“No?” I pressed. “Are you sure? I won’t be mad, I just?—”
She shakes her head. “No. Nothing happened.”
The hotel parking lot is only half filled—cars parked too close to their lines, families tucked in uncomfortable beds, exhausted. I’ve gone the opposite direction, and now I’m bringing her back to a door that won’t keep anything out if the wrong thing wants in.
Adrenaline surges through me. My mind races to make sense of the facts I’ve ordered neatly. They still don’t equate to much. I’ve got an answer, but it isn’t one I like.
Someone accosted Reva in the bathroom. Someone slipped right beneath my watchful gaze and turned her on—touched her, stole her breath away and put a shine in her eyes.
And it sure as shit wasn’t me, no matter what she tried to tell herself.
She points me toward the entrance closest to her room. I snag a spot across the way, far enough away I’m uncomfortable letting her traverse the shadows alone.
No headlights followed us from the bar, but I know better than most: the real monsters don’t need headlights.
I head around to open the door for her, falling into step beside her. She stops and glares up at me. “You don’t have to walk me to my door, you know.”
“I’m walking you to your fucking door.”
She stomps away, muttering something indistinguishable, and I follow. Into the hotel, up a floor, down the hall. At her door, I stand and wait while shefumbles for her keycard like her hands refuse to obey. Like she’s still somewhere else, half in that bathroom, half in her own head.
I take the keycard from her trembling fingers and swipe it, the light switching from red to green, then push the door open. I sigh.
“Something happened to you back there,” I say.
She stares silently at the door.
“I don’t know what it was—well, I take that back. I have a pretty good idea, and I’m kicking my own ass for leaving you alone for a second. I’m pretty sure the last thing you want is for me to come in, but I really don’t want to leave you like this?—”
I can’t help it—there’s a faint bite beneath the words. I’m not mad at her. Not really.
More at the whole situation. I was supposed to be keeping an eye on her. Protecting her—from what, I’m not completely sure of. But I was supposed to be watching out.
So I’m mad.
Mad at whoever got around me, upended what I was working for,touched this girlwithout her explicit consent. Because I know she wouldn’t have consented if she hadn’t thought it was me there with her in that bathroom.
She freezes, glancing over her shoulder at me, turning me into a trap or a lifeline. Her tongue darts out to brush across her lower lip and the action snags my attention. My cock wakes up, stupid with anticipation.
Silence stretches.
Then she laughs once, sharp. “That’s the thing, Shiloh. I don’t know what I want.”
She pushes the door open a little further.
“But I don’t think I want you to leave me like this, either.”
Ash—
Okay, Ash. But I disagree. It doesn’t count.
Not really.
Things only count if someone remembers them. Otherwise they just…happen. And then they’re gone.
—Reva
CHAPTER FIVE
