Ever.

Until now.

Until Thia.

Love. It was the only kind of torture I wasn't familiar with.

I was quickly learning it was the most painful kind of them all.

"You know," she started. Her voice was as shaky as the gun in her hand. "You really need to stop trying to make me hate you."

I muddled through my cloudy thoughts in search of a response, "And why is that?" was the best I could come up with.

Ti laid the gun down on my bare stomach and I resisted the urge to reach out and tug her down onto me. She was about to turn the handle on the door when she turned back. Tears stained her cheeks and my gut twisted in a way I was beginning to hate as much as I hated myself.

She looked me right in the eye and held my gaze.

"Because it's working."

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN.

Bear No amount of coffee or cold water could have dragged me back into sobriety after I'd seen the look on Ti's face in that room.

Alcohol and anger go hand in hand like junior high sweethearts.

I'd drank enough Jack to set me into a coma, yet after she'd walked out of the room I was more sober than before I'd had a single drop.

I pulled on my jeans and ran after her.

Thia wasn't in the living room. She wasn't in the garage either. I was worried she'd left completely and started thinking of where the fuck she would go or who was out there waiting to hurt her when I spotted her on the dock. She was bent over, her hands moving furiously. I didn't realize what she was doing until she untied the rope from the dock and hopped off the dock.

By the time I got down to the dock she had already pushed off and was too far away from me to reach out and pull her back. "Ti, we gotta talk."

"I think you've said plenty."

"Ti, get your ass over here." Ignoring me she continued to row furiously. She was obviously inexperienced and didn't move too far too quickly. The muscles in her arms strained as she rowed harder and harder without much progress to show for it.

"There is a nasty rip current under the dock. It's a struggle for me or King to get the boat through it, so you might as well give up and come back now," I said, crouching down on the seawall.

She only fought harder, slowly she gained ground inching further away from the dock and from me. I hadn't been lying. The current was a bitch to get through if you didn't know exactly where it stopped and started. Took us months to figure out how to clear it in less than a few minutes.

As much as I hated the fact that she was doing her damnedest to get away from me I was impressed by my girl's strength.

There was no way to make this right.

I craved her forgiveness just as much as I craved her body. Her soul. Her spirit.

Her heart.

Words spilled from my lips in quick succession. I had to get to her before she was too far away to hear me. I spoke so fast I didn't have time to edit myself and choose the right words so I just went with my gut because going with my head only resulted in her beginning to hate me and as much as that was part of the plan I hadn't counted on the crushing blow to my soul that came with it.

I wanted to tell her everything.

I started with the truth.

Bear uncensored.

"For what it's worth I didn't want her. I never wanted her," I shouted. "I just don't know what I'm doing here. I don't know anything anymore."

"Looked like you wanted her to me," Ti said, huffing heavily, but making progress. If she kept up the pace for a few more minutes she would be free of the current and would quickly be out of hearing distance.

"What do you want me to say? You almost got killed in the park!"

"So did you."

"That's my LIFE though. I'm used to motherfuckers gunning for me. That shouldn't be yours though."

"You don't get to decide my life, Bear. Not you. Not anyone."

"When I'm with you it's like you put me up on this fucking unreachable pedestal. I don't deserve that kind of admiration and sometimes," I tried to catch my breath but the words kept spilling out of me. "It scares the fucking shit out of me. Whatever you think you know about me or who I am, you don't know shit about me. You don't know the things I've done, the people I've done them to. You don't know that I've killed people because I was ordered to, or because I thought it was good for club business, or just because they rubbed me the wrong fucking way. Is that what you want to hear? 'Cause that's the truth. I've done it all and you look at me like I'm somehow a good person and it makes me want to tear my fucking hair out because it's all a lie. The truth is that I'm not the good guy. I'm the fucking bad guy, and club or not, that hasn't changed." I ran my hand through my hair and took a deep breath.

It wasn't exactly a fucking love poem, but it was the truth.

"When did I say that?" Ti asked in a small whisper, temporarily forgetting to row, the boat slid forward toward me. "Tell me, when exactly did I say that I wanted to change you?" Her voice grew louder. Bolder. "Do you think I'm some fucking sheltered idiot? I know who you are and who the Beach Bastards are. I grew up across the county, not across the country. What I want to know is why you somehow think that effects anything? I don't have you on a pedestal. I've got no rose colored glasses when it comes to who you are. Actually, I might be one of the few people in the world who knows the real you. I wanted you because of who you are, not regardless of who you are. You weren't on a pedestal, you were in my heart!"

WERE.

WERE in my heart.

Until I just fucking shattered it.

Ti floated back toward me and I battled with my original plan to push her away again, but the closer she got the more determined I was to fix what I had broken. Tomorrow was coming no matter what happened tonight.

I knelt down to pull her in, but when she saw my outstretched arm she shook her head. Rowing with even more vigor then before, water splashing into the boat in her furious attempt to get as far away from me as possible.

Fuck this.

She just said she wanted me because of who I am and that was a good thing because I was about to show her exactly who I was.

Already barefoot, and wearing only my jeans, I pushed them off my hips and stepped out of them. From Ti's position I knew she couldn't see me in the shadows. I tossed my jeans out onto the dock and into the light.

It was a warning. I was coming for her.

I was completely naked, and I didn't give a fuck.

The slightly salty air tasted like fucking freedom. The musty smell of decay of the nearby wetlands stung my nose but I wanted more.

More was the plan.

More was in a rowboat in the middle of the big bay and I couldn't help but think how little she looked. How innocent. How vulnerable.

My cock hardened.

"What are you doing?" Ti called out, the fear in her voice doing nothing to placate my raging hard on.

"Suddenly, I feel like a fucking swim," I said wickedly, stretching my arms over my head.

"No! Stay away, Bear. I mean it!" Ti shouted, lapping her oars so hard into the water she was finally able to break free of the current, gliding easily across the water. "You're not coming in here."

That's what you think.

"Oh, yes. I fucking am," I muttered. I sucked in a deep breath and dove head first into the dark water.

A predator seeking it's prey.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT.

Thia Bear had lost his damned mind.

From the second we left the park he hadn't been the same.

I knew he wanted me to walk in on him with that girl. It wasn't what she was doing to him that both pissed me off and broke my heart. It was the fact that I knew he'd done it on purpose. He wanted to get caught.

He wanted to HURT me.

Even though I was free of the current I continued to row, wanting to get far enough away from the shore that Bear would give up on swimming and turn back around. As I got closer to the shore on the opposite side I'd thought I would see other houses surrounding the bay, but the rest of the shore was covered in a mixture of tall thin trees that bent and swayed with the slightest breeze and short stumpy mangroves that sat on top of the water on little sticks that reminded me of the pillars that held up King and Ray's house.

I really hadn't thought Bear was going to jump in. An empty threat that turned out to be not so empty.

The spot where Bear had jumped into the water created a rippling effect over the surface, growing larger and larger as it spanned out. By the time it reached the boat it had turned from slight ripple to little wave, rocking the boat from side to side.

That's when I realized that there was no other disturbance in the water. No indication of movement of any kind.

Where is he? My anger and irritation temporarily replaced by worry.

I counted to ten.

Nothing.

I counted again.

Nothing.

"Bear!" I shouted.

No response.

Keeping one oar raised out of the water I turned the boat around and followed the path from where I came, scanning for signs of life. I'd only gotten a few strokes in when the stillness exploded beside the boat. My heart leapt into my stomach as Bear launched himself through the surface of the water like an orca, soaking my hair and clothes.

"Why do you care? Why are you really mad?" Bear asked, grabbing onto the side of the boat. "Tell me, Ti, and be fucking honest with me because we both know you can't lie for shit. Why do you care if I fuck and snort and drink myself into an early fucking grave?" Fire danced in his eyes, water dripped into his face and mouth. "Tell me," he challenged. "Right fucking now 'cause I need to know." He lifted a leg over the side of the boat. I held onto the sides to prevent myself from going in as it tipped more sideways then I thought a boat could, letting in a few inches of water. Bear lifted his other leg into the boat and it righted itself again as he climbed in. With limited space he sat behind me on the little bench seat, my back to his chest. His knees splayed out on the side of my hips. I turned sideways to glare at him.

Bear was running a hand over his head, wringing out the access water.

He was also naked.

Completely and utterly, devastatingly and beautifully...naked.

I wanted to hate him and I was pretty sure I did but that didn't mean that his mere presence didn't affect me.

Under the light of the moon his tattoos and smooth skin looked as if they were shining, glowing with the same iridescent light reflecting off the water. His chest and arms flexed from the strain of his swim. His ab muscles rose and fell as he tried to catch his breath and I found myself following them where they turned into a V, pointing down to his...

I averted my gaze to the trees. "You win, Bear, whatever you are trying to argue. It's fine. I agree. You win. Just go!"

"Bullshit," he said. "I don't win. I fucked up, Ti. If this is winning I hate to find out what losing feels like, so please, tell me what it is you think I won?"

It was exactly what I wanted to hear.

It was exactly bullshit.

"You wanted to push me away," I reminded him. "You wanted to hurt me. Mission accomplished. Now get out of my boat."

"First off, this is my boat. I built it with King and Preppy when they first bought the place, so if anyone is getting out, it's you. Second, I tried to push you away. I admit it, even convinced myself that I wanted to do it. I thought it would be better if you hated me. I thought you would be better if you hated me." His eyes met mine. "And part of me still thinks that's true. But nothing about the look on your face felt like I was doing the right thing. The reality of you hating me was nothing like I thought it would be." His voice grew quiet and his words sank further into the barrier I had a hard time keeping up around him. "It gutted me, Ti."

Don't listen. He's lying. Don't believe him.

"I know the feeling," I said, the words dripping with the bitterness I felt.

Don't listen. He's lying. Don't believe him.

"Here I thought you were being an asshole, but really, you just couldn't push her hand from your dick fast enough?" I snapped. "Makes total sense. Please, by all means, continue," I said sarcastically, resting my chin on my closed fist and leaning toward him to hear the rest of his ridiculous lies. The breeze picked up blowing my hair over my shoulders. Bear reached over my shoulder and grazed the side of my neck with the back of his knuckles. I shivered as he pulled my hair back around, dragging his fingertips across my skin as he adjusted my hair across my back. "You don't get to touch me." I seethed, trying my hardest not to give away the desire coursing through me by leaning into his touch.

"I told myself I can't have you, but I can't shake you. Why do you think that is?" Bear asked, his words a whisper against my bare neck. His fingers continuing to dance down the back of my arms despite my protest.