Only The Beginning (Rockin' Country) (34 page)

His words caused her to shrink back, almost like he had hit her with the back of his hand. “Why are you being so mean?”

Finally, he ripped off his sunglasses and she could see the green of his eyes. There was anger, pain, compassion, but there was also something here that she couldn’t place. “You think I’m being mean? How the fuck do you think I got the Reaper nickname? It wasn’t just something that people made up, Hannah. I’m an asshole sometimes, and I’m sorry that you’re getting the pissy end of it this time, but it is who I am. I am not always a nice guy.”

“I know, it’s just…what do you want me to do?”

“Nail his ass to the wall. Get out in the press and tell them what a lying sack of shit he is. Don’t let him walk all over you again.”

“Is that what you think I did last week? Let him walk all over me?”

“You should have made as big a fool outta him as he made out of you. It would have taught him a goddamn lesson is what it would have done.”

She shook her head. “I’m not like you; I don’t have to get even. I know in my own heart what I’m okay with and what I’m not. Don’t let him ruin our time together…please?” she begged.

He couldn’t do it. He stayed completely silent as she pleaded with him.

“I’m going to go into the bathroom and change into the amazing dress and shoes I just bought. When I come out, I want us to go out with our friends and have a good time,” she told him. “Can you please just do that?”

Garrett shook his head. “I can’t. I can’t let that little prick get away with talking about the woman I love that way. It’s not in my makeup. So you do what you want to do, but I can’t promise you I won’t be a fuckface tonight, and you can take that to the fuckin’ bank.”

He turned on his heel and stormed out of the room, leaving her there in his wake.

“Great way to tell me you love me,” she yelled back at him, completely sure he didn’t hear her. And just for good measure she added. “And you know I hate the ‘f’ word too!”

No matter what happened, she was determined that this would remain a good day.

*  *  *

G
arrett knew that he’d had too much to drink. He was very well aware of that, considering he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. The words he and Hannah had exchanged with each other before they came out with the rest of the group had been so far from nice and polite that he felt like he needed to go to church. They had been rough, and he was still feeling raw. Things couldn’t always be happy, he knew that, but he hated fighting with her. He really hated fighting with her. They didn’t get to spend much time together, and he didn’t want to spend it arguing. She had been upset with him the whole night and even more so when he had all but demanded she go to the bar and get him another shot. At one point, he recalled, he told her he could be a bastard, and she was getting it in full effect tonight.

“Hey, isn’t that her ex-boyfriend?” Bradley pointed to where Hannah stood at the bar.

Swinging his gaze over to where she stood, he spotted the man that pissed him off beyond belief. Sure enough, it was Ashton Coleman. Just knowing that he was in the same breathing space as Hannah made Garrett want to beat the shit out of him. The things he had said in the media, the pictures, and the fact that they had argued about all of it caused Garrett’s blood to boil.

“He touches her, I’m gonna go apeshit,” he warned the guys at the table as he took another drink from the bottle sitting in front of him. It wasn’t like he needed another drink, it was just a distraction—he really was afraid he’d kill the guy.

His green eyes flashed with barely leashed anger as he trained his gaze on his woman and the asshole standing next to her at the bar.

*     *     *

“Ashton, now isn’t the time for you to be doing this. Do you understand?” Hannah sighed, grabbing the tray of drinks she had ordered for the guys at the table. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Garrett watching them, and she wasn’t sure how long he would just let them stand there and shoot the breeze. His eyes were murderous, and she wanted to avoid a confrontation between the two of them—no matter what it took.

“When is a good time? I know I hurt you, and I’m sorry that I ruined what we had.”

She couldn’t understand his reasoning. “So you think leaking pictures of me to the media in various stages of undress and telling them that I cheated on you is going to make me take you back?” she hissed angrily. “It embarrassed me, not to mention you’ve really ticked off Reaper.”

“I’m not scared of him.” Ashton ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry that it embarrassed you, but what we had was good. I wanted you to remember that.”

“You’re crazy. You cheated on me because you said I was a cold fish and I couldn’t sexually satisfy you. Now you’re telling people that it was me who cheated on you, and then you released pictures of me that I never intended for other people to see. Again, I ask, are you crazy?”

“Jesus, Hannah, it’s not like you were naked in any of them.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she screamed at him. “Those pictures were private. I sent them to you because you were my boyfriend and because I was trying to put a spark in our relationship, trying to hold onto something that I never had. If I would’ve known you were screwing other women behind my back, you can bet your ass that I never would have sent them to you to begin with.”

“What a mouth on you? Did he teach you how to cuss?” Ashton’s gaze sharpened. “What else has he taught you how to do?”

His tone was ugly and what he was suggesting sounded dirty. Nothing that she and Garrett did was ugly. He had taught her the beautiful part of sharing your body with someone else. There was nothing cheap or dirty about it, and it really made Hannah mad to hear Ashton try to belittle it.

“That’s none of your business. Please, get out of my way,” she told him.

Instead of doing what she asked, he grabbed her arm and turned her to face him. He moved his hand down her body and lightly cupped her breast. “You know you miss it.”

She didn’t have a chance to respond. He was a blur as Garrett tackled him to the ground.

*     *     *

All he saw was a black and red haze as he threw his fists at the man under him. He could hear Hannah in the background, from what sounded like a million miles away, telling him to stop. But he couldn’t. The crack of this asshole’s bones against his felt so good.

He grabbed Ashton’s hair and pulled his ear up to his mouth. “You are a piece of shit who doesn’t deserve to touch any woman, much less mine. You don’t get to decide if other people get to see that luscious body that I get to see. That’s my decision. You see that.” He shoved Ashton’s face around so that he could look at Hannah. “You had that, and you lost it because you’re a dumbass. That’s mine now. You don’t touch what’s mine. We clear on that?” He grabbed Ashton by the throat and hauled him up, pushing him against the top of the bar.

Ashton coughed, nodding.

“I asked you a question motherfucker…are we clear on that?” Garrett asked, shoving his arm up against Ashton’s throat.

It was then he felt small hands against his biceps, soft hands. Those were the hands of the woman he loved, and he fought against the anger and rage in his body, in his mind.

“He can’t answer unless you let go of him. You’re choking him,” Hannah said slowly, so that he could understand, as she pulled at his arms.

All of a sudden, he realized what she was saying and released his grip from around Ashton’s throat.

“We’re clear,” Ashton coughed, heaving in a huge breath, trying to hold himself up at the bar.

Garrett pushed a finger in the other man’s face. “Just in case you didn’t know who I am…my name is Reaper, and if you want something to do with her, you come through me. You apologize to her because you don’t deserve to breathe the same air that she does. You hurt and embarrassed her. She didn’t deserve that, you apologize right now.”

“I wasn’t thinking, Hannah. I’m sorry,” he wheezed, his face red.

“It’s fine,” she told him, still holding onto Garrett’s arm.

“It’s not,” Garrett argued.

She cupped his cheeks in her hands. “I love you for doing this for me, but it really is. There’s no reason that you should get in trouble over him. Let’s just go,” she pleaded with him.

“I’m shitfaced, aren’t I?” he asked her, stumbling now that the adrenaline was no longer flowing through his body.

She couldn’t help the laugh that came out of her mouth. “You are, but we’re gonna have to talk about this in the morning.”

*     *     *

Garrett knew that sometime over the night he’d swallowed a lot of cotton. That had to be why his mouth was so dry. Cracking an eye open, he closed it quickly as he realized it was light outside and that light hurt. Hurt badly. He moaned, pulling the blanket up over his face, but even that hurt. His hands were killing him.

“What the fuck did I do?” His voice sounded wrecked, even to his own ears.

“You don’t remember?”

That voice was Hannah, that he knew. “Not really,” he admitted, sitting up and putting his hand over his eyes.

“Let’s see if this rings a bell,” she had a seat next to him and handed him a bottle of water, along with what looked like some Tylenol. “You and I had a huge argument about some pictures that Ashton released to the press. We yelled at each other, you were especially mean, but then you told me you loved me before you ran out of the room.”

It was slowly coming back to him, and he felt like a piece of shit as he remembered their argument. “God, I am so sorry.” He put his head in his hands. “I never meant for it to come out that way.”

“I know.” She ran her hand along his back. “I know that you meant what you said too.”

“I did.” He looked at her. “I swear to God, I did. I so wish I could have given you a better ‘I love you’ than that.” His eyes were bloodshot and he licked his lips. “I’m so sorry. I am like him.”

“No, no you’re not. Not at all. You just had too much to drink, we were mad at each other, you saw him put his hand on me, and you flew off the handle. You protected me. Maybe not in the best of ways, but you did.”

“Is that why my hands hurt?” He flexed both of them and for the first time noticed dried blood on them.