34. Lev
After extracting myself from Lydia’s claws, I go in search of Brooke and find her shrugging on her coat.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m leaving.”
I’m not blind. I can tell she’s pissed at me.
“We’re not done here,” I say.
“You might not be, but I am.”
She pushes past me and storms out the door.
I catch up with her as she’s climbing into the car. She slams the door on me and locks it so I’m forced to get in from the other side.
During the car ride home, she clams up and stares out the window.
And because I don’t like games, I don’t press her.
I’m not going to pander to her mood.
If she’s got something to say, she can damn well say it.
But when we arrive home and she tries to storm off to her room, I stop her.
She’s not getting out of this that easy.
“Oh no you don’t,” I growl. “You don’t get to throw all your toys out of the playpen and then storm off. I won’t play games—you either tell me what is wrong, or you can lock yourself in your room and don’t come out until you’re ready to talk.”
Luckily, I don’t have to wait because she’s pissed enough to want to get it off her chest.
“I heard you talking to that woman.”
“Who?”
“The blonde lady who looks at you like she wants to lick you to death with her tongue.”
Lydia.
“So what?” I ask. Then I remember what we were talking about and put two and two together.
“I heard what you said about me.”
“Lydia is a gossip. If she thinks I have one ounce of interest in you, she will use her resources to find out everything about you. And she’s like a fucking bloodhound. She finds out everything. And right now, I don’t need that headache. So yes, I fucking said what I said.”
The moment I saw Lydia fucking Jones, I realized I would need to deal with her loose lips. She’s renowned for spilling everyone’s tea. And while the threat of what she’ll find out if she digs into Brooke’s past is minimal, it’s a fucking pain in the ass I could do without right now.
When I saw her, I reacted. Thought it was better to downplay Brooke’s presence.
But seeing how hurt Brooke is tells me I was too convincing.
“You called me vanilla. Is that what you really think?”
“Is that what this is about?”
“No, it’s about me thinking you aren’t completely soulless one minute only to have you prove me wrong in the next.”
“By lying to some spoiled, nosy gossip because I don’t want her digging into your past and finding Wilson, then digging some more?”
“That would only matter if you killed him,” she yells.
“And that’s not off the table yet,” I yell back.
She folds her arms and glares at me, and I can see that I’ve hurt her.
Which makes me feel worse than it should, considering she’s just a means to an end.
Fuck.
“I heard you, Lev.” Her big eyes try to hide it, but she’s wounded. And damn, if that doesn’t make me feel like shit.
I soften my voice. “Because in my world, I have to be convincing. Especially when I’m lying.”
“Yeah, well, your world sucks, and I can’t wait to get away from it.”
She eyes the doorway, and I know she’s going to try and flee.
And when she does, I storm after her and catch her wrist and press her against the wall.
She struggles. “Let me go.”
“Not until you listen to me.”
“I don’t care what you have to say. Apparently, you’re good at lying, remember? Your words, not mine.”
My eyes drop to her lips. This close, I can see her pulse racing in her throat, right above the choker of diamonds I slid around it.
I lean forward and graze my lips to her ear. “What would you have me tell her, huh? How much I want to tear that dress off you so I can taste your skin? How much I want to hear you moan my name while you’re writhing beneath me? How I want to fuck you so badly I can barely stand it.”
She struggles in my grasp. “Don’t.”
But it’s a weak protest. Her eyes are full of heat.
“You want me to tell her how much I want to spend the night buried so damn deep in your pussy it drives me to distraction every time I see you.”
She struggles harder. “Go to hell. As soon as Wilson returns, I’m out of here.”
Our eyes lock in a heated standoff.
“I’m afraid that’s an impossibility,” I say.
“Why?”
“Because Wilson isn’t coming back.”