"Blue didn't get to me," I snap and push away.
His eyes flash. "You sure about that?"
"One-hundred-percent sure!"
"Liar," he says softly, then grabs the back of my head and kisses me like he's rewriting my sentence.
A sound vibrates in his pocket. He freezes.
The shift is so abrupt I almost stumble.
He pulls back, breath coming hard, eyes still dark.
There's another buzz.
He curses, yanks out his phone, and the light from the screen splashes over his face. His jaw tightens like a steel trap. He mutters, "Fuck."
"What is it?" I ask, the hairs on my arms rising.
Brax meets my gaze, and the heat from a second ago is still there, tangled with something colder. "Adrian wants to talk to me. Now."
The room drops ten degrees.
He slides his phone back into his pocket, then cups my face. "I'll be back."
"When?"
His mouth curves, but it's tight. "Soon."
I try to stamp down the ache rising in my chest.
He leans in, presses a quick, hard kiss to my forehead this time, then steps away. He heads for the door.
"Brax."
He pauses, turning back.
I hold his gaze. "Be smart."
His eyes soften just a fraction. "Always." Then he's gone, and the door clicks shut behind him.
I stand in the middle of my living room with my breath still uneven, my lips swollen, and jealousy snarling somewhere in my rib cage alongside something worse.
Hope.
For a few minutes, his mouth made the world smaller. Nothing else existed except us.
More than ever, I wanted it that way.
22
Brax
My pulse charges through me like it's trying to split my ribs apart. I slam the SUV door outside Adrian's building and stomp toward the entrance.
Adrian has no right to summon me like he's Liam, but there's no way I'm risking him showing up at Valentina's door. And our talk is long overdue.
I don't check in at security, and they don't attempt to stop me. I get into the elevator, press my palm on the screen, and it rises quickly to the penthouse. I step out into the lobby, past the open door, and come face-to-face with Adrian and Blue.
