“True.I didn’t cut him in pieces and toss him to the hogs.”
“Fuck, Kash.Don’t you want to come home?Stay?”
I nodded.“More than anything.”
“Then act like it!”
Did that mean I had a chance at getting to stay?Cressida’s face last night when she’d come with my cock buried deep inside her flashed in my head.I’d be near her.Could I stay away from her?I’d spouted some shit about closure last night and let her think I’d left so that I could calm down.Get my head on straight.Watching her wipe tears from her cheeks as she walked into that house alone about broke me.But it had to be done.My staking a claim on her and carrying her off like a caveman wasn’t an option.
I had stood out there in the woods, watching her window well past the time her lamp turned off.The sun was threatening to rise when I finally walked back to my Hummer.I’d typed out and deleted at least ten text messages to her.
“I will.I am.Like I said, just went to talk to her.See how she was doing.Nothing more.”
He said nothing as he studied me for any sign of a lie.He wasn’t going to get one.I took another drink.
“Is that all?Can I go get a shower now?”I asked him sarcastically.
Hopefully, he left and didn’t hang around because I wasn’t taking a shower.Not while her scent clung to my skin.
“You promise me you’ll stay away from her?”he asked.
“Scout’s honor.”
“Funny,” he drawled.
I smirked and walked past him.He needed to leave so I could decide just how I was going to kill this brother of her stepmother’s once I found out who he was and where he lived.
Sixteen
Cressida
If I’d been asleep, I wouldn’t have heard it.The smallest creak of the floorboard outside the bedroom door.Wiping at my tears, I sat up, clutching the covers to my chest, and stared at the closed door.Nothing happened.Had I imagined it?
The doorknob turned then, and I held my breath.I knew without seeing him who it was.Kash had texted me again today.Told me to meet him outside at midnight.I hadn’t.I went to bed, only to lie here and cry.Midnight had come and gone.It was almost one thirty.
His tall, dark form slipped inside the room, and the door quietly closed behind him.The moonlight spilling in from the windows illuminated his face, and I hoped it didn’t shine on mine.I didn’t have to see myself to know my eyes were red and swollen.
“You need to leave,” I said in a hoarse whisper.“We had our closure,” I reminded him.
His long, muscular legs took only a few strides before he was there beside my bed.I didn’t want to make eye contact or turn so he could see my face, but he grabbed my chin roughly and forced it.He leaned down close to me, his gaze almost menacing.
“What?Did you think a fuck in the woods meant I forgave you?”he sneered.“You shredded me, my soul.Your betrayal didn’t just ruin my life; it ruined me.Destroyed me.”He leaned in closer, and I tried to pull my chin from his hold, but it tightened, and he held me there.“Yeah, Songbird, I fucked you.But my cock doesn’t seem to hold a grudge.”He let me go then with a shove that jerked my head to the side.
I was torn between anger and sorrow.Closing my eyes, I fought off the onset of more tears.They accomplished nothing and only made me appear guilty and weak.I was neither.
“Then leave,” I croaked.
“I wish like fuck I could.I wish the scent of you on my skin wasn’t so damn addictive that I can’t make myself take a shower.”
I pressed my lips together to hold in a sob, then took a steady breath.
“You hate me for something you think I did,” I said in a hoarse whisper.“But you never asked me.Never let me explain.”
“I saw it!”he hissed through his teeth, interrupting me.“I didn’t need a motherfucking detailed description or a lie!”
I didn’t know if it was the false accusation, his lack of faith in me, or simply four years of pain that caused it, but I snapped.
I jerked my head back around to face him, and my hands fisted in my lap as I dropped the covers.“But you’re here,” I said with more force.“So, you can listen or leave.”
