“Whoa, what?” Lexie dragged out. “You had a girl in your bed? This one?” She pointed to me.
“No way, dude.” Nikko folded his hands behind his head, impressed.
“No, no. It’s not like that, guys.” Liam flashed his full white smile, waving a hand at them. He stepped closer, bringing our bodies flush against each other. “I’ve never touched this Little Fox. She’s too uptight for that. She probably still has her virginity wrapped in a pretty pink bow. Am I right?”
I let out a wicked laugh, my inner villain making her dramatic debut.
“You”—I poked his chest and put a couple of inches between us, staring up into his dark brown eyes—“are nothing but a pathetic, hollow shell of a man.”
Muscles danced along his jawline as he lowered his chin.
“Avery…” Lexie began.
“Stay out of it, Lex.” Liam raised his voice but kept his eyes focused on me.
“There’s nothing good inside of you. I don’t know what happened to you, but whatever it is doesn’t give you the fucking right to be such a disgusting human being.”
He stood up taller, trying to intimidate me with his size.
Well, the joke was on him because that wouldn’t work on me. Not when I had that much adrenaline coursing through my veins.
“Do you treat everyone this way, or do you specifically make a sport out of humiliating me in the worst ways possible?” He opened his mouth, but I lifted my head higher. “I don’t understand why anyone would want to be around you.” I looked him up and down once, those damn crows catching my eye for half a second. “You’re an asshole, just like your father. He’d be proud to know that—”
Before I could finish, he stalked forward and started backing me into a wall.
I’d struck a nerve.
My feet quickly shuffled across the scattered red and black rugs, trying to keep my balance. When I flattened my back against the wall, he dropped his forehead to mine and stared at me through long, dark eyelashes.
“Quite a speech, coming from you, sweetheart.” His guttural voice made my heart leap into my throat. “You want to talk about respect? Take a look in the mirror, you self-righteous bitch.”
“Liam!” Lexie shouted.
He bent down further, touching his nose to mine.
I turned my head to the side and his hot breath hit my cheek.
“If you saw yourself the way so many others see you, I don’t know how you could stand your own fucking reflection.”
My eyes burned as I struggled to keep my nerve. “I hate you,” I spat through my teeth, ignoring the fact that my hands were now trembling.
“What a shame,” he said mockingly, finally backing away.
I spotted the sheet of music he was using for reference—a page ripped from one of my dad’s journals.
His hands fell as he righted himself and looked me up and down in a distasteful way. He thrust his fingers through his hair and sauntered back to the microphone. “Get out of my studio. I’m working.”
I marched past him and snatched the sheet of paper out from in front of him. The moment I shred it into tiny pieces, I regretted it, knowing I’d never be able to put it back together again, but I was too close to crying to dwell on it. What was done was done.
“What the hell, Avery?” Nikko growled.
“If you ever come near me or my stuff again, I promise, you’ll regret it.”
Liam glanced towards Lexie and raised his brow, and then glared back down at me. “I don’t take kindly to threats, sweetheart.” His words were rough.
“And I don’t take kindly to being called sweetheart.”
10
