“Oh, yeah.” He laughed, a sound that would follow me forever. “I’ve been told I get really hot. I’m surprised you didn’t kick me away in your sleep.”
I hadn’t even thought of that as an option. Asleep or awake, I don’t think I could muster up the strength to kick him away. I would throw myself off the edge of the bed before I did that.
Would I tell him that, though? Absolutely not. “I’m usually pretty… cold, I guess. So it works out. Not that I’ve slept with anyone besides my mom and Willow.”
“Really?”
“It’s just not something I do.”
Price pondered that for a moment with a thoughtful expression. “But you did it with me.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, spotting a smirk that riled me up to no end. “I—” I cleared my throat, but the lump there wouldn’t clear. “Well…” I tried again, not even sure what I was going to say. Did I admit that he’d broken through my control?
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to decide.
The door flew open just before a high-pitched scream echoed through the room. “Oh my God!”
Fight-or-flight kicked in, my body choosing flight just as Price’s did as well. We both pushed away from each other, my ass almost toppling over the edge. “It’s not what it looks like!”
“It looks like y’all still have used goddamn condoms right next to you!” Willow stared in shock—maybe horror—or another emotion entirely.
I stared back at her, wide-eyed and terrified. Willow had never walked in on me like this. There wasn’t a chance to. She had seen me beaten, bloody, and close to death more times than I could count. But she had never walked in on me naked and cuddling another man with bruises that didn’t relate to him.
Instead of turning away, Willow stomped further into the room with fury on her face. “Did you fucking do that to him?” She was looking at Price but pointing to me.
He and I shared a look of confusion before it dawned on me. “No!” I yelled, gripping the blankets tighter against myself. “Hedidn’t hurt me. The shit on my face—he actually patched me up.”
“Then who did, huh?” She put a hand on her hip.
I scrubbed a hand over my face in frustration, too wound up to remember the pain that would come once I did it. I grimaced, explaining faster than I could hide it. “He—I—Ugh, fuck, it’s a long story, okay? I’ll tell you later. Price didn’t hurt me, Willow. I mean it.”
The protective friend that she was, she stared at Price once more. “You’re hisboss.”
In any other situation, I would have laughed at the look on Price’s face. He looked utterly flabbergasted—a word I never thought I’d say again after leaving bumfuck nowhere.
He looked at me, looked at Willow, then looked at the wall with his mouth wide open and gaping. Finally, he took a deep breath and shrugged. “Technically?” I could feel his sigh through the bed as he sank further into it. “I know how it looks.”
“I’m glad someone does. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” She put a hand over her heart. “Crew, I know what you get into. I’ve watched you self-destruct for what feels like a million damn years. I never—and I mean never—imagined you’d go and shack up with one of your bosses!”
“Willow,” I tried. It was pointless. She was on a rampage.
“I have accepted you, turned my cheek, and defended you over and over. I have tried so hard. I thought once we left…” She quieted down, her voice cracking. I wished she were yelling again. Her anger, I could take.
This?
This felt worse than any hell I had put myself through.
Willow’s disappointment only cut deeper the more she spoke. “I thought we just had to hightail it outta the south. I dealt with it. You coming home after takin’ a beatin’ so bad, I—” She cut herself off, shaking her head with sorrow. “Crew, I can’t do it no more. And Price, I thought you were a better man. Puttin’ your hands on him like that?” Her accent bled through the anger, transporting us back to a time and place I thought we’d put behind us. “Well, you know what us southerners say when we really wanna scorn somebody?”
Price didn’t react right away. He shook his head slowly, barely looking up at Willow’s frame.
Willow scoffed in his direction. “Oh, honey, bless your heart. Now get the fuck outta my house!”
Not for the first time, she turned on her heel, showing me her back, and stomped down the hallway. I watched her go, my chest pounding with each heartbeat. She didn’t understand.
Why couldn’t she understand?
The silence was too much. Pressure built inside my room until I wasn’t sure my weak, human body would be able to withstand it.
