“Please,” Ace said, holding a hand to his head. It served to accentuate his black eye, sending a jolt of guilt down into the pit of my stomach. “You can’t leave me alone here. I need someone to stand guard in case he tries to jump me in the night.”
I knew he was half-joking, but…
I wanted to stay. I did. It was only pain that was making me leave. Being here was making me feel unlovable. If one person here wanted me to stay, then maybe…
Maybe I was wrong about that part, too.
Or maybe I was just addicted to torturing myself, and I was willing to go through even more pain if Ace would just pat me on the head at the end of all this and make me feel worthy for one more second.
“Okay,” I said, relaxing for the first time since the pool. I picked up my suitcase and put it back on the bed, where I could more easily unpack. “Okay. But only because I want to kick everyone’s ass at paintball.”
Ace chuckled. “That’s the spirit,” he said. “Maybe we can hit Xavi somewhere that’ll put him off being a horndog for a couple of days.”
I snorted. “Somehow, I doubt that would even work.”
“You’re right,” Ace said with a resigned sigh. “He’s happy giving or receiving, so it wouldn’t even slow him down.”
I blinked at this new piece of information – information which I didn’t necessarily actually need to know – but a second later I was wrenched out of that thought by a loud knock at the door.
“What the fuck?” Ace muttered. “Does he not learn?”
I shook my head in disbelief. “I guess not.”
Ace stalked a few steps towards the door and wrenched it open, irritation written in every line of his body. Maybe I’d been wrong about him. I’d thought of him as being like ice.
Today, he’d been angry at everything – and the element he was really most like was fire.
“Seriously,” he snapped as the door swung open. “I am absolutely fucking done with your –”
He stopped abruptly. I couldn’t see anything but his back from where I stood, but his reaction made me step forward two paces.
To see Aiden framed in the doorway in front of him.
“With my what?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow up into the air as he stood there, apparently not at all fazed by Ace’s anger.
Ace
I groaned at the sight of Aiden, taking a couple of steps back in case he decided to swing for me again. “I thought you were Xavi,” I said, reluctantly. I didn’t want him to think I was backing down from another fight, but that anger really wasn’t meant for him.
“Fair enough,” Aiden said. There was something about his manner that was way too light for someone being here for a fight. Actually, it felt way too light for someone who hadbeenin a fight. “Uh. So.”
“So,” I said pointedly, letting the word hang between us. I could feel my black eye throbbing, probably mostly because of the fact that I was in such close proximity to the man who caused it.
Aiden scratched the back of his neck. “Cade sent me to say sorry,” he said.
“That’s the worst apology I’ve ever heard,” I scoffed.
“Yeah, well, he’s right, though,” Aiden said. “I shouldn’t have hit you. I don’t know where that came from. The last person I hit was… uh…”
“Me?” Brody supplied helpfully.
Aiden scratched the back of his neck again. “… Yeah.”
I turned and looked at Brody and found myself grinning. “So, both of your enemies are now sharing a room.”
“I wouldn’t say enemies!” Aiden exclaimed. He covered his eyes with his hand for a moment. “Ugh. I’m not doing this right. I always say the wrong thing.”
“I know,” I said gleefully. It was one of Aiden’s core traits. He could always be relied upon to blurt out something that made you feel smart – because nothing you could say would ever come out as bad as what he said.
