Thorn: Carter Kids #2 (27 page)

The man on the desk stood up when he watched me stalk past but quickly sat down again when he noticed my attire. I hadn’t bothered changing out of my work clothes that consisted of skintight, three quarter length black gym pants and a yellow t-shirt and I was really grateful that I blended in.

There was an elevator, but I chose to take the back staircase instead. I had a bad omen when it came to elevators in gyms. Besides, I knew where I was going. I had been here several times in the last six months trying to poach their members. The gym was on the first floor. The pool was on the ground floor. Noah wouldn’t be in any of those places. No, he would be in the underground boxing ring.

White painted walls and cold concrete floors greeted me the minute I stepped out of the stairwell and into the room, and my eyes immediately honed in on Noah. It wasn’t hard to point him out. A six feet four inches, tattooed-covered, sexy as hell fighter kind of stood out against the backdrop of middle-aged paunchy dudes. He was standing in the center of the ring sparring with that blonde man I was used to seeing with him on the television every fight night.

“Whoa, little lady, mind stepping back?” The tall broad, bald-headed man standing outside of the ring with a stopwatch in his hand told me when I approached. I recognized him from the magazine’s I’d read. His name was Quinn Jones and the man was MFA royalty. “This is no place for a little thing like you.”

“Yes,” I shot back heatedly. “As a matter of fact, I do mind.” Turning my attention to the ring, I cleared my throat and called out, “what did you mean when you said she took advantage of you?”

“Not here, Thorn,” Noah growled, as he continued to spar with the blonde guy, not breaking his stride to look in my direction.

Refusing to be ignored, I walked over to the half opened cupboard, removed a pair of gloves and pulled them on before marching back to the ring and climbing in.

Tapping Noah on the shoulder when I reached him, I stood up as tall as I could and said, “now you can spar with me, or you can talk to me,” I told him, “but you
cannot
ignore me.”

“Teagan,” Noah growled in annoyance, spitting out his mouth guard. “Get the hell out of here.”

“Teagan?” The blonde guy announced, taking a step back from us. His face broke out in a wide grin and he shook his head in amusement. “Now I get it.”

“
No
, you don’t,” Noah warned him as he ripped off his gloves and tossed them on the mat before turning his attention back to me. “Leave. Now.”

“Not until you tell me what you meant when you said that?” I repeated. I trailed my tongue over my bottom lip, panicked and flustered by this magnificent male in front of me. I itched to run my fingers all over his abs and feel those ridges and grooves, his tattooed covered skin, the dust of hair beneath his navel that was cut off from sight by the waistband of his sweatpants.

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I raised my glove-covered fists in front of my face, fell into stance, and jabbed.

He blocked immediately, catching my fist in the process. “I’m not having this conversation here,” he hissed, pulling me closer. The smell of man and soap and sweat flooded my senses and I almost groaned in approval.

“Seven years, Noah,” I whispered, letting my vulnerability spill out. “I’ve spent seven years in hell because of
you
.” Breaking out of his grasp, I bounced back on my heels before attacking once more, striking him in the midsection. “You do that with me and you walk out? And now you won’t even talk to me – you won’t explain.” I hit him with all my strength but I was the one who grunted from the impact. “Have you any idea how that makes me feel?” How could he do this; walk back into my world and automatically become the most important person in it?

“I’ve already explained, Thorn, and you won’t fucking hear it!” Stalking towards me, he leaned over me, forcing me up against the ropes. “And I walked out because I didn’t want to
fight
with you.” He pressed his forehead against mine, and glared down at me, causing the atmosphere in the room to intensify. “Not because I didn’t want
you
,” he told me heatedly, eyes flashing with anger.

The air around us thickened and I could feel my body come to life.

Adrenalin spiked through me.

He was so close to me, there was barely an inch between our mouths, and it took every ounce of self-control I had inside of my body not to lean forward and press my lips to his.

“God, I
hate you,” I hissed through clenched teeth, not meaning it one bit. I hated the way Noah made me feel, and the way he made me doubt everything about myself, but I didn’t hate
him
.

That was the problem.

“Of course you do,” he sneered. “Now are you done?” he asked before taking a step back. “Because I need to train and you’re in my way. I’ll call you later – when you’re
stable
.”

He turned around, dismissing me, and it infuriated me even further. “You don’t get to do this to me, Noah,” I called out shakily, moving around him so that we were chest to chest once more. Slapping my fists against his chest, I shoved him hard. “You don’t get to walk back into my life, screw everything up and walk back out again.”

When he didn’t respond, I shoved him again and then again until I was full out hitting his chest. As for Noah, well he didn’t even flinch at my touch. He just stood there, his face void of emotion, letting me hit him over and over.

“Don’t you dare turn your back on me,” I demanded. “I’m not one of your fan girls.” Noah was blowing up my world and I was losing control. He was back in my life less than a day and I was a total wreck. “You don’t get to treat me like I’m a cheap fuck.” I knew I looked demented. Hell, I knew I was
acting
demented, but I couldn’t get a grip on myself. I was completely taken over by emotions – by him.

“What do you want from me, Teagan?” Noah demanded, livid. “Jesus fucking Christ.” Grabbing my arms, he shook me like a rag doll. “What. Do. You. Want?”

“I want you to apologize to me and mean it,” I admitted brokenly. “I want you to tell me that you’re sorry for ruining everything we had.” Sniffling, I forced myself to look him in the eye, even though I knew I looked and sounded insane. “But most of all, I want you to tell me what
she
gave you that I
couldn’t
.”

I felt him tense up and for a brief moment I feared he was about to explode, but then he turned to the blonde man who standing uncomfortably in the far corner of the ring.

“Keep her away from me, Lucky,” he told him in a flat tone before climbing out of the ring.

“I
loved
you,” I called out, voice breaking, as I watched him walk away from me, knocking over every piece of equipment he passed.

“You didn’t love me enough!” he roared, slamming both his hands against the door before he walked out.

“You should go home, Teagan.” I felt a warm hand clamp down my shoulder and squeeze gently. “Noah’s hurting right now. He needs to deal and he can’t do that with you here.”

“Don’t,” I warned the man Noah had called Lucky as I roughly shoved his hand away. “Don’t you dare.”

“Keep pushing him and he’ll crack,” he warned me in a calm tone of voice, holding his hands up in front of his chest. “Trust me.”

“Not a chance,” I hissed before climbing out of the ring and chasing after Noah.

I COULDN’T DO THIS ANYMORE.

I
couldn’t.

I was done this time and I meant it.

No one was worth this fucking agony.

Not even her.

Stalking into the empty changing room, I shed my clothes and stepped into a shower stall. Slamming the palm of my hand against the round chrome nozzle, I flinched when the frigid water hit my skin. Good. I needed to cool down because I was two seconds away from losing it.

“Get your hands off me!”

Teagan’s voice echoed through the room and my whole frame tensed up. Goddammit, why couldn’t she just go away and let me calm down? It was obvious I wasn’t in a clear frame of mind to talk to her, and contrary to Teagan’s beliefs, I
didn’t
want to hurt her.

Turning around slowly, I watched through hooded eyes as she stalked into the shower area and headed straight for me. My mouth ran dry at the sight of her, my pulse skyrocketed, and my fucking dick was hard in an instant.

“Walk away, Thorn,” I warned her as I knocked the water off and tried to step around her. “Before I do something I regret.”

“I didn’t love you enough?” she screamed, ignoring my warning, blocking me from leaving. She drew her hand back and hissed, “I loved you too much!” before lashing out at me.

The sound of the slap as her hand connected with my cheek reverberated through the room, taking with it what little self-control I had left.

And in that momentary loss of control, I picked Thorn up and dumped her on the floor of the shower before turning the cold water on her.

Wiping the blood off my cheek from where her nail had caught my skin, I glared down at her as she sat on the cubicle floor. “You’re a bad fucking woman for me,” I snarled, shutting off the water before backing away from her. Grabbing a towel out of my locker, I tossed one at her, before taking out another and drying myself down. “You mess with my head, you fuck with my performance, and you drive me batshit crazy.”

“I d-don’t know why I d-did that,” she said, teeth chattering, as she crawled out of the stall to retrieve the towel I’d thrown for her. Shivering and with her drenched hair plastered to her face, she whispered, “I d-didn’t m-mean to m-make you b-bleed.”

Guilt churned inside of me at the sight of her on the floor. Smothering a groan, I moved towards her, a fucking glutton for punishment. Crouching down in front of her, I reached for the towel and wrapped it around her small shoulders. “You’ve been making me bleed for years,” I told her hoarsely, angry with myself for the amount of emotion in my voice. “What’s another scratch to the list?”

“You said she took advantage of you,” Teagan said. “How?”

Rolling my eyes, I suppressed the urge to roar. “You’re like a broken record.” Straightening up, I turned around and walked over to my locker. “Just go home, Teagan.”

“What did you mean, Noah?” she repeated, not letting it go. “I need to know what you meant.”

“You really wanna to do this?” I demanded, slipping on my boxers and then a pair of black sweats. “Here?” I gestured at her soaking frame. “Like this?”

“I need you to tell me,” she replied stubbornly.

So we were doing this.

Thorn was finally ready to hear my version of events.

Fine.

“That night at the quarry, after I freed you from the car and told you to run, the cops picked me up and took me to the station before charging me.” Shrugging on a clean shirt, I slipped my feet into my Nikes before turning around to face her. Keeping my face void of emotion, I folded my arms across my chest as I spoke. “Kyle bailed me out and brought me back to Thirteenth Street on house arrest… He ended up giving Reese a ride back from the station too.”

“I hid in the back seat of Kyle’s car.” Guilt consumed her features when she whispered; “I shouldn’t have left you there.” She walked over to the bench opposite me and sank down – fucking collapsed.