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"What are you talking about?" I demanded to know. "Did I tell who what about her? Tyson, what is the matter with you? I haven't talked to anyone about that... woman. I thought we were working together on this. And, now you're acting like a crazy person. Why?"
Something had happened that I was unaware of. Something that had set him off, and he'd decided to take it out on me.
I didn't like it.
I leaned back, away from him, and put my hands in his chest. As much as I didn't want to be up close and personal with him when he was acting out one of his little anger episodes, I wasn't willing to deny my body what it really wanted in that moment, and that was to be pressed up close to him.
The closer I got to them, the more I was coming to realize I was beginning to crave their touch, a closeness to their bodies and the strange, magical heat they gave off. It was an addictive warmth, and, even mad at him, I wasn't sure I would ever be able to get enough of it.
This did not bode well for my future amongst them if they all gave off the same heat, and, I was sure they did.
He frowned at me. His hands left my bottom, and ever so slowly, slid up past my hips and then moved up my back. They stopped just under the sides of my breasts where he spread his fingers wide. He pressed in and held my upper body as close to his as it could get, with there being no space between us to even slide a piece of paper between our bodies. I was forced to tilt my head back at a painful angle to be able to continue to look him in his dark eyes.
One of his hands moved over to the middle of my back where he kept his fingers spread wide. the other one left my side as well to move further up my back, towards my neck. His long, wide spread fingers creeped up the back of my neck and slithered into my hair. He spilled his fingers into my hair and tangled them with my messy ash blonde strands.
He held me there, firmly in place, exactly where he wanted me to be, and his hold on my hair was tight enough that I knew it would hurt to try and pull my hair out of his grasp or move my head. He'd never shared this side of himself with me, and I had a brief moment to wonder if I should be frightened. Vivian The Imposter had had a firm hold when it had come to my hair. But I wasn't afraid of Tyson the way I'd been afraid of her. No, I wasn't afraid of Tyson, maybe I was just a little bit nervous though. Not because I was afraid he'd hurt me, it was more of a fearing of the unknown.
He leaned down until our noses almost touched and his eyes changed. What had been a dark anger before and bled to sadness and misery. I made a low, pained noise in the back of my throat because it hurt. All that sadness and misery swimming in the surface of his eyes hurt like a mother for me to stare into. When you cared about someone, truly cared, their pain was your pain. Just as their happiness was yours, as well. You laughed, carefree and bright in the face of their joy. You danced and cheered when they were happy, and you cried when they cried. For me, it was just that simple, and it was a part of myself that I was starting to embrace with open arms. It didn't make me weak to care so much about another human being that their emotions bled through to mine.
“Uncle Quint, Ariel.” He breathed out in a soft whisper that ghosted across my lips. “Did you tell him about Annabell? I know the two of you have a special bond, and I don’t begrudge either of you it, but I need to know that when you’re with me you’re actuallywith me, that when you promise me something you actually mean it. I need to know that I mean something to you too, at least enough for you to keep your damn word to me when you promise me something.”
I drew in a shuddering breath and tried to shake my head. His fingers loosened in my hair and slid down. They came free of my hair easily, and he cupped the back of my neck in his big palm.
I was no longer confused by his words, but I was now starting to get angry.
When I’d given him my word, I’d meant it. I didn’t appreciate how easily and fast he’d thought I had turned on him. Especially because not telling Quint was making me feel bad, like I was doing something wrong. Tyson had no right to question my loyalty.
Did he usually feel like I was off somewhere else in my head, with someone else when I was with him? How horrible.
“You know what, Tyson?” I asked in a cold voice that hid the hurt and anger I felt inside. Or, at least I hoped it hid it from him. Tyson didn’t miss much, so it was probably a lost cause. Then again, he didn’t usually act like this either, so maybe he’d miss it because, clearly, he was off his game.
“Screw you,” I said in that still cold voice. I turned my head to the side, no longer meeting his eyes and shoved at his shoulder. My voice might be able to hide my emotions, but I didn’t think my eyes would be up to the task. “You come in here, invade my space, act like a Neanderthal moron, and then you have the guts to accuse me of things I didn’t do when I’ve given you no reason whatsoever to doubt me in any way.”
I shook my head as tears started to pool in my eyes. Damn it and damn him. I would not cry. I was stronger than this.
“Ariel,” he whispered my name apologetically, and I knew he’d finally got it, that I hadn’t done what he’d thought I had, and knew he’d acted rashly for the wrong reasons.
“He got off the phone with you earlier and he’s been a crazy, mean asshole ever since.” He said, trying to explain.
“I hung up on him,” I muttered sullenly. “And he didn’t take it very well.”
“Look at me,” he demanded.
I pursed my lips as I shook my head, still too upset, too close to tears, to look him in the eyes just yet. I needed to reign in my emotions first.
“Ariel,” he said in a louder voice. “Fuckinglook at me.”
It was the tone of his voice, the steel that had threatened its way into it, that had me turning my head and looking at him against not only my will, but my better judgement.
He looked me in the eyes and winced.
“If you cry on me then I’m going to have to kick my own ass,” he told me.
I wasn’t going to cry. I’d gotten it together. Sort of. Okay, that was a lie. The truth was more along the lines of I’d buried it all under the surface enough so that I no longer felt the need to cry. My emotions did not rule me, and I would not cry. It was something I had learned with Vivian, and couldn’t believe I had started to forget her lessons already. It hadn’t been that long. I could still remember the sound of her voice, the smell of the perfume she liked to wear, the graceful way she walked in heels, and the horrible sound it made when the back of her hand connected with my face, or any part of my body, for that matter.
Suddenly cold, I shivered. Tyson mistook it for something it wasn’t, and his hand slipped around to the side of my neck where he traced my jaw line with the pad of his thumb.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “So damn sorry, Ariel girl. I was so angry thinking you’d turned on me that I acted out before I had the time to think things through.”
