Chapter Nineteen
Charley
The insults have finally stopped. There is no point lying here calling myself stupid and delusional that someone like Callum could want me.
If anyone deserves the name calling its him.
In my limited experience, men are all assholes.
No one is different. It says everything that someone like Callum who is sweet and protective and generous turns out to be an ass.
Lily’s roommate was okay with me crashing here tonight, and maybe tomorrow but I get the feeling any longer than that and I’d be unwelcome.
Which is why I’m sitting up on the makeshift bed on the couch, wrapped in a fluffy blanket, filling in applications for apartments that no one will see till tomorrow.
At least I’m ahead of the game. If I can’t get a place in the next couple of days, I’ll stay in a hotel till I can. I have the money now to afford a fairly decent one. It will eat my money but I’d rather be there than another place I’m not wanted.
Lily sat up with me for a while and we had a few drinks commiserating and berating men. It slipped out that I did in fact sleep with Nashville. She congratulated me despite calling him a dirty name telling me that some of the girls had been trying to get with Nashville for years.
She’d drank a little too much that her filter slipped, and she told me Tami was the one who gave him a blow job in the back room the night I first laid eyes on him.
She apologized straight away, and I waved it off, but shit…
of all the women there it had to be Tami, who has made no secret of not liking me.
Maybe that makes more sense now. Because apparently everyone knows I was staying with him and driving his car.
Being alone, having no friends, no ties was good for me. I don’t like this feeling I’m experiencing now, or the re-runs my brain keeps showing me of Nashville standing between that woman’s spread legs, smiling at her like she was the only thing making him happy.
The door buzzer scares the shit out of me and I drop my phone into the pile of blankets.
“What is it with me and doorbells,” I mutter.
It sounds again and I get up. It’s got to be someone for Lily or her roommate but it’s really late. It’s probably someone who is drunk and pressing the wrong buzzer. As I head to the hallway, I trip over a shoe and kick the table leg and curse, swearing whoever this is will get a mouthful.
I slap the intercom button and snap, “who is this?” It’s silent, spiking my anger. “This isn’t funny, do you have nothing better to do than ring random apartments? Get a life asshole.”
“Charley?”
I pause with my finger on the button, my breath catching.
“Charley?” he repeats my name.
“Go away Nashville.”
“Nashville?” he asks, sounding hurt.
That only makes me madder. “Go home, I’m fine, not your problem anymore.”
“What? Charley, you’re not my problem. I was worried sick about you.”
“Right okay.”
“What is wrong? What’s going on. Can you let me up so we don’t have to talk through an intercom?”
“No.”
“Seriously?”
“It’s two in the morning, I’d like to go to sleep and not disturb my roommate.”
“I’m not leaving. If you hang up, I’ll just keep buzzing.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean why?” he asks, the exasperation clear. “I came home to find you gone, all your things gone. No explanation.”
“You did me a favor and now you don’t need to. I have somewhere else to stay. Goodnight.”
His voice cuts off and I step back, leaning against the wall opposite the intercom. How could he sound so shocked and concerned? Wow, men are really good at manipulation.
It buzzes again, and again, to the point I’m sure Lily’s roommate is going to come out and kick me out. I answer again and whisper shout at him to go away.
“Not happening, Charley. I’m getting pissed now. Let me in so we can talk.”
God. Fine. I can tell him to his face what an ass he is. “I’ll be down in two minutes, do not leave the lobby.” I open the door and step back again.
A light has come on in the hallway to the bedrooms. Lily is standing there squinting at me.
“What’s going on?” she mumbles.
“Nothing, go back to bed.”
“Was that the buzzer?”
“It was prank callers, ringing bells.”
“Fucking idiots got nothing better to do,” she rubs her eyes. “Sorry it disturbed you.”
“Don’t worry, just go back to bed.”
Luckily she is too sleepy to question my frantic pulse and panicked movements. Get a grip, Charley, just go down and tell him to leave you alone. Maybe throw in he is a bastard… Or maybe just pretend you never saw what he did and let him stew.
I dress quickly, grab a coat, the keys to the apartment and my phone and head out to the elevator. The lights are motion detection in the hallway and are already on when I step outside. I about jump out of my skin when Nashville rounds a corner and walks toward me.
“I told you to wait downstairs,” I hiss, pulling the door closed.
“I’m not big on being told what to do, Charley.” He looks me up and down and eyes the door behind me.
Lily’s apartment is the last on the hallway so I walk away from the door to the window at the end of the hall. I can feel him behind me even though he’s keeping his distance.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
“I could ask you the same thing,” he puts his hands on his hips, his face a mixture of confusion and irritation. “Why’d you leave?”
“Because I am getting my own place.” He frowns and looks at Lily’s door. “How did you even know where I am?”
“That’s not important.”
“It kind of is,” I snap. “Are you spying on me?”
“No, fuck. If I was spying, I would have known you left the house, but I had to track you down.”
I cross my arms and glare at him. He stares right back and my eyes are drawn to the pulse in his neck which is beating fast. I take a moment to study him.
How can he look that concerned about me, when he was standing between another woman’s legs just a couple of hours ago?
My heart hardens. We owe each other nothing, I barely know this man.
“Charley?” he takes a step closer, his eyes softening. “Tell me what happened? Why did you leave?”
He doesn’t get to make me feel bad about this. I’m also not going to make myself look foolish by saying what I saw.
“She saw you at the bar with the woman in the red leather pants.”
We both turn to see Lily in the doorway to her apartment. She has a robe on this time over her tiny pajama shorts, and the fluffy white socks on her feet.
“The what?” Nashville looks at her, then back at me.
I refuse to make eye contact with him, or Lily. How could she do this to me? I’ve never been more embarrassed.
“The Disciples bar, earlier. We came for a drink and saw you all over some other woman.”
“Lily,” I hold up a hand to her. “Don’t try to help.”
“He should know.”
“Thanks for telling me,” Nashville says, then stares at her until she gets the picture and goes back inside. He heaves out a long breath then looks at me. “Get your things.”
“Excuse me.”
“We’re going to talk about this but not in the hallway of some random apartment building. It’s late, we’re both tired but we can figure this out.”
“I’m not going back with you. I’m moving into my own place. Soon.”
“Nice try,” he smirks. “Come on, get your things.”
“You might get other people to do what you want but I’m not one of them.”
“I was talking to Raven, the owner of the bar, sister of my Vice President,” He moves right up to me, and I take a step back.
“He will cut off my balls if I even dared try to touch his sister. We’ve been friends for years and I value my balls, so I won’t ever go there.
Now get your things, stop talking about finding somewhere else to go and just come back to the house. ”
“No thank you. I’m sorting out my own place.”
“Charley,” he backs me into the wall and moves his mouth close to my ear. “I’m not leaving here without you.”
“You’ll be hanging out in the hallway all night because I’m not-”
He moves so fast I barely have time to react, leaning forward, pushing his shoulder into my stomach and lifting me right off my feet, throwing me over his shoulder like I weigh nothing at all.
“Callum!” I shriek. “Put me down.”
“You’re going to wake the neighbors,” he turns and walks back toward the door where Lily is wide-eyed.
“Good, maybe they’ll call the police,” I snap back, arching my back so I can straighten up but he clamps a hand on my ass and turns so I have to lean back down and grab onto his cut.
“I’m not going to drop you,” he reassures. “But we are going to talk about this. At my house.”
“Nashville,” Lily says, sounding unsure but also amused.
If I could see her, I’d give her a stern look too. Is she really going to stand there and watch him kidnap me?
“I’ll be by to get her stuff tomorrow,” he tells her, gripping the back of my thighs to stop me wriggling out of his grasp.
I damn well am not leaving here without a fight, even if I have to grab the doorframe and cling on. He moves away from it as if he can read my mind and starts toward the elevator. I lift my head as I pass and Lily holds out her hands as if to say, ‘what am I supposed to do?’
“Girl code,” I grunt at her.
“It’s kind of hot,” she says.
Nashville laughs and doesn’t look back, and he is nonplussed when I bang my fists on his back. I am mindful of the neighbors which says a lot about me right now. If I really wanted out of this, I could get out of it by calling for help.
“Put me down,” I say when he enters the elevator.
“Nope.”
“I swear to God, if you don’t put me down right now I’m going to claw my way through this leather vest.”
In answer to that he bites my ass. Literally just sinks his teeth into it, fabric and all and I let out another squeal. He kisses it straight after, then lightly rubs it.
It was not hard enough to leave teeth marks. It also kind of did something to my insides, the kind of thing I shouldn’t be feeling when he is stealing me away in the middle of the night wearing nothing but a pair of thin cotton shorts, and a sweatshirt, with no bra underneath.