Burned (Ignite #1)

“Finnley? Babe! I’m home!”

I cringe when I hear Jordan’s shout. Judging by the angry look on Collin’s face, my bubble of bliss just exploded and Jordan was holding the sharp pin of destruction.

Chapter 10—Powderkeg

I CANNOT BELIEVE this is f**king happening right now.

“Please, just stay in here,” Finnley begs for the third time as I watch her quickly throw on a short, black robe she grabs from the end of the bed.

I cross my arms in front of me, silently fuming, as she rushes towards the door. She looks back over her shoulder at me, her brown eyes filled with worry and sadness.

“Please,” she whispers brokenly one last time before turning away and rushing down the hall, the door pulling closed behind her.

I hear her footsteps as she races down the stairs followed by the sounds of murmured voices before I finally let the anger that’s been simmering just under the surface since I head him speak her f**king name boil over. Picking up a pillow from the end of the bed, I bunch it in my hands and then chuck it as hard as I can at the mirror hanging behind the door, equal parts pissed off and grateful that it wasn’t something harder. Gripping my hands in my hair so tight my eyes start to water, I pace around the room while the voices down below get increasingly louder.

I should have made her tell me what the hell was going on with Jordan before I started any of this shit with her. Fuck, separated could mean anything from him staying in a hotel for a week while they worked out their problems to her getting ready to leave his ass for good. I was a complete and total dumbass for immediately assuming the latter. My thoughts had been centered on Finnley, on getting inside her sweet body with the hope of sating my curiosity and removing all traces of her from my heart and mind once and for all. I’d planned on leaving here today with all traces of my infatuation with Finnley wiped from my mind and without another look back. I didn’t expect for one taste of her to turn into an addiction, never imagined that f**king her would only solidify my obsession. This woman, who’s spent years dominating my headspace, is suddenly under my skin and in my blood and now I can’t imagine not f**king her every day for the rest of my life. I’ll be damned if that f**k head Jordan Castillo is going to ruin my chances with her once again.

Snatching up my jeans and t-shirt from the foot of the bed where I’d tossed them before our second round of mind-blowing sex, I quickly get dressed and walk over to the door. I quietly pull it open just a crack and crane my neck to listen, not giving a shit that I’m eavesdropping right now.

“I’m sorry, Jordan. I’m so sorry.”

The broken apology from Finnley makes my blood boil and I grip the handle of the door so hard I’m surprised it doesn’t break off in my hand.

Is she taking him back? Is she forgiving him for whatever the f**k he did and taking him back when I’m standing right here after she just spent the past hour and a half letting me f**k her?

My smell is still on her skin and my come is still pooling inside her body and she’s taking that f**ker back. This woman has completely f**ked me in more ways than one. The day I let her go, the memory of her and what we had together took root and it grew and grew until she became a fantasy in my mind. I placed this perfect, amazing woman so high on a pedestal in my mind that no other woman could even come close to reaching the ideal of her, but I’m quickly realizing that dreams are much better than reality. I built her up so high in my mind that there was nowhere else for her to go but crashing down.

“YOU CAN’T KEEP ME OUT OF MY OWN FUCKING HOUSE, YOU STUPID BITCH!”

The bedroom door slams against the wall and I’m racing barefoot down the stairs before I even realize what I’m doing. I completely disregard the bullshit promise I made to Finnley to stay hidden in the bedroom when I hear the fury in Jordan’s voice. I’ll be damned if I’ll sit here and hide like a little bitch while he screams at her.

I’m filled with blind rage when I walk into the living room and see Jordan’s hands wrapped tightly around Finnley’s arms as he shakes her like a ragdoll, spit flying from his mouth as he screams at her.

I fly across the room, clutching the front of his shirt in my fists and dragging him away from Finnley, stopping when his back slams against the wall beside the door—the same wall I just f**ked his wife up against. I ignore Finnley’s shouts from behind me as I press him as hard as I can into the wall and get right in his face.

“Don’t you ever touch her or speak to her like that again,” I growl.

“Collin, please!” Finnley begs, her hands grabbing onto my shoulders as she tries to pull me off of Jordan.

“You f**king WHORE!” Jordan screams as he looks over my shoulder at his wife.

I press my forearm into his neck, watching his eyes bulge out of their sockets and his face turn red as I cut off his air supply. “Call her a whore again. Go ahead. Say something else, please. Give me a f**king reason to beat the shit out of you.”

Jordan claws at my arm while Finnley tugs on my shoulders and I let my anger slow to a simmer while I shoot daggers at the worthless piece of shit in front of me.

“Collin, he can’t breathe!”

Finnley’s strangled cry forces its way into my conscience and I finally ease up, pushing my forearm into this throat one last time before backing away. Jordan’s hands immediately wrap around his neck as he bends over, coughing and sputtering pathetically like a Goddamn pu**y.

When he can finally breathe normally again, he stands up to his full height, puffs out his chest and glares at me, his nostrils flaring like an angry bull. I can tell he’s thinking about charging, that he’d like nothing better than to punch me in the face. I can see it in the way his chest heaves and his hands clench and unclench into fists at his sides. Aside from the tattoos covering both of his arms from wrists to shoulders and the strung-out look in his eyes, he looks like the same punk from high school. He’s taller and has a few more muscles, but I can still wipe the floor with his ass. I silently dare him to punch me. Outside of taking his wife back up to their bedroom and f**king her brains out, I can’t think of anything I’d love more than to put him on his ass. I’ve always hated him, knowing he poached what should have been mine. I’ve spent many years wishing I could be alone in a room with him just once so I could show him who the better man is.