Chapter 296


    “What point?” she asked him usingly, anger and emotion all over that face. So confused. He


    scrubbed his hands through his ruffled hair and sighed, grasping at some sense of control and thinking


    he should just have got out and gone for a walk, but he didn’t.


    “What does it matter?” his voice was deted. He was deted and tired. He was giving up and just


    wanted to go back to the boat and forget this day ever started.


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    “Fuck you!” Emma screeched at him angrily, tears filling her eyes and shocking all the anger out of him.


    She had never actually sworn at him while yelling like that, and he was rendered momentarily


    speechless.


    He hadn’t ever seen Emma scream at him quite like that either,plete emotional rage. She turned,


    shoving the car door open, and was gone in a sh, storming away from the car. Impulsively, he


    followed in hot pursuit. Guilt eating at him and an inability to ever just let her be upset, even if he was


    the cause.


    Fuck, fuck, fuck.


    He caught up in seconds as she stalked toward the road, pulling her back into him and spinning her


    around to face him, tear-stained and all and it just hit him in the stomach like a punch. Emma crying


    was something he could never handle, she rarely did it, and when she did, he felt like the biggest


    dickhead on the. He hated seeing her cry, it wounded him in ways he could never exin.


    She tried to fight him off angrily sobbing, but he just folded her into his embrace, pushing his face into


    her hair and cradling her so she couldn’t get away, trying to soothe her.


    “I’m sorry … Emma, stop … Emma. I’m sorry.” His voice was raw and strained. She kept fighting but


    was losing against his sheer size and strength, she was no match. He just held her close, stopping her


    outbursts and trying to cuddle her in until she finally began to slump and give up the effort. Finally


    stilling in his arms, silently crying against him yet not really cuddling him back. He knew if he let her go


    she would still walk off.


    “I don’t want to fight with you.” His voice was quieter, closer to her ear, his crazy mood taking a new


    direction again and just trying to stop the stupidity between them. No matter how he felt for her, above


    all she was meant to be his friend and friends didn’t hurt each other like this.


    “I don’t want to fight either.” She swallowed a sob. Slumping into him dejectedly and he could only hold


    her closer, that horrid feeling of sadness sweeping through him once more.


    “Maybe we should go back to the boat.” He sounded tired, he was emotionally exhausted and


    physically fatigued from the events of thest twelve hours. He had no fight left in him and right now all


    he wanted to do was lie down and try to block all of this out of his head for a few hours.


    “Maybe,” she whispered with slight relief and Jake just snapped at her easy agreement. Losing his


    temper erratically for no obvious reason other than all of this just fucking sucked and he wanted her to


    care more about it. He couldn’t exin or control any of this anymore.


    “No,” he snapped, surprising her and making her tense in his arms, looking up with a look of pure


    confusion.


    Fuck this shit … Fuck her and everything she did to him!


    He stalked to the car quelling the urge to push her away from him, cing his hands on the hood in a


    bid to stop the angry energy surging through his entire body. He needed to go to a gym and beat


    another boxing bag to death to get rid of it this time. ring at the hood of the car and wondering how


    much damage he could inflict before his hands gave out.


    “I can’t do this, Emma,” he snapped, his gaze was steady on the hood of the low sleek car. He


    clenched a fist and went for a punch, stopping it millimeters from the hood andying his palm back t


    on the hot sun heated surface. Deep breathing to try to curb every internal crazy impulse.


    “Do what?” Emma tried softly, keeping her distance and obviously a little wary of his mood. He tried to


    quell it some more for her sake.


    “This! Us!” He waved his hand in an exasperated motion, turning back to her, looking at her with sheer


    frustration and frowned.


    “You drive me crazy … and not in a good way.” He sighed. Facing the car again. His body emanating


    all kinds of crazy signals no doubt, but he had no control over all the crazy messed up emotions


    colliding from months of this hell with her.


    “I do?” Her small fragile voice soundedpletely surprised. She had no clue at all the effect she had


    on him which only strengthened the fact she saw only friendship between them. She was so innocent


    and na?ve to what this really was for him.


    Too angelic for words.


    He sighed again, and his face tensed.


    “You frustrate me on so many levels.” He carried on, deted again. Just so fed up with everything that


    this was.


    “Sorry,” she murmured sarcastically, he could tell she was probably rolling her eyes too, while he


    wanted to just forget he ever met her. He threw her an unamused look over his shoulder, seeing her


    look down to twiddle her fingers nervously and it only made him sigh. Looking back at the car to get a


    grip on himself and reality, he began kicking at the solid rubber of the tire with his boot toe childishly,


    trying to just distract his head from the urge to throw something. He needed to self-calm.


    “Why do you never talk about your childhood?” His tone softened, new direction, trying to change this


    whole topic to something else … anything. He didn’t even know why he would choose this topic among


    them all. He just needed to talk about anything else, maybe a little insight into her past would help him


    understand why she was this way. Simmer his anger.


    “What?” He heard the defensive scared tone in her voice instantly and it didn’t help with his own mood.


    “There’s nothing to talk about … You have knowledge of the highlights,” she said drily, that warning


    tone in her voice she used when the conversation was over.


    “I know bits and pieces, Emma, mostly from getting you drunk.” He red at her usingly, so pissed


    at everything right now, even though he was trying to dampen it. Especially this one-sided fucking


    rtionship they had and the fact that after everything, she couldn’t even let him know the details of her


    past. It said a lot about how she felt about him.


    “Where is this going?” Emma red back at him suspiciously, always closing him out. He was sick of


    being shut out.


    “It hurt you?” His eyes came to rest on her, trying to push every ounce of aggression away again with a


    mammoth effort and barely holding on. She messed him up in so many ways, and she just had no clue


    at all.


    She looked away, crossing her arms around her body protectively and he just sighed and crumbled


    inside. He was mad, he wanted to be mad but somehow all she ever did was make him feel guilty and


    want to stop being angry with her. No wonder he was all over the ce. He had no control over his own


    emotions.


    “It’s the past and it should stay there.” Her voice wobbled a little this time with raw pain, and she moved


    away to turn her back on him. Jake took that hint of softness as a signal that maybe this wasn’t the


    brick wall he was meeting this time after all.


    “Your mom? You don’t talk about her much either.” He pushed, his voice gentler, trying hard to just not


    be a dickhead. Coaxing her to open up about this gave him a little hope that he meant something to her


    at least. This topic was easier than the previous one and it was something he had always wanted to


    know. It was distracting him from his anger, which was a good thing.


    “She’s my mom … What else is there to say?” She replied coldly, still keeping her back to him defiantly.


    “Tell me about her.” He turned on the hood of the car and sat down to watch her, intrigued that for once


    he wasn’t having to battle any information out of her and it was helping take his mind off other matters.


    Her poise was hostile and stiff, but she hadn’t ended the conversation and closed up in true PA fashion


    like normal.


    “My mom is a sucker for a sob story.” Her voice was raspy with emotion yet held a hint of anger, at him


    or her mother he wasn’t sure. He hated knowing that she had never had the childhood she deserved,


    hated knowing she had been hurt in ways that someone like her should have never endured. “That’s


    about all there is to her.”