Free TamingTai by Chloe Cole

about the useless
piece of shit. Her tongue should have been nothing more than a mass of scar
tissue from all the biting.
    Tai pushed off the bed and padded into the kitchen. He took
a carton of orange juice from the fridge and drank deeply.
    “You’re a real shit.”
    Tai cursed under his breath, set the carton back into the
fridge and turned to face a furious Gigi.
    “Okay, I’ll buy another one and drink out of a glass next
time. But for the record, I think you’re overreacting.”
    He closed the refrigerator door and attempted to leave the
room, but Gigi stepped in his way.
    “Don’t try to be cute, Tai. I’m talking about Christa. But
ew on the juice too. That’s disgusting,” she said, her tone softening as her
sharp eyes scanned his face.
    “Babe, come on, go easy on him. It looks like he’s had a
rough night,” Beau called from the living room where he sat balancing a plate
of pancakes on his knee.
    Truer words. Tai had spent most of the night tossing and
turning. When he did finally fall asleep, he regretted it. Those dreams were
hellacious.
    “I saw her. In fact I just left there.”
    Shock and fury hit him hard and fast. “What the fuck, Gi?
Who do you think you are? This was none of your business. And you? You let her
go?” he asked Beau incredulously.
    Beau shrugged and held up a placating hand. “Hey, this isn’t
the eighteen hundreds. I don’t get to tell her where to go or what to do, man.
Besides, she was really upset and felt like it was the right thing to do. Who
am I to say different?”
    The anger drained away as quick as it had come. This was his
own stupid fault. Gigi had been awake when he got home, claiming she couldn’t
sleep, but it was pretty obvious she was waiting up for him. He should have
never told her he’d slept with Christa.
    “You’re my friend and I care about you,” Gigi said. “That
makes it my business. I just went to tell her to leave you alone. Dammit, Tai,
if I came home looking like you did last night, you’d have done the same. I
wanted to kill her for toying with you that way.” She broke off and looked away
before pinning him with a teary gaze. “But then I saw her. You think you look
bad?”
    “And you do,” Beau chimed in.
    Gigi shot him a look then continued. “Even before she told
me what happened, I knew you and I had it wrong somehow. The woman loves you,
Tai.”
    Fear crashed over him in waves. “Bullshit. You went there,
fine. What’s done is done. But don’t fucking do this , okay? I can’t take
it.” He turned and went around the island, desperate for escape.
    The last thing he needed was someone giving him a reason to
break the vow he’d made to himself. If he gave Christa another chance, he was
just opening himself to more pain, and she’d served up more than his fill.
People didn’t change. He only needed to look at his father to drive that lesson
home.
    Gigi moved, again blocking his way. “She didn’t know.”
    He put a firm hand on her shoulder and thrust her to the
side. “I need to get some air.”
    “Are you listening to me? She didn’t know, Tai,” Gigi said,
hot on his tail. “Her father told her you’d gone to a juvenile detention center
for a few months. Until this morning, she didn’t even know you went to a real
prison, never mind that you spent two years there.”
    He paused, mid-step, as the implications washed over him.
Blood pounded in his ears as he tried to make sense of it all. “Well, if she
didn’t know it was because she didn’t want to know.” Even as he spoke, the
words fell flat. Still. “Why didn’t she try to see me? She would’ve known
then.”
    “Her parents wouldn’t allow it. Once things calmed down
some, she went to see your mother, but she was gone. There was another tenant
living in your apartment.” Gigi took his hand. “Tai, she isn’t perfect. Maybe
she could’ve done something differently. But she was a kid under the thumb of a
powerful man.”
    A tiny kernel of hope