“Why have you been doing this?” Dedrus whirled around, his face bright red.
Kinzer crawled up the cushion until he was sitting. He flashed a gaze back to Maggie’s room. “Can you keep it down?”
“You were leading me on.”
“What?”
“You knew what I wanted. Youknowhow I feel about you.” Dedrus clenched his fists. They trembled at either side of his briefs.
“How do you feel?”
“I love you!” Dedrus’s eyes stared into Kinzer’s with confidence, certainty, as if he wanted to make sure there was no doubt about the sincerity and conviction behind his confession.
How dare he say that to me!
Heat rushed to Kinzer’s face.
“No, you don’t.” Kinzer leaned over his legs. He grabbed his boxers off the floor and wiggled them on.
“Are you telling me what I feel?”
“I just don’t want to hear this bullshit.” Kinzer hopped to his feet, stepping to Dedrus so they were face to face. If he was finally going to confront this, then Kinzer wanted the truth.
“Bullshit? I told you that I loved you. You knew that.”
“Do you really think I believed it?”
The creases in Dedrus’s forehead twitched with his eyebrows. “We were together. I told you I wanted to be with you. I told you I wanted you to be the one—”
The more he spoke, the more it hurt Kinzer. How could he say these things? How could he act like he actually cared about him?
“I was very clear,” Dedrus insisted.
“Why don’t we ask Ryson how clear you were?”
Dedrus’s gaze shifted wall to wall. “Ryson? What about him?”
“Why don’t you tell me?”
“Nothing happened with—”
Kinzer lost it. He lunged forward, gripping Dedrus by his neck and shoving him against the wall beside the fireplace.
This wasn’t like the playful wrestling of their sexual escapades. It was pure, vicious rage.
“Don’t you fucking stand there and lie to me!” His jaw clenched.
He wanted to rip Dedrus apart. No matter how good of friends they’d been, no matter how much they’d been through together, no matter how much he’d helped him these past few days—he couldn’t bear Dedrus’s lying to his face.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Kinzer continued. “I deserve better than that. You look me in the eye and you tell me the truth.”
Tremors vibrated from Dedrus’s neck, through Kinzer’s hand.
Is he scared?
Dedrus hesitated, like he was being careful not to speak too soon. His gaze sank. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Kinzer’s nostrils flared. His fist rose, but he stopped it before it built up the necessary momentum to throw a punch. He released him and stepped back, turning away.
