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“What are you doing, Big?” she asked in a soft but still stern voice.
“What are you doing, Claire?” He shot her question back but kept his voice low, his gaze trained on her face.
“I’m trying to get out of here with this wine, go back to my room, and get drunk.”
He’d always liked the sass in her, the stubborn demeanor, and her take no shit attitude. “I think you’ve had enough to drink since you’ve been here.”
She clenched her jaw, narrowed her eyes, and breathed out through her nose. Yeah, he was pissing her off. Good.
“You got something on your mind, baby?”
“Yeah,” she said in a tight voice. “First off, I’m not your baby. Haven’t been for a long damn time. Secondly, where do you get off telling me what to do? If I want to get drunk alone in my room, I fucking will.”
“I can tell you what to do because I know you, Claire.”
“You don’t know shit about me anymore, Big. For all you know, I’ve changed into someone totally different in these last two years. You have no claim over me anymore.”
He made a low, threatening noise in the back of his throat. She belonged with this club. With him. “Watch it, Claire.” He saw her swallow, but she didn’t back down. This was one of the things he loved about her. She was strong in every way.
She shoved him out of the way, but he’d let her. He wasn’t going to force her to do anything. She moved past him, but he was right on her heels. They stepped out of the back room, and she made her way toward the bar. The ones who were still hanging around were passed out, and that was good, because there was no need for them to see this scene that was about to go from bad to worse.
He watched her walk behind the bar and grab a wine glass, and when she moved out from behind it, they stood right in the archway that led to the hallway looking at each other. Claire’s eyes were narrowed, her lips pursed.
“I don’t know what you’re doing, Big, but you’re just fucking with my head, and that’s not cool, not after everything we went through.” He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to appear like he didn’t give a shit about anything, but inside, he was fighting his control to go to her. “I’m not doing this with you now.”
“Doing what, Claire? Talking to me? Bitching at me and putting me in my place?”
The silence stretched between them for what seemed like forever when in reality it was probably just a few seconds. She smiled, and that had him on alert because it was so out of the blue. Looking at the ground, she shook her head, her smile twisting into one of discomfort.
“I tried to put you behind me, and whatever you think you’re doing, whatever you think you’re accomplishing by doing…this,” she stuttered on her words for a moment, “whatever the hell this is, it is only making this harder, Big.”
He lifted a brow. “What exactly am I doing?” He was trying to act like he was stronger than he was right now.
She clenched her jaw. “This.” She lifted her hand that didn’t hold the bottle and moved it between them in a sweeping motion. “Crowding me, watching me—just being you.” She dropped her hand to her side, breathed out almost as if she was defeated, and he hated that she looked and felt that way. “I was the one to leave. I know that. But deep down, you know why I did it. You didn’t come after me, and that affirmed the reasons why I left. Please don’t start this, bringing me back in the game only to pull the same shit. I can’t handle that, and my heart can’t be broken again.” She snapped her mouth closed as if she hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
You’re a bastard, a foul bastard who hurt the only woman who ever meant anything to you.
The room was virtually empty, the only sound coming from the few snoring men who were passed out on the couches and moaning from the back rooms from the fucking going on.
He’d be lying if he didn’t admit, if only to himself right now, that he’d been wondering, how he’d talk to her if he ever had the chance again, about how they’d finally get past all this shit and try to work things out. Just because he tried to keep his distance emotionally, that didn’t mean he didn’t want to hear her voice, didn’t want to see her, hold her, be with her in every way.
After hearing about why she was here because Claire was too stubborn and clearly hated to tell him herself about her issues, Big had come to the understanding with himself that he’d work through this with her.
