Three #2
“Hmm.” He took his time straightening the collar of his navy button-up shirt. “It seems I was mistaken about you, which is… disappointing, to say the least.”
My brows lifted. “How so?”
“I value traditional customs,” he said. “I was under the impression you did, too.”
His formal, old-worldy way of speaking might have been charming coming from anyone else, but he only used it to elevate himself above others. “How does this relate to Theo’s rent payment, and what gave you the impression we value the same customs?”
“Your lack of gentlemen callers. You’ve never had overnight visitors.” His mouth twisted. “Unlike your neighbour.”
I frowned. “How do you know who’s been staying where?” Dustin lived on the ground floor. Before Ultimus restrictions kicked in, he only came upstairs on rare occasions for building-related matters.
“I see guests come and go through the foyer.”
He’d have to be watching the doors day and night. “And you’re saying Theo has gentlemen callers?” I asked with faux innocence.
“You’re misunderstanding me, Miss Wentworth, and I suspect you’re doing it facetiously.” He pressed his lips into a firm line and expelled a sharp breath. “I’m referring to females. He entertains females—the type with loose morals.”
Oh, females. Now I knew what had been keeping him busy during those long, solitary hours in his apartment: a steady diet of porn and podcasts.
Besides, no one had been entertaining non-residents for the better part of a year. Not even Theo. “Do you mean women?”
His face turned deep crimson, and his hands flexed at his sides. I’d bet anything he wanted to wrap them around my neck. “It’s the same thing, is it not?”
He’d never been violent toward me or done anything I considered intimidating, but everyone had to start somewhere.
The bottle green walls on either side of me closed in, and the weight on my chest intensified. I curled my hand into a fist and estimated there were five steps between me and Theo’s door. “You’re being obtuse, Mr. Kerger, and I suspect you’re doing it deliberately.”
His body turned rigid as if about to lunge, his glare cutting straight through me. Whatever ideas he’d clung to about me had just been obliterated.
“Pardon me,” he said. “I didn’t take you for the type who likes to be used and abused like those women Theodore entertains.
No matter how poorly they treat you, you keep coming back for more, don’t you?
” He stared down his nose, his eyes glittering from behind his glasses.
“With the money you’ve spent on him, would it be safe to assume you’ve been opening your legs for him, too? ”
A silent beat passed. Heat bubbled to the surface, but I kept my voice even. “We’re done here,” I said. “Don’t approach me. Don’t look at me—and never speak to me again.”
“I’ve hit a nerve.” The edge of his mouth curled, and he stared at me for too long. “The truth tends to have that effect.”
This man wouldn’t know the truth if it punched him in his smug face. “Nothing you said hit a nerve. I’m just appalled you think it’s acceptable to speak to me in that way.” My body coiled tight, but I schooled my expression, too stubborn to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d unnerved me.
When I took a couple of sideways steps, he moved directly into my path, avoiding eye contact as if to make it seem unintentional.
How he’d ever got the impression we were alike floored me. “Move, Dustin,” I said, as the bass inside Theo’s apartment went quiet. “If you try to stop me from walking away, it won’t go well for you.”
Something cold and terrifying flitted through his eyes.
Knowing so little about him, I couldn’t predict his next move, but he’d chosen the wrong spot to corner me. We were too exposed in the corridor, and Varesh would come looking for me if I didn’t meet him downstairs.
Like the pretentious dick he was, Dustin took an exaggerated step back and swept his hand out, making me out to be an unreasonable, overreacting female.
Fine. Whatever. If he needed this win for his ego, he could take it. It made no difference to me as long as he stayed out of my way.
Before I could attempt to pass him again, Theo’s door opened, and he stepped out into the hall wearing well-loved jeans and a grey hoodie.
The ends of a mask peeked from his pocket as if he was on his way out somewhere.
The trapped feeling instantly disappeared, and I drew a deep lungful of air for the first time in minutes.
The light from the brass wall sconce beside his head created subtle shadows across his features. He spotted me, and a tentative smile formed, but the moment he clocked Dustin’s presence, his eyes narrowed. “Looks like a party out here. What’s going on?”
Dustin cleared his throat and swiped his hair from his forehead. “Miss Wentworth and I were having a discussion.”
Theo scanned my features again, paying closer attention this time. Whatever he saw had him pinning Dustin in place with just a stare. “What about?”
Dustin’s chin lifted a fraction. “Nothing that requires your input.”
The best way to create a permanent divide between Dustin and me was to throw him under the bus—and hope it reversed over him. “He accused me of opening my legs for you,” I said, my cheeks instantly flaming.
Theo choked on air and appeared genuinely surprised.
It took him a matter of seconds to recover, but rather than making a joke or pointing out how red my face had become, he focused his attention where it belonged.
“Any man who uses that phrase automatically outs himself as the most boring ass bag of shit in bed, if he ever gets to touch a woman at all.”
A thrill shot through me, and I held my breath.
Dustin’s eyes flicked from me to Theo. “I wanted to avoid being crass with my wording, which is clearly never a consideration for you.”
Theo let out a humourless laugh. “That was you not being crass? You’re lucky she didn’t slap you.” He spared me a glance before focusing on Dustin. “How does it involve you, anyway?”
He looked down his narrow nose. “I’m the manager.”
“And?”
His posture went ramrod straight. “It’s my responsibility to take care of the premises. I should know what’s happening here.”
Theo frowned and shoved his hands in his pockets. “You want to know all the ins and outs of everyone’s sex lives? Do you hear yourself?”
“I’m responsible for the people who live here—and there are children in the building. I need to know if Miss Wentworth’s behaving like a whore.”
A whore. A whore? “Who the hell do you think you are?” My hands clenched at my sides, and it took all my willpower not to launch myself at him. If Ava had been here, she would have torn him to shreds.
Theo didn’t move, and he stared at Dustin so hard I almost cowered. “Talk about her like that again, and I’ll put you through the fucking wall.”
My stomach lurched, and heat flooded my cheeks.
“It’s so typical of men like you to resort to violence,” he said. “You lack intelligence, and your behaviour is so primitive.”
“And yet here you are, testing me.”
A long, tension-filled silence followed.
No one spoke or made a move until Dustin finally caved and took a small step backwards.
But he hadn’t finished slinging insults.
“How you’re able to hold your head high and call yourself a man astounds me,” he said with a sneer.
“It should embarrass you being financially supported by a female, but you see no shame in having one pay your rent. No shame at all. You’re so laughably pathetic. I’m mortified on your behalf.”
“Someone paid my rent?” His eyes went wide, his gaze flicking to me. “I have a sugar mama?”
With a blank expression, I gave him a one-shoulder shrug. Now wasn’t the time to divulge that piece of information. I needed a chance to explain it properly, and I wouldn’t rush into it with an audience—especially one who’d relish Theo’s reaction.
Varesh’s voice drifted up from the foyer. “Sadie, milady! Where are you?”
If I left the two of them together, Dustin would spill my secret just to humiliate Theo, and our friendship might be ruined before it even got off the ground.
“I’m running an errand with Varesh,” I said to Theo, latching onto the only solution I could come up with under pressure. “I need to grab a few things, and I could use an extra pair of hands. Do you want to come?”
Theo checked behind him as if I might mean someone else, his expression so innocent and confused it bordered on adorable. “Do I want to come?” he asked.
I nodded and ignored Dustin, just in case he picked up on the panic in my eyes. In seconds at most, he’d go ahead and throw the grenade anyway. “But I need to go now.”
Please say yes. If he rejected my invitation, I might never ask him to do anything again.
Theo’s fleeting smile was so big it knocked the air out of me. He patted the front pockets of his jeans and checked he had what he needed. “Yeah, I’ll come with you.”
“On my way!” I called down to Varesh, encouraging Theo with a tilt of my head.
“Let’s do it,” he said.
As we hurried toward the stairs together, I threw a glance over my shoulder, making sure Dustin wasn’t following us.
The careful adjustment of his glasses, the way he watched me…
Unease prickled my skin, and I sucked in a sharp breath. I may have gotten the upper hand this time around, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t be our last confrontation.