Stay away from her?
Not only was Inotgoing to stay away now, I was going to steal her right out from under him. I was going to make her mine in every sense of the word and flaunt her around in front of him until he realized what an insignificant prick he really was.
When would humans ever learn?
Never make an enemy out of a demon.
Chapter 3
Serenity
“BRADLEY,” I HUFFED, TRYING TO keep up with his long, angry strides as I followed him through the dark parking lot of the bar. “Slow down, please. What’s wrong? Why—”
He came to an abrupt stop by his truck and yanked me around to stand in front of him. I nearly tripped and fell into his truck, but he grabbed me by the upper arms and leaned down to get in my face.
“What did he say to you?” he demanded.
My brow furrowed, and I tried to ignore the heavy odor of alcohol coming off his breath. “Dante? He just offered to get my drink when I told him I was a fan, and after we got out of the crowd, I asked for a photo. That was it.”
“Are you lying?” he snapped, shaking me slightly.
“What? No! Why would I lie, Bradley?”
I tried pulling out of his grip, but his hold tightened. The blue eyes I’d loved staring into for the past eight years searched mine. Seemingly satisfied with whatever he saw there, he blew out a hard breath and dropped his forehead onto my shoulder. His fingers loosened where they restrained me.
“Sorry, Dollface,” he murmured into the crook of my neck. “I saw you typing into his phone and lost it.”
Heart tightening with guilt, I wrapped my arms around him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think about how that might look. I was just too excited over seeing my idol.”
“It’s okay.” He pulled back to look down at me while his arms moved to hold me close. “I just can’t handle the thought of you cheating on me or something.”
“You know I’d never do that.”
He smiled and kissed the tip of my nose. “I know. And you know I wouldn’t either, right?”
I shared his grin, even as pain lanced my heart. “Of course.”
I trusted Bradley. I didn’t think he’d ever hurt me that way, but I also never thought my dad, my hero, would betray my mother like that. When my dad’s infidelity came to light, it shattered my mom’s heart and our family. If the greatest man I knew could do that, why couldn’t Bradley? I tried to smother those meritless thoughts. They were my own internal issues trying to poison the present, and yet the dark fears remained in the back of my mind. Lurking. Waiting to rush forward.
Bradley squeezed me tighter and tipped his chin at his truck. “Want to get out of here?”
I nodded hard and fast. “Yes, please.”
I released the tense breath I’d practically been holding ever since Bradley called me to meet up with him and his friends. Because they certainly weren’tmyfriends. That group inside was the same crowd he’d been a part of in high school. Bradley had been the school’s star football athlete, and I was the chubby goth nobody that his friends loved to shit on.
We’d all grown up since then. Some of the guys, like John, had full beards now. Courtney and Cassidy had gotten toned from strict food and exercise regimens. My “baby fat” had shifted to gather in the shape of full, thick curves. Despite all signs of our physical growth, their maturity and snarky commentshadn’tchanged. They toned down a lot of it in frontof Bradley, but the jabs were there all the same—especially when he wasn’t around.
Bradley went to climb into his truck, but I quickly grabbed him, stopping the tall man in his tracks. “You’ve been drinking. I’ll drive.”
Bradley chuckled. “You’re the best. Thanks.”
I got into the driver’s seat of his truck and started toward his apartment complex. It was a drive I’d made thousands of times since he’d moved in four years ago. It often blew my mind how long we’d been together.
As two fourteen year olds, we’d been smitten with each other. After sharing a single art class in high school, I’d developed the biggest crush on the popular boy of my grade, and by some strange miracle, he’d felt the same. We were each other’s firsts for everything—first kiss, first formal dates, first time having sex.
I went to every single one of his football games, even though the crowds and noise stressed me out, but that unsettledness meant nothing in the face of my feelings for him back then. He was endgame for me. Or at least, teenage me thought that with her rose-colored glasses on.
Older me had doubts.
