips, I went up on my toes and pressed my lips to his ear. Whether consciously or not, he leaned into me, his hands automatically reaching for my hips to steady me.
“Stop lying to yourself. You can hate me all you want.” My fingers tightened on his arms while I tried to keep my balance and his grip tightened in response. “But we both know you hate playing the fuckboy. Talk to the guys, stop leading unsuspecting women on, and deal with your shit.”
Jared shivered at the brush of my lips against his skin andhis jaw tensed. I released his arms just as he pushed me away, a scowl marring the face I’d loved a week ago.
“You know you’re better than this, Jared.”
I didn’t wait for a response, didn’t need one. Instead, I brushed past him and made my way out onto the street feeling lighter than I had when I walked in hours before.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Two days later, staring blearily at a screen, well after my bedtime, my phone lit up with a text. It vibrated against the table, flashing Jared’s name at me. I frowned at it, a mixture of dread and annoyance unfurling in my gut. A certainty that I’d find a booty call text beyond my lock screen set my teeth on edge.
What else would Jared send me? We were nothing to each other. He’d made that perfectly clear.
For a couple of minutes, I sat, chewing my lip, my gaze fixed on the dark screen.You could go to bed and ignore it.
Then it lit up again and again.
A stream of messages almost knocked the phone off my desk
And then it rang.
