Gummy Bears and Rage

ANNA

I spun on my heel to turn away and heard him chuckle.

“You’re even sexier when you’re pissed,” he called out.

I held my middle finger up over my head as I continued to stomp through the fallen leaves and mud.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“I already told you,” I muttered as I reached Sasha’s side.

“Do you know how to get home?” He sauntered over with a smile playing on his lips.

“I’m sure I’ll figure it out.” Truthfully, I was banking on my horse having a good sense of direction, but I wasn’t about to admit as much.

Gavin pursed his lips. “My closest neighbor is six miles away, and she lives on a very small plot of land. It’s hard to find if you don’t know where to look. It’s fifteen miles to the nearest town if you end up on the main road.”

He leveled me with his dark gaze. “Are you really going to risk getting lost because you’re angry? There are much better ways to get even.”

I paused with my foot in the stirrup. “Oh yeah? Like what?”

He shrugged. “I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

Before I could respond, he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me to him. Instinct told me to fight, but I was mesmerized by his intense stare as he brushed his thumb along my bottom lip.

“Don’t let Chelsea ruin our day,” he murmured. “We have to head back to real life in a couple of hours.”

Back to real life. Back to the city. Back to the penthouse—Chelsea’s penthouse.

Suddenly, I felt an overwhelming sense of defeat. I was tired of being upset with Gavin and feeling like a second choice.

“Gavin, I don’t know how to not be jealous of her,” I admitted. “Is there something wrong with me? Why can’t I just accept that we are mutually agreeing to get married and leave it at that?”

He pulled me into his chest and wrapped his arms around me.

“Nothing is wrong with you,” he murmured, stroking the back of my hair. “You were right. I should’ve just blocked Chelsea and been done with it. This has been an eventful week, and she’s only added to it.”

I nodded slowly as my shoulders sagged. The adrenaline was leaving my system, and in its absence, I felt numb.

“I’m tired,” I told Gavin. “I’m so emotionally exhausted. There’ve been so many high highs and low lows that I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

“Things will slow down,” he promised. “My life is normally rather boring.”

I snorted. “No, it’s not.”

“No, it’s not,” he chuckled and pulled back to look at me. “But it is good. And it’s better with you in it. I’ll do anything to make sure you know you’re my number one priority.”

I closed my eyes and sighed. “At the risk of sounding like a lunatic, I want you to cut all contact with Chelsea Marks. You have people—make them deal with her. If you have to see her or speak to her, I want to know about it.”

“I already told you that she’s no longer a part of my life,” he said.

“Right.” I nodded. “But she’s still blowing up your phone. Obviously, we have different interpretations of the phrase ‘she’s dead to me.’”

He looked relaxed, but his arms held me tightly. Only the way his eyes searched my face betrayed his unease.

“I’ll make sure Chelsea isn’t a problem,” he murmured after a moment, trailing his hands up my back. “If you agree to getting everything moved into the penthouse this week.”

My stomach dropped. I’d been dragging my feet on moving out of my apartment completely because it was the last piece of my old life I could run to if things got hard.

“I’m working on it,” I lied, shifting under his gaze.

His eyes narrowed on me.

“Do you need to rent it out, or something?” I asked.

He cocked his head. “You and I both know that’s not why I’m asking. You agreed to move in with me. Why are you hesitating?”

I felt the wind leave my sails.

“It feels like the last thing I have left,” I told him quietly. “Once my apartment is cleared out, I’m completely dependent on you. I have no job, no place of my own.”

He took a deep breath. “You have a black card without a limit in your wallet. If you wanted to run, you could. You’re not trapped.”

Part of me wanted to argue that he could cancel it if I did, but by the same token, he could change the locks on my front door. It wasn’t really that I felt like he would try to use his money to control me, but I liked having a space that was still just mine.

He looked at me for a long moment as I stood, chewing on my lip.

“You should redecorate the penthouse,” he said suddenly.

“What? Why?” I asked.

“So it feels like home to you.” He shrugged. “Make it your own.”

I thought about his home. Even though I hated the fact that it was Chelsea’s choice in design, I had to admit it was exquisite. From the first moment I’d ever walked in, I loved it. It was what every girl who dreamed of moving to the big city envisioned.

I shook my head. “Honestly, there’s not much I would want to change. I would be throwing away things out of spite. I don’t want to be that person.”

Then a thought occurred to me, and I wrinkled my nose. “Except our mattress. I want a new one.”

“Done.”

“And the sitting room downstairs,” I blurted out, and he raised an eyebrow. “I want to use it as an office.”

“Perfect.” He nodded approvingly and gave my arm a squeeze. Then he looked over his shoulder. “Can we eat? It’s getting late, and I’m starving.”

Despite myself, I giggled. “You move on quick, Mr. Powell.”

He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, and we started our short trek back to the abandoned picnic.

“You can make fun of me for my healthy food choices all you want, but I never miss a meal,” he pointed out. “You, on the other hand, seem to run on caffeine, gummy bears, and rage.”

“And wine,” I said, sitting down and picking up my glass. “Can’t forget about wine.”

He smirked and shook his head before curling his body around mine to enjoy lunch.

“I want to get back to the city a little early since it’ll be a hectic week,” he said as we wrapped up.

“Why will it be hectic?” I frowned.

“We are leaving Thursday morning for my parents’ house,” he explained. “There are a few things I need to wrap up at work before then.”

His parents’ house. I’d completely forgotten that I was all set to meet my future in-laws in just a few short days.

“Right,” I muttered, even as my heart rate spiked.