Tame: Carter Kids #3 (14 page)

"There is something very wrong with you," Lucky drawled as he leaned with his back against the bar, whiskey tumbler in his hand. "Seriously. You're an asshole."

He didn’t have to tell me what I already knew.

"I fucked up earlier," I admitted, knowing full well what Lucky was talking about. My stupid fucking comment to Teagan in the gym. He'd heard it and he was letting me know that he wasn't impressed.

"So you did," Lucky mused, pressing a bottle to his lips. "So you continue to do."

Ordering two glasses of whiskey from the bartender, Lucky pushed one towards me.

"Keep fucking up and you'll be sleeping on your own." Picking up his tumbler, he tossed the amber liquid down his throat before setting the glass back down. "Permanently."

"I'm
trying
," I said in a warning tone not to push me.

"Then
try
harder," he shot back just as vehemently. "That's your woman, asshole. In the flesh." With that, Lucky walked off muttering something about needing a smoke, leaving me alone at the bar.

Sinking down on one of the stools, I tossed my drink back and ordered another one.

I wasn't supposed to be drinking, I was on a strict regime, but the more whiskey I poured down my throat, the more tension drained from my body.

Lucky was right.

I was an asshole.

I needed to make it up to Teagan – make her happy.

I could do that with sex.

Hell, I made her happy every fucking night with my dick, but I needed to give her more.

She deserved more from me…

"No prizes for why you're drinking the night before a fight?" Tommy's voice filled my ears and I bit back a groan. "Woman troubles?"

He was all I fucking needed right now.

"Careful, T," I warned in a low tone. "I'm feeling really unstable right now." Picking up another glass, I tossed it back and flagged down the bartender to bring me another. "One word against my wife and I'm going to lose my shit."

Taking a seat on the stool beside me, Tommy continued to goad me. "You're slacking in the gym, Noah. You're distracted and your form is weakening. Gaps are opening in your defenses. We've all noticed."

Standing up, I knocked back another drink. "Shut the fuck up, T." Stepping around my bar stool, I walked over to my oldest friend and said, "Let's not pretend this intervention has anything to do with my form."

He didn't even try to deny the fact that this conversation had nothing to do with my fighting and everything to do with my marriage.

Holding onto my temper by the skin of my teeth, I leaned into Tommy's face and said, "If you can't respect my wife then you have no business working for me."

"Noah…"

I was done.

Turning around, I stalked out of the bar and headed straight for the elevators.

Slamming my hand down on the keypad, I stepped inside and continued up to the top floor of the hotel.

I spent a good five minutes standing outside our suite, calming myself down before going inside.

Lewis, head of security, was outside, standing guard, and right about now he was the only one doing what he was fucking paid to do.

When I found my wife, she was sitting cross-legged in the middle of our bed with her acoustic guitar resting on her lap. With her eyes closed, Teagan strummed her fingers against the strings as she sang her own version of Banks'
Beggin for Thread.

Her throaty tone set alight every nerve in my body.

The words wrapped around my heart like ivy.

I could listen to her sing for the rest of my life and never grow tired.

"I forget I'm not there anymore," I blurted out when Thorn had finished her song.

Her eyes sprang open in surprise. "God, Noah," she breathed, sagging against her guitar. "You almost gave me a heart attack."

"I meant in prison or in a ring – that was a beautiful song by the way," I continued to say as I approached her. "Thorn, the way I was brought up… I'm used to being hard. Being on guard. Being… cruel." Sinking down on the edge of the bed, I sighed heavily. "But with you, everything's different."

Frowning, Teagan set her guitar down on the bed before crawling over to where I was sitting. "Noah, what's going on?"

"Throwing the past in your face earlier." I dropped my head in shame. "It was shitty of me." My shoulders sagged. "I don’t know why I did it."

"Oh, that?" Teagan waved her hand in the air like it was nothing. "No biggie." Waggling her perfectly shaped eyebrows, Teagan fell onto her back and patted the mattress beside her, winking suggestively. "If you're feeling bad about it, I know several ways you can make it up to me."

"Be serious," I shot back, feeling too guilty to joke around. "You were upset."

She shrugged. "And now I'm over it." Biting down on her bottom lip, she purred, "Last chance,
Machine
!"

"You're so lovable." Tossing myself onto my back, I laid down beside my wife and turned my face to hers. "Do you know that? I never had a fighting chance with you, did I?"

"Noah, it's okay." Reaching down, Teagan took my hand in hers, entwining our fingers. "I'm not leaving again."

I'd been a dick and she was reassuring me, understanding me.

Christ, this woman never ceased to amaze me.

"Let's go out."

"What?" Excitement sparkled in her hazel eyes. "Where would we go?"

"Whatever you want," I shot back with a smirk, desperate to please her. "Just the two of us."

Spending time alone together was something I knew we both desperately needed.

"Okay," Teagan squealed, leaping onto her knees in a move that would have made a ninja envious. "The latest
Jurassic Park
movie is out. We could go see it?"

I nodded. "Sounds good."

"Okay then." Pressing a quick kiss to my lips, she leapt off the bed like a woman on a mission. Racing over to her purse that was resting on the back of a chair, Teagan dug inside it and retrieved her phone.

"Let's see." She scrolled through her phone for a few minutes before saying, "There's a showing at nine at the theatre three blocks from here?"

Teagan's phone suddenly began to ring in her hands. Frowning, she swiped her finger across the screen and placed it to her ear. "Hope. What's up? Hope? Hello?"

"What's up?" I asked, sitting up.

Teagan shook her head in confusion. "She must have called me by accident…omigod!" Slamming her phone against her chest, Teagan ran over to where I was sitting and turned on her loudspeaker.

Immediately the sound of Jordan and Hope's voices filled the room.

"You had this amazing family,"
Jordan was saying.
"And you had my dad, Hope.
Mine
. I never got shit from him, but all of you guys did. Derek chose your family over my mom – over me."

My gaze immediately went to Teagan, whose eyes were bulging so much they looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets.

"I'm not your father, Hope!"
Jordan continued to say. "
That perfect love? You won't get that from me because
I
can't
give you
normal.
And you deserve normal."

This wasn’t right.

Listening in on their private conversation.

"Maybe we should hang –"

"Shh!" Teagan interrupted, clamping her hand over my mouth.

"You're afraid to give me more,"
Hope shot back in a furious tone of voice.
"You're a coward, Jordan Porter. Tell me the truth. Dammit, be honest with me for once in your life."

"You want honesty? Fine. I'm not the person you think I am,"
Jordan roared.
"Don’t push for more, Hope. You don’t want to know the truth."

"I do!"
Hope screamed back at him.
"Tell me. Give me a goddamn explanation for why you left?"

"You'll never look at me the same way again…"

"Tell me!"
she screamed louder.
"Give me
something
. Dammit to hell, Jordan, stop hiding behind your built up walls and tell me!"

"You want to know?"

"Yes!"

"You really want to know?"

"Yes, Jordan. Dammit, I want to know…"

"Fine,"
he roared, voice breaking.
"I was…"

"Okay," I interrupted, ending the call.

"No!" Teagan screamed, throwing her hands up in sheer dismay. "
Why
?" she asked in a pained tone. "Why would you do that to me?" She looked truly distraught. "He was about to tell her something!"

"Exactly," I shot back. "He was about to tell
Hope
something – not us."

"I can't believe you ruined that for me," she muttered sullenly.

"Believe it or not, I happen to have morals, Thorn," I chuckled. "And those morals include being against eavesdropping on people's private conversations."

"Well I don’t." She glared at me. "This is the worst kind of cliffhanger."

Mortification wasn’t the reaction I'd been hoping for when I handed my wife the bridal set I'd bought her from
Tiffany's,
but that's what I got.

Maybe I should have chosen a more private location to give her the gift. A gym full of sweaty men wasn’t exactly romantic.

I was fucking clueless…

"You can exchange them for something else if you don’t like them," I said as I watched Teagan study the diamond engagement ring and matching wedding band. "I know you said you wanted something more permanent, but every man should buy his wife a ring." Or at least that’s what I'd thought.

Going off Teagan's reaction, I'd got it wrong.
Very
wrong.

"Noah," she whispered, cheeks reddening. "It's too much." Swallowing deeply, she looked up at me. "These must have cost you a fortune."

One hundred and thirty grand, but I wasn’t about to tell her that.

"You're worth it," I went for instead. "And a hell of a lot more besides." She needed to know that our wedding might have happened on a whim, but our marriage was something I'd been planning for a long time.

There was only one woman for me, the only person I'd ever commit myself for a lifetime to, and she needed to know that woman was her.

"They're perfect," she whispered, cheeks stained pink. With shaking hands, I watched Teagan slide both rings onto her ring finger.

"So am I forgiven?" I dared to broach the subject. "For hanging up on the call?"

"I suppose you are." Teagan cocked a brow, clearly deep in thought. "If you promise to never tease me about the dinosaur thing ever again."

"Thanks for this," Teagan said. She had taken a seat in the back row of the theatre and I had handed her the bucket of popcorn she'd demanded. "It means a lot," she continued to say with her mouth full of popcorn.

"It's fine, Thorn." Guilt swarmed inside me as I took my seat beside my wife.

She shouldn't have to thank me for taking her to the goddamn movies.

It was something I should be doing on a regular basis.

Reaching my arm around her slim shoulders, I pulled her close.

"I've heard good things about this one," she said, snuggling into my side.

Teagan continued to ramble on throughout the entire movie and my mind continued to torment me with images of her with that prick…

"I need to leave," Teagan blurted out towards the end of the movie, startling the shit out of me.

"Why? What's up?" I turned to look at her and was fucking horrified to see tears streaming down her face. "Jesus, Teagan, are you okay?"

"I-I can't…" Blubbering, she wiped her nose with a tissue I hadn't realized she'd been holding and shuddered. "They killed him, Noah."

"Yeah…" Confused, I looked back at the screen to see if I was missing something.

Nope, I wasn't.

"Thorn, he was the bad guy, baby."

"It's just so sad," she sobbed into the tissue. "I didn't want him to die."

I racked my brain. "The guy just killed millions of innocents?" Was she kidding? "You didn't want him to die?"

"Don't make me feel bad for it," she wailed, jerking out of her seat…

Smothering my laughter, I nodded. "Consider it done."

"Whatcha got there, man?" Tommy said when he came to stand beside me, eyes locked on Teagan's hand.

"Nothing," Teagan was quick to reply.

Frowning in confusion, I watched as she tucked her hands behind her back.

Letting out a whistle, Tommy reached out and grabbed Teagan's hand. "You better win your next three fights if you want to break even after buying
that
."

"I didn’t ask him to buy it," Teagan hissed, looking up at Tommy like she'd done something illegal.

"What?" Shaking my head, I looked down at my wife. "He knows that, Thorn," I said slowly. "Right, T?"

"Right, man," Tommy agreed. "It suits you, Teagan," he offered before wandering off in the direction of the punching bags.

"Why are you so embarrassed?" I asked her once Tommy was out of earshot. "Is it because of the price? Because Tommy was only screwing around about winning three fights, Thorn. I can easily afford it."

Teagan's face flushed bright red. "It's just… I'm not used to this," she confessed, biting down on her plump lower lip. "The last present I got from a man was –" She frowned for a moment before looking up at me. "Well, from
you
. Back when we were in high school."

An abnormal amount of guilt shot through me then.

Guilt for being gone all those years.

Guilt for not being there for her…

"Well, get used to it," I said, tone gruff and thick with emotion. "Because this is only the start of what's to come."