That was the problem.
Swallowing, I pop the driver’s side door, move around to hers and tug open the metal panel.
Briar doesn’t move so I unbuckle her belt, wrap my fingers around her wrist and draw her out of the car. But she doesn’t fight me either.
Not as I guide her to the elevator, not as I bring her up to the penthouse.
Not as I unlock my door and she walks inside.
“Bathroom?” she asks in that cold, dead voice before I can say anything…or figure out what to say, anyway.
I nod down the hall then follow her, flicking on lights and pushing open the door when we reach the hall bath.
But when she goes to shut it, I grip the wooden panel. “No.”
I expect a tart reply, something snarky about picking up a kink.
Instead, she just shakes her head and moves to the mirror, fingers sinking into the wig.
Plink. Plink. Plink.
Pins slide out of her hair, drop onto the counter.
I lean back against the doorframe, watching her, on edge for her to attack me again, for cold, dead words that slide deep. But also bleeding out.
Because I watched her like this so many times before.
Wiping off her makeup, putting shit on her face that was supposed to make her more beautiful (fucking impossible), and my favorite—taking down her hair.
Combing it with long, slow strokes, putting something in the ends that smelled incredible.
Sometimes she would let me comb it for her…
And I’d always find a way to do it with both of us naked.
Theplinksof the pins on the counter stop and I find myself holding my breath as she reaches up again, as the wig slides free.
She sets it on the counter.
My lungs seize.
Moonlight hair.
A slender neck.
Earlobes I used to nibble at, a jaw I would press my nose to and inhale, a nose I’d kiss, staring into eyes filled with laughter.
In short, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
Then she undoes the tight bun, releasing those locks, and the edges of my vision go black.
TEN
BRIAR
I’m barely holdingit together, especially with him standing there.
My fingers fumble with the pins, tremble as I draw off the wig, shake when I take down the bun.
