“I tried to warn you, Maggie,” she hisses. “You can’t blame anyone but yourself when this all goes sideways.”
I yank my arm out of her hold with a scoff and sneer at her, not even bothering to answer her. It’s too late to back out of this, and I’m just going to have to ride the wave.
Chapter Fourteen
BENNETT
I wishI could say the taste of Maggie’s lipgloss is worth the fist to the face when Bo catches us in the feed room one afternoon.
One moment, she’s pinned between me and the wall, lips parted as sweet whimpers slip into my mouth along with her tongue. The next, a hand is wrapped in my collar, and Bo hauls me backward, away from his sister.
I can’t get a single word out before his knuckles crash against my jaw.
The hit is hard enough to send me sprawling to the ground, sharp pain radiating across my face. My teeth feel like they’re holding on by a thread, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t knock any out. By the look of murderous rage on his face, it’s not going to stay that way for long.
“What thefuck, Ben?”
His voice is no more than a snarl, dark and dangerous. He looms over me like vengeance brought to life, betrayal and fury flaring bright in his eyes. I don’t say anything as he hauls me upfrom the ground and yanks me out of the feed room just to slam his fist into my cheek again.
“How could you?” he grits out.
Guilt and pain both clog my throat, and I know that nothing I can say will make this better. Apologizing for tossing our budding friendship aside just so I could get my dick wet in his sister isn’t going to go over well. If Maggie and I were dating, it may be different, but she was crystal fucking clear that that’snotwhat we’re doing.
“Answer me!” Bo shouts, shaking me by the collar. “What the fuck were you doing? I’ll fucking kill you!”
Maggie shoves her small hands between us, my eyes catching on the glitter of her nail polish as she pushes against Bo’s bloody knuckles.
“Stop!” she screams.
She pushes him back with all the strength she can muster, stepping between us when Bo releases me in surprise. Her shoulders are tight with tension, a smattering of new freckles visible on them from all the time spent in the sun under the guise of helping out on the ranch. Most of what she’s been doing is distracting me from my job, but now she stands between me and Bo like she’s trying to protect me.
“Bo, shut up! You’re going to?—”
“What the hell is going on here?” David shouts as he rounds the corner.
My heart freezes and then starts pounding so fast it hurts, fear kicking into overdrive as I meet the man’s eyes.
“I found Ben in the feed room with Maggie,” Bo says, his voice growly and furious. “He had her pinned up against the wall and was forcing himself on her.”
Rage flashes bright in my mind at the accusation, and the thought that Bo could ever believe I’d do something like that, but I stomp it down.
I won’t deny it. Whatever he wants to say, I’ll take it on the chin. Maggie may have started all of this, but I knew better. I’m older than her, should besmarterthan her. This is all my fault, and I’ll take any blame they throw my way for being too fucking weak to say no.
“What the fuck?” Maggie screeches, her attention swivelling between Bo’s red-faced anger and the murderous rage building in David’s eyes. “No, he wasn’t! We were kissing! That’s it!”
Her voice is pitched high in panic, and it’s not helping. I doubt David hears anything but his terrified daughter, and he’s already locked in on his target.
“You were kissing my daughter?” he asks, surging forward until the only thing stopping him is Maggie.
She shoves back against his chest, but he moves to push her aside. I just hope she has the good sense not to watch while he beats me into a pulp on the barn floor.
“Iwas kissinghim!” Maggie shouts, pushing back on David’s chest even harder. “Me! I started it. Chill the fuck out! You can’t hurt him. What the fuck is wrong with you two?”
David’s glare doesn’t soften in the slightest as it swings back and forth between me and his daughter. I can hardly bring myself to meet his gaze, terror and shame eating me alive as I stand there, wishing I could sink right through the ground.
I’ve never been so disgusted with myself in my life.
“You’ve got until sundown to get the fuck off my ranch, boy,” David says viciously, his hands curling into fists at his sides. “I ever see you again, you’ll wind up as pig feed. You understand me?”
