No Longer Mine by Shiloh Walker

finally broke things off with that…girl. I know you had feelings for her, but she’s not right for you…not good enough for you.”
    “Not good enough for me?” he snapped. Shit, he was the one not good enough for her . “I had a fight with her—that’s not the same thing as breaking things off with her. Although after this she’s going to want to boot me out on my sorry ass. Damn it, how could I do this?” She paled in anger. “You don’t have to sound so disgusted. You can’t talk to me like that. I’m not your little slut from the projects.”
    “Sluts aren’t confined to projects, angel,” he drawled. “I may not remember last night, but I do remember other times when I clearly told you I wasn’t interested. In fact, I think I even told you to just stay the hell away from me.”
    “You don’t mean that,” she whispered, her eyes filling with tears. “I know it was wrong for me to push it like I did last night, but I just love you so much.”
    “I want to know what happened last night,” he said softly, not moved at all by those crocodile tears.
    Wade had known Jamie all his life, and he knew one thing very well…she was a born manipulator. “I want to know it now and I want the truth.”
    “Well, you were just so upset, and crying over the terrible fight you two had…” Jamie said forlornly, sitting on the edge of the bed. “She had been so mean to you and made you feel guilty over absolutely nothing. You were just so upset. I…I felt so bad for you. I was trying to comfort you and it just happened.”
    “Like hell,” he snarled, grabbing her arm and jerking her to her feet. He put his face close to hers and said, “I know a lie when I hear it, Jamie. The truth.”
    “That’s the truth,” she whimpered.

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    35

    Shiloh Walker
    “Bullshit,” he said succinctly. “Part of the reason I wanted to get so drunk was so I’d forget I made an ass of myself, picking a fight over nothing. I do remember being drunk on my ass and blubbering to Zack about what I could do to make it right.
    “Besides, one small problem with your story? There’s no way I’d go to you for ‘comfort’.” Tears spilled out of her blue eyes and vaguely Wade felt some guilt. Damn it, this was just as much his fault as hers. But what was he going to tell Nikki?
    He hadn’t realized he had spoken that final thought aloud.
    “What do you mean, what are you going to tell Nikki?” Jamie shouted. “It’s none of her damn business. You’re mine now!”
    “No.” Wade shook his head. “No, I’m not. No matter what happens with Nikki, I won’t be yours, Jamie. I’m sorry, but I don’t love you. I’m never going to.” Damn, what had he done?

    What had he done?
    Wade jerked awake just as the alarm went off.
    Years later, that dream, the memory of the shame and dread, could still turn him into a mess.
    Dragging himself out of bed, Wade shed the wrinkled clothes on the way to the bathroom. His stiff back screamed at him and his eyes were gritty from lack of sleep. A tension headache was already throbbing behind his eyes.
    Hot water was the only cure for this. Lots of it.
    Turning his face into the hot spray, he let the water wash away the cobwebs and the oily feel that remembered guilt left on his skin. His stomach churned and burned, letting him know it would be another Rolaids breakfast. Hands braced against the tiled wall, he prayed the day would be better than it had started.

    It got worse.
    He came face-to-face with a young hazel-eyed man with brutally short ash-blond hair. A man who looked ready to kill him. He topped Wade by a good four inches and was lean muscle from the neck down.
    Those shrewd, cold hazel eyes studied him, hate burning in them.
    Wade had been gassing up the ambulance when the Harley pulled into the gas station. Wade admired its clean lines, his gaze wistful and a bit envious. He’d always wanted a bike like that, but a bike like that took more money and