I shut the door harder than necessary. “Sure. Come on in. Not like I’m in the middle of anything.”
He ignored the bite in my tone and did a slow turn, taking in my apartment with a kind of baffled curiosity. “It’s so… girly.”
“Yeah, well, I’m a girl. Surprise, surprise.”
His gaze found me again, and my skin reacted before my brain caught up. “I’ve noticed.”
That did something to me. Something highly inappropriate and inconvenient. Especially while I was trying to be moody.
I lifted my chin. “My eyes are up here, hotshot.”
That snapped him out of it, and his expression shifted. Like someone had pressed the play button on the actual reason he’d come here for.
“I want you to stop lying for me.”
My brain stuttered. “Wh-what?”
“You heard me,” he said, voice quiet but firm. “I can see what it’s doing to you. I’d rather take the heat than drag you down with me.”
“Did someone say something? What happened after you left? Are you okay?”
He raked a hand through his hair, pacing once, then stopping in the middle of my living room like he’d hit a wall. “I can’t keep letting you do this. I see what it’s doing to you. To your career. You’ve got so much to lose...”
My towel suddenly felt very insufficient. I folded my arms across my chest. “You came all the way here to tell me in person what could’ve gone in a text?”
“The lie ends now,” he said, decisive in that infuriating way he had when he thought he was doing the noble thing. “Let me handle the fallout from here. There’s no point in you getting sucked any deeper.”
I blinked at him. Shocked. Angry. Confused. And inexplicably wound tight in a way that made no goddamn sense.
My laugh was sharp, a cutting sound that pierced the pillowy shock I was in. “What the hell do you think it is we’ve been doing this whole time? You think there’s any deeper to get sucked? Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Hopper—”
“Don’t ‘Hopper’ me.” I crossed the floor so I was right in his face. Well, if he weren’t more than a head taller than me, I would’ve been right in his face. “This is it, Bouchard. We can’t get any more fucked than this. It’s not something I can just…not do anymore,or whatever you’re suggesting.”
He backed up, immediately defensive. “I didn’t think you’d be this upset over it. I’m giving you an out.”
“And I’m telling you there is no out. Don’t you get it?” My palms were sweating, which made zero sense considering I was dripping wet in the middle of my drafty living room. “You think I can just walk away now? After every line I’ve crossed to keep you on the ice?”
He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again. “I’m trying to protect you.”
“That is the stupidest idea you’ve had to date,” I shot back. “And you’ve had some shockers.”
His jaw tightened and when our eyes met, his gaze was practically on fire. “Need I remind you that crossing all those lines was your idea? I just went along with it because it kept me in the game.”
The audacity. The perfect timing. The way he looked so damn good saying it.
“Get the hell out.” My voice came out steady, even though my pulse was anything but.
He blinked, stunned. “Just hear me out.”
“I don’t wanna hear anything from you.” I backed off, clutching my towel to make sure I was still covered. Because I suddenly felt more exposed than when I didn’t have it. “I said leave.”
He hesitated, looking like he might actually regret what he’d just said. “You have to see where I’m coming from. You’ve been doing all this work, dealing with PR, management, covering my ass… I just figured it’ll work better if you let me be the one taking all the hits. You don’t deserve to go down with me.”
I looked at him with a mix of incredulity and fury twisting in my stomach. “Oh, so now it’s your sacrifice? The noble knight in shining armor swooping in to save the day? How convenient.”
“Reese…” he tried again.
