Free Forced: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance (The Blackthorn Brothers Book 1) by Cali MacKay Page B

deal with.” She seemed less angry and far more frustrated and broken.
    It was a drastic change to the wild side of her that I remembered, though in many ways it left me far more concerned. “I know you don’t want to talk to me, but…fuck, Wren. You have me worried.”
    “I don’t know why you care—and the truth is, you shouldn’t.” She shook her head, her brow furrowed as she looked up at me, grabbing my shirt in her hands. “You’re getting roped into this against your will, just like I am.”
    “I do care. I always have . And though I hadn’t planned on getting blackmailed into marriage, I can’t say that marrying you hadn’t crossed my mind when we’d been together.” We had just been too young, and things had been too crazy.
    “Then what the hell happened? How the hell did we go from you thinking about marrying me to breaking up with me instead?” Her anger returned, but with it was a hurt that tore at my soul. Because I swore, this was far more than her just being upset about us breaking up.
    “I made you miserable, Wren. You were always upset or angry with me, doing everything you could to try to push me away.” But there was more, and I’d never told her. “And though the sex was fucking hot—it felt…wrong. Like I was forcing myself on you.”
    “You never did anything I didn’t want or ask for, Ash.” But her cheeks flushed red and she wouldn’t look at me as her tears streamed down her cheeks.
    “Fuck…I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.” I felt like a total ass, even if it was the truth. My mother may have been the only woman in a huge family of men, but we’d been raised right, and were always respectful of women. Trying to give Wren what she wanted, what turned her on, made me question what I was doing, and left me feeling guilty for being so forceful with her.
    “So, you broke up with me instead? That’s just fucking brilliant.” She looked so broken, and I still didn’t get it, which only made me feel like an even bigger ass.
    I pulled her into my arms, ignoring her struggles as she pounded on my chest and cursed me. “I thought I was making you miserable, and figured if we broke up, you’d finally find someone who could truly make you happy. I didn’t mean to hurt you, Wren.”
    “You didn’t just hurt me, Ash—you abandoned me and left me to fend for myself.” She choked back a sob that tore at my soul.
    “What do you mean, I left you to fend for yourself?” I didn’t quite get it. It wasn’t as though I’d left her homeless and poor, or in some sort of bad situation. She’d been living at home, under her family’s protection. And yet, it felt like there was something she wasn’t telling me, and there was something about her words, her pain, that left me feeling devastated for her. “Talk to me, Wren.”
    She just shook her head, her cheeks still wet with her tears, refusing to look me in the eyes. “It doesn’t matter. What’s done is done.”
    “It does matter—especially since this is clearly still affecting you.” What the fuck had happened to her after our breakup? “Was it someone else you dated? Did they fucking hurt you?”
    “Yeah…that’s it. I had a bad date.” Except that she was being dismissive and sarcastic, and I knew that there was more to it all. She was still keeping something from me.
    “Who was it? Because I’ll fucking kill them, Wren.” The thought of someone hurting her made my blood burn with rage.
    She pulled out of my arms, and I let her, too pissed off to try holding onto her. “It’s no one—and it doesn’t matter. I don’t even remember his name.”
    “What did he do to you, Wren?”

 
     
     

     
    “It was nothing. Nothing happened.” What the fuck was I doing, lying to him? And yet I couldn’t tell him the truth. I just needed to get the fuck away from him before it all went to hell and I said something I couldn’t take back.
    He’d never look at me the same way if he knew the truth.