Page 40 of By His Side
I struggled out from the tangled sheets and grabbed a robe, aware of Felix’s eyes on me, but unsure of what I was supposed to say. My heart was beating too fast, and I concentrated on calming myself while I knotted the belt of my robe.
“Do you want me to come with you?”
I risked a glance at Felix, his brow lined with concern.
“No. Thank you, but no. It’ll be fine.” I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince. Me, Felix, or both of us. “It’s just Hayden.” Hayden, who could be more volatile than most. Hayden, who had a reputation for not keeping his thoughts to himself. Hayden, who was the one person—excluding my parents—whose opinion I cared about.
I couldn’t help feeling as I took the short trip down the stairs to answer Hayden’s summons that this must be what going to your execution felt like.
Chapter Seventeen
Felix
I didn’t care what Darien said. If he was getting flak for being discovered in bed with me, I wasn’t leaving him to face the music alone. Not when he’d done nothing wrong. By the time I pulled on enough clothes to be classed as relatively decent and made it downstairs, the living room door was firmly closed, opening it and walking in there a level of intrusion I wasn’t sure was warranted. Which left two options. Go back upstairs and leave them to it, or press my ear to the door and listen in on their conversation, ready to intervene if need be?
It turned out that Darien’s living room wasn’t that soundproof, no pressing of my ear to the door required for the conversation to reach me.
“…of course I know who that is. That’s fucking Felix Church.”
I winced. I’d known as soon as Darien’s brother had looked at me that he’d recognized me, but hearing it in stereo was worse than simply knowing.
“H, keep your voice down, please. I don’t want the neighbors knowing my business.”
“I bet you don’t.”
“We can talk about this like two rational human beings.” There was a level of pleading in Darien’s voice that I hated hearing.
“Please tell me, he’s not your client.”
Either Darien’s response was too quiet to hear, or more likely, he’d chosen to stay silent.
“D, what the hell are you playing at? You could lose your job if they find out.”
“I have it under control. I’m not stupid.”
“No? You could have fooled me. Is he living here?”
A long pause before Darien’s quietly spoken “yes.”
“What the hell!”
“He had nowhere else to go. Nowhere that would have worked, anyway. It was just meant to be for a short time, but then—”
“Then you started screwing each other’s brains out.”
“Actually, that was already happening, if you must know.”
Hayden’s laugh was brimming over with disbelief. “Levi said you had something on your mind, but I don’t think either of us could have dreamed it was something like this.”
“I’m an adult capable of making my own decisions. I don’t need my brother to sweep in and rescue me.”
“No? Are you sure about that? Because it looks to me like you do.”
“I think you’re being a hypocrite.”
“A hypocrite! How do you work that one out?”
“You and Levi were carrying on in secret. You were his employer. Not to mention that I’d trusted you with him. That didn’t stop the two of you from screwing, did it? And don’t use the fact that it turned out okay as an excuse. It could easily have been different.”
