Makes the Heart Grow Fouler by Carrie Aarons

Author:Carrie Aarons [Aarons, Carrie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-18T18:30:00+00:00

20

DANE

Slamming the Escalade into park in the private garage of my apartment building, I round the hood and am on Margot before she can even place two feet on the cement floor.

I grab her hand wordlessly and drag her toward the penthouse elevator, a private entrance that is worth the price to avoid the lobby. Pushing in the correct code, I dive inside and drop her hand, her digits having put a brand on my palm. As my back hits the wall of the elevator, I try to breathe, my heart stuttering in time to the beeps of the floors we’re rising past.

Margot doesn’t speak, to her credit. I think she knows we’ve used all the words we can tonight, and we’re not solving this with conversation.

If I were a different man, the one I’d been in my teens, I probably would have beat that asshole to a pulp. Plus, the only thing I could see in this moment was her.

How I’d gone from such a high being on stage for the first time in years to a murderous rage is a true feat, but then Margot got involved, and I rarely seem to act rationally around her.

Knowing she’d been standing in the crowd, watching me come up with lyrics that formed in my brain without thought, like they were akin to breathing, was exhilarating. The intensity of her gaze was like the sun beaming on me. I practically felt the goose bumps coating her skin. My adrenaline was overloading my system up there; the culmination of performing for an audience, doing what I love, and doing it in front of a woman who saw me like no one else did. The fact that I all out sang in a place where that wasn’t normal … yeah, I was trying to impress her.

As we walked out of the club, I’d been fully prepared to drive home with Brady and Margot, then take her back to my bedroom. But that fucking punk had to run his mouth, and now I’m in a rage so blinding, I can barely speak.

I’m not a normal man; my life has never been normal. I don’t know how to properly care for a woman, not in a romantic way. I don’t speak when I don’t need to and defending her honor to a fucking useless Internet troll isn’t worth my time. Or at least I thought it wasn’t. But as he kept coming for Margot, I felt my temper rising. How dare he fucking talk to her like that?

By the time I stormed away, she was right, I was ashamed of myself. And I blew up at her, even though he’d thrown the insults her way to begin with. This woman fucking confuses me. How I feel about her confuses me, and I need to be outside of the compound to get that suffocating feeling out of my bones.

Except here she is, standing opposite me, wringing her hands as if she’s scared of what happens next. But we’re alone, nobody else’s eyes or expectations on us.

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