HateMates by J.D. Hollyfield

Author:J.D. Hollyfield [Hollyfield, J.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-04-03T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter thirteen

Tate

It’s close to midnight when she finally falls asleep, her body curled up on the couch, her head resting against my shoulder. I focus on the TV, but her words keep replaying in my mind. Regret burns inside my chest. My body’s reaction to the way she sashayed with such fire and beauty into Monroe’s office that day should’ve been my first cue to run.

She’s a force of nature I wasn’t prepared for. She was right; she doesn’t need anyone protecting her. She’s armed herself with a hard shell and owns it, but in those moments when she allows her armor to slip, the pain flashes in her eyes. The loneliness. At times, it feels like looking in a mirror.

We are more alike than I’d like to admit. Absent parents. A life we didn’t ask for. Like her, I’ve carried the burden of being alone. And I’ve never had anyone give me a goddamn speech like she did.

My chest became tight, and by the time she was done, I could barely breathe. And that kiss? It almost broke me.

I’ve never known what it’s like to need somebody so fucking bad it hurts. The way it keeps a man up at night aching for something he can’t have. She’s wild and sensitive. She radiates a spark for life. She has baggage. The last thing she needs is someone else’s added to it, and that’s all I have to offer. I’m a drifter. A man with a record and a dark past that haunts me daily. A nobody with his own pile of shit I refuse to bring to her door.

And the crazy thing is, she thinks I’m the hero here.

I didn’t plan for my life to turn out this way. Even fuck-ups have dreams, though. I saw a future. Boring ass job I’d probably hate, a family with kids who hopefully took the traits of their mother, and a stupid ass dog with some ridiculous name like Spot or Cookie because we let our minions name it. All those options had been taken from me.

In a different life, I might deserve someone like Mindy. But this isn’t a different life. Mindy has a future, and this is who I’ll always be. I may not have been the one driving, but the blood is still on my hands.

I can still hear the devastated cries from his wife and two small children as I sat in the courtroom the day of my trial—a trial Jacie never attended. The only person I heard from was her father attempting to pay me off to stay quiet while telling me I was doing the right thing.

The right thing for who?

She stirs and slides down the couch into my lap, mumbling something that sounds like my name in her sleep. My chest tightens. God, I want nothing more than to carry her upstairs, undress her, and make the sweetest kind of love to her. But I know what happens when I let my guard down, and I can’t allow my emotions to get in the way.

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