Hate Sober (Love Me Duet 2)

“Who are you?” She keeps shaking her head. “Who. Are. You?” I step up closer, so I am in her face. She’s wearing a very small, short dress and heels that are so high you know she’s had to train herself to walk in them.

“I’m—”

“She’s nobody,” a voice booms from behind her. Gunner’s standing there dressed in one of his perfectly cut suits as he reaches for her arm, pulling her back so she isn’t in the doorway but he is, and with the light behind him he’s a gorgeous sight to behold.

“You can leave!”

“But we didn’t…” She doesn’t say another word as she looks back to me. “You’re the wife, aren’t you?”

I don’t answer. She doesn’t deserve an answer, let alone need to know.

“Leave,” he says again with a sharp tone that even I flinch from. She goes this time and I hear the door gently click shut behind her.

“Who was that?” I ask.

He tucks his hands into his pockets while looking me over. “You look good, Everly. You sure you came here to collect your things?” Gunner steps closer, his hands staying firmly where they are in his pockets, like he doesn’t trust himself to remove them. I put my hands in front of me to stop him from touching me anyway.

“I can fuck you the way you want. Is that what you want?”

I shake my head. “No. Now who was that?” I ask, nodding to where she left.

He stays close to me when he answers. “I was planning to fuck her.”

“How?”

He smirks. “The way you hated.”

I shake my head and continue to pack. “Of course you were. I can’t touch anybody, but you can?” I bark at him incredulously.

“I didn’t touch her. I couldn’t. Does that make you feel better?”

My hands stop moving at his words. “I want you, Everly. With everything I am, I want you.” Realizing I still haven’t moved, I start packing again. My skirt has moved up my legs, and his eyes fall straight to the bared skin, his sexy smirk in place.

“Stop looking at me like that,” I tell him.

“Like what?”

“Like you plan to do bad things to me. Things I simply don’t want, Gunner.”

He looks up at my words. “You’re lying.”

I shake my head. “What is wrong with you?” I scream at him.

“It’s taking everything in me right now not to tie you to that bed and fuck that attitude out of you, Everly.”

“Fuck you, Gunner Reid. Fuck you!” I push past him and go to the door. Honestly, it feels like déjà vu all over again. He follows me out and smiles when I turn back to him. I want to wipe that smug smirk off his face.

“I’m going to fuck someone tonight, and when I do, I’ll think of you.” I offer him my sweetest smile as I climb into the car and drive off. When I chance a look at him in the rear-view mirror, I see his hands clenched and his lips in a thin, white line.

What did I just do?

“This isn’t the smartest thing to do right now,” I say to May as she pulls me inside the club. I wouldn’t have come tonight, but it’s her birthday, and on her birthday we celebrate. Even if I am having the worst month of my life.

“It probably isn’t, but you’ve been stuck in your house doing absolutely nothing for far too long and we need to get out.”

She’s right.

After that night when I walked out of his place, I have gone to work then home, and done nothing else. May didn’t take it too well when I told her I was going to be staying at my own home since I got the keys back, but she understood I needed some alone time to process everything.

I lied to him that night when I told him I was going to fuck someone else, but he didn’t need to know that. I haven’t heard from him since, and a few times I thought I was being followed, but I’ve put it down to me having little to no sleep and being overly paranoid.

I asked for this, didn’t I? To not have him in my life, even if he still consumes my dreams. It’s unfair how someone can consume you so much.

“I didn’t know, I swear.” May pulls me again, this time back toward the door. I look over her shoulder and see Gunner standing there with two women next to him, much like the first night I saw him, but this time he has a smile on his face.

Pulling away from May, I straighten my posture and turn to her.

“It’s fine. You go and get us some drinks. I’m going to say hello to my husband.”

“Ev…”

I don’t hear what she has to say after that as I start walking toward him. Gunner turns so he’s facing me, and the two women next to him don’t move. They both stand there like he’s the glue that binds them to him.