“I see you’re still mad at me,” he says, giving me a cocky smile.
There’s nothing I want more than to reach out and smack that look right off of his face, but that would mean I’d have to touch him, and I will not touch Mathis Perry.
“Gee, I wonder why.” Crossing my arms over my chest, I put on my invisible armor. Mathis is good at charming his way out sticky situations. “Did you really come here to rehash all of the reasons I hate you?”
My words hit their mark, and Mathis’s smile falters. “Hate is such a strong word to come from such a beautiful mouth.” His eyes roam over my body, but the look doesn’t affect me the way it used to—the way he wants it to. “You changed your hair. It looks nice.”
“Enough, Mathis,” I growl. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” He holds his arms out. “I came for you. I want you.”
“You lost me when you screwed my best friend and then again when you told the cops—”
“And you never let me explain…or apologize,” he interrupts.
Is he serious right now?
“There’s nothing to explain, Mathis, and I don’t want your empty apologies. You stuck your dick inside another woman when you were in a committed relationship. You lied and got me arrested. Created rumors I still can’t get rid of.”
Not much gets to Mathis, but surprisingly, he flinches at my words. “Lizzie meant nothing to me,” he says. “She was a mistake.”
“Then what about the rest of the women that you cheated on me with? What were they?”
Fuck. Why am I even doing this with him?
“It doesn’t matter.” I wave my hand dismissively. “Even if I could move past your sexual indiscretions—which I can’t and won’t—do you really think I could get past everything else you’ve done? We’re over, Mathis. You need to understand that.”
“We’re not over,” he says, eerily calm. “We’ll never be over, Leni. You. Are. Mine. We belong together. We deserve this.”
I open my mouth to talk, but Mathis keeps talking.
“Your parents thought it was best you get away, and it probably was, so I let you come here and have some time to yourself. But if you think for one second that playing house and shacking up with some low-life single dad would—”
My hand whips through the air so quickly that even I don’t see the impact coming. Mathis’s head reels back when my palm connects with his cheek, cutting off his hateful words.
“Don’t you ever speak about Noah like that again,” I seethe, closing the distance between us. I shove at his chest, anger and adrenaline pumping through my veins, sending him back another step. “He’s twice the man you’ll ever be.”
“He’s no one,” he spits, gritting his teeth as he rubs his jaw. “He’s a fucking mechanic.”
Blood pumps through my body with so much force that my head throbs. My skin is on fire. “I don’t care what he is or what he does, because he’s mine!” I yell. “He’s kind and gentle. He compliments me and treats me with respect, and I love him more than I ever loved you.”
No truer words have ever come from my mouth.
I love Noah.
I love him.
My only regret is that the first time I said so, it wasn’t to him.
“You barely know him,” Mathis throws back.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Charlotte peek around the corner, phone pressed to her ear, and I can only imagine what’s going through her head. This isn’t me. I don’t fight and sling hateful words at people. This is what Mathis brings out in me: the worst. And I’m done letting him influence me.
My love for Noah seeps through my heart, filters through every cell in my body, and plants itself in my soul.
“It doesn’t matter,” I say, my anger slowly dissipating.
“You’ve been brainwashed.” Mathis shakes his head in disgust. “You can’t fall in love with someone that fast.”