Resurrection (The Lone Riders MC Series Book 3) by Michelle Betham Page B

He could feel his blood pressure rising by the second.
    ‘Patronizing me. I’m not some bored Beverly Hill housewife who doesn’t give a crap what her man gets up to as long as she’s got a tight grip on his credit card. I give a crap.’
    ‘And all you’re doing is giving yourself unnecessary worry. Leave it, Lexi. And that’s not a request.’
    ‘Jesus,’ she laughed – a cold, humorless laugh. ‘Seriously?’
    His eyes bored deep into hers. He wasn’t shifting on this one. ‘Seriously.’
    ‘You can be such a fucking prick sometimes, Coby. A real fucking prick.’
    He did nothing to stop her as she turned and left. What was the point? He called her back, they’d only spend the next few hours going round in circles, arguing, fighting, and none of it would end up in sex, so even the perks of making up weren’t going to be there. For some reason he just wasn’t in the mood right now. Too many distractions, too much crap going on inside his head. And when Lexi was like this, bitching and whining and telling him what to do; it was hardly a turn-on.
    Walking over to the window he leaned forward, his hands palm down on the window-sill as he stared out across the compound. He’d made sure this club had pulled itself back together in super-quick time after the fire; after everything that had happened just a few weeks ago. He wasn’t about to let anyone destroy it again.
     
    ***
     
    ‘Mia, baby, I’m sorry, OK?’
    Mia looked up as Ben approached her outside the clubhouse. ‘Yeah. OK.’
    He sat down beside her, reaching out for her hand and she let him take it. She wasn’t in the mood for fighting today.
    ‘Things are just… they’re a bit strange right now, that’s all.’
    She looked down at their joined hands, but said nothing. She couldn’t think of anything to say. In fact, she felt almost detached from the situation. Was that deliberate? Was she making herself feel that way because it was the safest thing to do?
    ‘I don’t want us to fight, Mia. I love you…’
    ‘Ben, please…’ She looked at him, right into his eyes. No. The Ben she’d fallen in love with, he still wasn’t completely there, she could see it. Feel it. This wasn’t him. ‘Whatever’s going on, just finish it. Then we’ll talk.’
    He let go of her hand and she looked down, watching as it fell from his grasp.
    ‘It’s the only way I can cope, Ben. Being near you, close to you; loving you, it’s… it’s too hard. Right now, it’s too hard.’
    She wasn’t even sure she’d meant all that to come out, but she’d said it, so she must be feeling it, even if she hadn’t fully realized it before.
    ‘Jesus, Mia…’
    ‘Please, Ben.’
    He reached out to cup her cheek, stroking her skin with his thumb, and for a fleeting second she was sure she saw a flicker of something familiar in his eyes. But it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. And he was back to that person she didn’t recognize. ‘I promise you, Mia…’
    She stopped him talking by pressing her fingers to his lips, instantly killing that sentence dead. She didn’t want promises. She didn’t want to hear anything he couldn’t fully mean.
    ‘I love you,’ he whispered, slowly pulling his hand from her cheek. ‘I love you.’
    ‘I know you do.’
    ‘And when all this is over…’
    Words. That’s all she was hearing now – words. White noise. Meaningless. That was how she had to handle this, because anything else was too terrifying. So, without another word, without any more acknowledgement she stood up and walked away. She didn’t even know where she was going, she just knew she had to get away from him, find something to take her mind off whatever the hell was going on around here. The situation with Shane, all the crap going on with Ben – if ever there was a time she needed a distraction, this was it.
    Walking into the office she was surprised to find it empty. The garage was business as usual, so where was Angie? She was usually the