Falling into You (Falling Stars 3)

“I know who you are.” He said it like a curse.

“Yeah, and who’s that?”

“Her ex. One the town talks about like you’re some kind of superstar. The one who let fame go to his head and dropped her like a rock. Trash to be cast aside.”

Rage blinded me.

Asshole didn’t know a fuckin’ thing.

His head shook. “In the last year I’ve been working here, she’s been happy. Moving on. You think I didn’t notice her falling apart the second you showed your pathetic face back here? You’re not welcome here, so why don’t you pack your things and go back to wherever you came from.”

“And you actually think it’s you who gets to decide that?” Venom filled my mouth as I said it, and I edged deeper into the night.

Encroaching on him. Trying to rein it in and knowing the only thing I wanted to do was tear this asshole apart.

Rip him in two.

The dregs of the light from the porch cast a dim glow on his face.

I didn’t need it to see the hostility there. The animosity that crawled over him.

If he were smart, he’d recognize mine. The way violence skated my flesh. Aggression coiling in my stomach, seeping through my veins and vying for a way out.

“Yup,” he issued like a challenge as he crossed his arms over his chest.

My nod was slow and fueled by menace. Jaw cracking under the pressure. “You’d do well to rethink your position.”

He barked a laugh. “You think I’m scared of you? You’re nothin’ but a fuckboy. Know your type. Think you’re better than everyone else just because you wrote a song or two. Think you can come in and take whatever you want, whoever you want, just because you have a little fame tacked to your name. And I won’t let an asshole like you mess with a girl like her.”

“You don’t know a thing about me. I’d suggest you don’t act like you do.” The warning hung heavy in the air.

He scoffed and took a step forward. “Yeah…and what is a pussy like you gonna do about it?”

Dude had the balls to spit on the ground when he said it.

I had him by the throat and shoved against the side of her truck before he knew what hit him.

Adrenaline coiled and rose.

This poison that surged.

The same bated violence that I’d lived by the last six years. So close to being unleashed.

I leaned down close to his face and seethed the words, “Keep your ass out of my business and you won’t have to find out.”

He laughed a sound of disgust while he thrashed against the hold I had on him. “Fuck you.”

Anger blistered across my flesh, and I pressed him harder to the metal of the truck, trying not to lose it. “Stay the fuck away from me and stay the fuck away from her. You got me?”

I heard the roar of Rhys’ car barreling up the road, and I jerked him by the collar of his tee and slammed him back down. “You’re not gonna like it if I have to remind you.”

I shoved him off, dude stumbling and trying to right himself.

I straightened myself as I turned to walk away.

If I stayed a second longer, things were going to get ugly.

Last thing Violet and Daisy needed was to see me coming unglued.

To witness the man I’d become.

The one who would fight to the death if it was required.

Saul’s voice pierced me from behind. “It’s time she moved on, and I’m going to see to it that it’s with me. Nothin’ you can do about it.”

Possession slammed me like a punch to the face.

Devotion screaming.

Charring my insides with the betrayal that I had cast.

Spinning around, I walked backward, pointing at the bastard who thought he had everything figured out when he didn’t have a fuckin’ clue.

“Stay the fuck away from my wife. This will be the only time that I warn you.”

Then I turned around and stormed down the drive toward the road, knowing my claim was nothing but selfish.

This distorted greed that warped all logic.

But I knew right then it didn’t matter how much time or space or treachery I put between us. There was no lie I could tell that would cut her from my soul I’d given her years ago.FourteenRichardEight Years Ago“No way,” she mouthed. Her eyes went wide in shock where he’d sidled up at her side at the bar after they’d finished their set.

He felt frozen, staring at her.

Girl casting some kind of spell. What he’d felt in an instant.

He’d been right. He hadn’t been imagining it while he was onstage watching her through the raving crowd where she’d sat tucked back at a table like there was a chance she could hide from him.

This girl’s eyes were dark, almost black. But what had held him rapt was the intense violet surrounding her pupils that fractured out in little veins through her irises.