On Dublin Street The Bonus Material - Samantha Young Page 0,12
the kitchen counter, her usually healthy, olive-toned complexion was dulled with pain and fear. Her eyes kept shifting away from his, like she couldn’t bear to look at him.
Heart-fucking-broken.
She was such a Goddamn liar.
The anger took hold again. “So I was right last night, then? Unlike me, she has your love.”
Tell me you love me, Jocelyn. Be brave and fucking tell me.
“Braden…” she choked on his name and for one moment he thought she was breaking. He held himself still, waiting. “You don’t love me either, Braden.”
It was like she’d shot him. Point blank range.
How dare she! How fuc—
Braden fought for control, inwardly struggling while on the outside he kept his face icily impassive. The hurt he felt was unbelievable. He’d shown pieces of himself to her he’d shown to no one, and she dared to throw that in his face, to rewrite their history in order to make up for her own shortcomings.
In that moment he lost himself in the need to hurt her back. “You’re right.” He said stonily. “I don’t love you. I’m just annoyed I have to look for a new arrangement, especially when the old one wasn’t half bad.”
Jocelyn turned away instantly, depriving him of her expression, but he saw the tension in her shoulders and wondered if his words sliced as deeply as hers. “I’d hoped that we could still be friends, but clearly you don’t want that. So can we just agree not to talk to each other unless we have to for Ellie’s sake?”
God, he wanted to shake her. “If it were up to me, for Ellie’s sake, I’d kick your arse out and tell you never to darken our doorstep again. But Ellie doesn’t need that right now.”
Her head flew up at that and Braden felt triumphant that at least that got a reaction. If anything, he wouldn’t doubt her feelings for his wee sister. “Are you kidding?”
Still, he pushed. “No. I can’t trust you. You’re fucked up. I don’t think Ellie needs that.”
“Last night you wanted me here for Ellie.”
He shrugged, watching her eyes flare with anger at the casual movement and getting a perverse satisfaction out of it. “I’ve had time to think about it. If I could, I’d get rid of you. But that would just cause Ellie more pain. She doesn’t need that right now.”
“You could do that?” she whispered, shocked by his cold indifference. “Just throw me out of your life?”
And now they were getting somewhere. Just one more push. “Why not? You did it to me last night.”
Her eyes narrowed in outrage. “No. I broke up with you. I didn’t throw you out of my life.”
Same difference.
“But if I had known how little I really did mean to you, I probably would have.”
Oh no she didn’t, he thought, feeling that heat in his blood turn to flames. She was not playing the victim in this scenario. Didn’t she realize she’d fucking cut him in half last night when she told him she didn’t love him? “Oh, that’s right. You don’t love me, but you care about me. Well… I could give a shit about you.”
He waited a second for a reaction and got nothing but the obstinate locking of her jaw.
“As a matter of fact, I fucked someone else last night.” The shitty words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, the devil inside him, that bitter part of him that needed a reaction more than anything else, slipping past his control.
Watching her physically react to the words, Braden would have given anything to take them back. Guilt gutted his belly like a knife as he watched her jerk back like he’d hit her, her mouth parting as though he’d knocked the wind out of her.
Her eyes, rounded with horror, began to fill with tears.
He’d never felt like a bigger shit in his entire life, hating himself for hurting her. Jocelyn. He only ever wanted to protect to her and he’d fucking hurt her.
Self-recrimination somehow made him even madder at her even as he shot toward her to comfort her. “I fucking knew it,” he hissed.
“Don’t touch me!” she yelled at him, stumbling back from him as fury mingled with the pain in her eyes.
“Don’t touch you?” Braden shook with emotion he couldn’t seem to get a handle on. “I’m going to kill you!”
“Me?” she shrieked and promptly turned to grab a plate off the dish rack. A second later Braden ducked to avoid the missile flying for his head. “I’m not