Nash pointed his index finger in his ungrateful cousin’s direction. “If I ever see you talking to Shauntie again, it will be the last time you will ever open your mouth. Do you understand me?” he threatened and pushed Chance’s hand off his chest then spun on his heel heading towards the exit.
He had to get to Shauntie and make her listen to him. J.T.’s sudden appearance might have ruined all of the progress he’d finally made with her. Nash knew it was crazy, but he had fallen in love with her from the first second he saw her with J.T. He’d wanted his cousin’s girlfriend because he knew back then Shauntie wasn’t with the right man.
Pushing the door, Nash rushed outside to his truck. Tonight wasn’t turning out at all like he expected it to when he brought Shauntie here tonight. Shauntie should still be inside having fun with him and his friends.
Getting inside his vehicle, Nash slammed the door shut cursing underneath his breath. He wasn’t going to let Shauntie go back into her battle armor anymore. J.T. might have shown up at the bar and put some doubts in her head about them but he would make her see what they shared with each other had nothing to do with her former relationship with his cousin.
Shauntie stormed out the club so fast that he couldn’t help but be worried about her. Nash regretted it even more now that he hadn’t come clean with her, but everything was still so new between them. He didn’t want to take the chance of her backing away from him when she found out the truth.
Starting his truck, Nash pulled out of the parking lot. He had to get to Shauntie before someone else told her the rest of the truth about J.T. She needed to hear from him that they were related. If she found out from anyone but him there was no way in hell that he would be able to fix things between them.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Go away,” Shauntie yelled through the door at Nash. He was standing on the other side refusing to leave her alone. “I don’t have anything to say to you. We said it all to each other at the club, so go back there and hang out with your friend J.T.”
“Sweetheart, I’m not going any-damn-where. Either open this door, or I’ll kick it down. The choice is yours. Don’t make me prove that I’m not kidding with you,” Nash warned.
Stepping back from the door, Shauntie stared at it like she was one of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf was about to blow it down at any second. She wouldn’t put it past Nash to live up to his threats. He would probably try to break it down and then blame it on her.
“This is your last chance,” he told her. “Either open it or have it removed from the frame.”
Shauntie stormed over to the door and unlocked it, but blocked the doorway from Nash, so he couldn’t get inside. “What do you want?” she demanded, with a hard glare in his direction.
“Baby, let me in and I’ll tell you,” Nash pleaded with her as he stared down into her eyes. “We have a lot to discuss and I don’t want your neighbors hearing our business.”
Planting her body more firmly in front of Nash, she crossed her arms over her chest. “You are no longer welcome in my house. Why would I ever think about allowing you back in here?”
Nash reached out touch her, but Shauntie leaned her body away from him. “Don’t.”
Sighing, Nash dropped his hand. “I know you’re hurt and confused right now, but I know I can fix things. However, you have to let me in...please,” he whispered, pulling at her heart strings.
Dropping her arms, Shauntie took a step back into her house. Nash was right. She might not have that many close neighbors, but the ones she did have had no business knowing what was going on in her life. “You have five minutes and not a minute longer,” she warned him.
She waved Nash into her house, but quickly stepped to the side to make sure his body didn’t come into contact with hers. She closed the door and turned towards Nash. “I let you inside. Now tell me what you want. I’m busy and don’t have much time to waste on you and your continuous lies.
“I want you to calm down, so I can explain why I didn’t tell you about J.T. Will you allow me to do that?” Nash asked as he ran his hand across the back of his neck.
An excuse wasn’t what Shauntie was concerned about getting from Nash. He probably thought of a good enough lie to tell her on the drive to her house from the club. She’d heard everything she needed to back at Peppers. J.T. had been very forthright when he was in her face earlier. Nash wouldn’t be able to deny anything that happened tonight. He would tell her all of the truth whether he wanted to do it or not. “What can you tell me that J.T. didn’t get pleasure from already tossing in my face? I mean you knew about my relationship with him and never told me about it,” Shauntie pointed out. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.
“Shauntie, there was a reason for me not telling you,” Nash confessed as he took a step towards her and she moved a step back keeping the space between them.
“I can hear you just fine from where you’re standing. There’s no need for you to move any closer to me.”
Raking his fingers through his thick black hair, Nash didn’t argue with her as he took a step back. Shauntie tried to ignore the hurt look that passed over his face before it quickly disappeared.
“Fine, sweetheart, I won’t touch you as long as you listen to what I have to say.”
“I’m listening, but you aren’t telling me too much,” she pointed out. “Maybe I shouldn’t have allowed you into my house. This was a mistake on my part.” Shauntie turned back in the direction of the front door, but stopped when Nash grabbed her by the arm.
“Don’t. My five minutes aren’t up yet. Didn’t you promise me five? Give them to me.”
Closing her eyes, Shauntie got her hurt under control then shook off Nash’s hand. She wouldn’t be able to keep up her anger with him touching her. His touch bothered her way too much making it even harder for her mind to stay on track.
“Finish anything you have left to tell me and then get out. I’m tired and I want to go to bed. As you know, it has been a very long day for me and I need to get some rest.”
“I can give up all of my secrets, but can you at least look at me when I’m about to do it. I don’t want to talk to the back of your beautiful head,” Nash said.
Pivoting, Shauntie looked at Nash arching her right eyebrow and then moved away until she was sure enough space was between them. She didn’t need him touching her again. “Can you please just get this over with? I know whatever you will tell me won’t change my mind about you or what occurred tonight.”
“Shauntie, I was wrong,” he apologized, surprising her. “I knew I should have been honest with you before I asked you out, but seeing you again shocked me. I didn’t want to ruin my chance with you by telling you I had a connection with J.T.”
“Keeping that from me was wrong. I opened up to you about him and you had nothing to say...absolutely nothing at all. It just makes me wonder what other kind of things you’re hiding from me. Should I be worried you’re the kind of man who wouldn’t know how to tell the truth if it bit him on the ass?”
Without waiting a second for her to continue, Nash rushed up to her and grabbed her by the arms making her stand still. “I wasn’t trying to keep how I knew him a secret from you, but after the way he tore at your confidence I was afraid to tell you that I knew J.T. Plus, I couldn’t risk the horrible chance of you finding out the rest of the story about us. I wasn’t going to lose you. I know it sounds crazy, but I can’t help it. I care about you so much and I wasn’t willing to risk it.”
Shauntie listened to Nash with bewilderment. She felt the screams of frustrations scratching at the back of her throat. “What else are you keeping from me?” she snapped. “Be honest with me. Stop hiding things. Secrets have a way of coming out in the end. Everyone knows this.”
“He’s my cousin.”
She breathed in shallow, quick gasps as a cold knot formed in her stomach. An anxious look passed over Nash’s face like he was fearful of what she might do and then all of a s
udden her shock yielded quickly to unmasked fury.
Placing her hands in the center of Nash’s chest, she shoved him away from her. “Get the hell out of my house! Don’t come back here. I don’t want to see your face again.” Storming over to the door, she opened it hard, making it slam against the wall knocking a picture down.
“Nash leave...the sight of you is making me sick.”
All of a sudden Nash’s green eyes narrowed as he shot her a look of contempt from across the room. He closed the distance between them in a matter of seconds and then snatched the door away from her reclosing it before she had a possibility to do anything about it.
“I’m not leaving until I give you a piece of my mind, Shauntie. Yes, I wasn’t completely honest with you, but I did come clean unlike you.”
“What are you talking about?” she demanded. “I haven’t been lying to you at all during the short time we’ve been together. How can you call me a liar to my face?”
“You’re more of a liar than I am.” Nash moved towards her until he towered over her. “How can you even look at yourself in the mirror every morning?”
“I’m not a liar,” Shauntie denied again as she tried to figure out where Nash was going with this little lecture of his. He wasn’t going to be able to cast blame off himself over to her. She had done nothing wrong at all.
“Every day you get up is a lie and you are too ashamed to admit to it.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“All you do is act like J.T. was the only one at fault, but you’re just as bad as him maybe even worse in all honesty,” Nash complained.
“How can you possibly believe any of this?” Shauntie demanded. “I was the one who went into both relationships with a clean conscience and neither one of you thought about coming clean until it was too late. Don’t you dare tell me anything different.”
“Shauntie, J.T. never provided you with what you wanted ever and we both know it. After the first time you gave him money did the thought ever cross your mind to get rid of him? My cousin isn’t capable of ever providing a woman with what she truly needs because he’s selfish as hell.
“He will use you until the last drop of money is gone out of your bank account and then he’s off to the next oblivious woman. However, instead of taking what unfortunately happened with him as a life lesson you allowed it to control every single aspect of your life.”
“I did no such thing,” Shauntie denied, hating Nash was hitting so close to home with her. She wasn’t going to allow him make her feel bad about the decisions she had made in her life. He was the one who had lied to her not the other way around.
“We both know I’m telling you the truth. All I wanted to do since I found out your name was make you take notice of me as a man instead of how I made a living with my hands. Have you really dated so many jerks and assholes in the past that you can’t handle a real man?” Nash asked her, “a man who values the meaning of the word love?”
“Unlike my cousin, I wasn’t afraid of commitment and if you had truly thought about giving me half a chance I would have given you my undying love, but Shauntie Kane wasn’t ready for that. No, she was still too busy being caught in her own self-pity.”
Shauntie glared at Nash unwilling to admit to anything he was telling her. He was wrong about her. He was saying things about her that weren’t true. She hadn’t allowed her history to control her. He was only bringing up this because his own lying back was cornered and the only thing left was for him to lash out at her.
“You aren’t going to make me back down from my opinion,” Shauntie told Nash. “My first impression of you was correct. I should have left you alone for the good of me; knowing you has only brought more pain and hurt into my life when I was doing pretty well without you in it.
“My heart and mind were ready to show you someone who would have been by your side through thick and thin. Nothing about you was ready for what I had to offer.” Nash watched her with surprising sadness in his eyes. “I hope you find what you’re searching so hard for, but I know now it isn’t me.” Moving around her, Nash continued towards the front door.
Blinking back tears, Shauntie spun around watching as Nash was about to walk out of her life. Everything he told her was true. She had allowed the former incidents to take over her life because she was scared to move on, but Nash was mistaken she could do it with him.
“Nash,” Shauntie called out, hoping he would stop for her.
Instead of looking back at her, Nash opened the door and went out without even closing it behind him. Shauntie rushed over to it in time to watch as he climbed into his truck and drove off her property and out of her life unless she found a way to get him back.
Fresh tears poured down her cheeks as it suddenly hit her. Nash came rushing to her and apologized for his cousin’s behavior. Only a man in love would do that and she cruelly tossed his love for her back into his face tonight
Chapter Twenty-Six
Munching on a Christmas cookie, Shauntie wandered around her living room as Silent Night played softly from the CD player. There would have been a time she would have loved the solitude, but she had grown past being a one woman show when it came to her life.
She had already exchanged Christmas gifts with Sapphire and Emerald yesterday because both of them decided at the last minute to attend their office Christmas parties, but she wasn’t in the celebrating mood this year. She was lonely and it was all of her fault.
Nash had cared about her and her indifference and inability to be able to move on from her stubborn pride pushed him away from her. Why couldn’t she just have forgiven him for keeping his family connection to J.T. a secret? What person in their right mind would want to admit being connected to him in the first place?
But Nash came to her with open arms asking for her to see past his mistake and she didn’t do it. Instead, she took two large steps backwards falling back into her old ways of living her life. How could she have allowed herself to be so stupid? Her wounded pride might have cost her something good that was starting to bloom between her and Nash.
Shauntie wondered why it was so hard for her to allow someone else to take control for a little while. She wasn’t giving up her independence at all, but rather gaining insight from another person.
All she had to do was open up even more and Nash would have done the rest to pull her the rest of the way out of her shell. The time Shauntie had spent with Nash was the only time she felt truly relaxed and carefree. He never put any pressure on her to be more than she was. Truthfully all he wanted her to do was see him and nothing else.
How could she have allowed herself to get so lost in her own head for so long permitting her life to pass by her like this?
With the absence of Nash in her world, Shauntie finally recognized the empty person she’d made herself into over the past couple of years. She’d found a way out with Nash and in a blink of an eye, it was over and Nash was gone.
For the past week now, Shauntie tried everything she could think of to find Nash and apologize to him for being so wrong about everything, but it seemed like he had disappeared off the face of the earth.
Nash’s work crew showed up the day after their fight informing her they would be the ones taking over for him. Yet, when she had asked about him, every one of his men acted like they were totally clueless to his whereabouts.
However, Shauntie knew better than to believe them. Nash was avoiding her on purpose and she was going to put an end to it sooner rather than later. He couldn’t tell her that he wanted to give her the world in one breath and then snatch it away from her without warning.
Shauntie wasn’t going to let Nash get away with trying to get rid of the fulfilling life he had shown her. She was going to hunt Nash down and then get back what they had growing between them.
Nash was hers! Shauntie made it a point to never give up anything that she considered hers. If he considered her his ultimate Christmas present then she had to do everything in her power to be with him
on Christmas morning.
Moving over to the CD player, Shauntie turned it off. She could listen to Christmas music later on when she was sitting on her couch wrapped up in Nash’s arms. Right now, she had to drive back out to his house and make him open that damn door for her. He hadn’t left town with the work to her roof still going on. Nash was too much of a professional to do that to her.
Shauntie snatched her car keys off the table and then grabbed her purse out of the chair as she rushed for the door. Tonight was going to be her chance to see if her apology could be the thing that brought Nash back to her.
Opening the door, Shauntie stopped in her tracks when she found Nash standing on the other side with his hand raised to knock. “What are you doing here?”she asked, stepping back in shock.
“One of my men told me you’ve been looking for me,” he answered. “I wanted to make sure everything was going okay with the roof.”
“Do you want to come in?” Shauntie asked as her heart pounded away inside of her chest. “I need to talk to you about something.”
Nash glanced down at his watch then back at her. “I’m already running late for something. I really don’t have the time.”
Was Nash trying to hurry off to be with another woman? Shauntie shook the idea from her head. Nash wasn’t like that. He hadn’t found someone else new that quickly, she wouldn’t believe it.
“Nash, please. I only need a few moments to tell you this and then you can leave.” She was tired of running from what was right in front of her. Nash was perfect for her and she was going to get him back.
“I guess I can spare a few minutes,” he answered walking past her into the house.
Closing the door, Shauntie rested her back against it as her palms started to sweat. Momentary panic began to settle inside her at what she was about to do tonight. Nash wasn’t acting like he was all that happy to even be in her presence, but she wouldn’t let his body language stop her. She had to say this and he needed to her it as well.
Hunks Too Hot To Touch Page 15
