Page 102 of Defend Me
A few seconds after I knocked, Dean opened the door. His brows went up when he saw me.
“Hey, you good?”
I shook my head. He motioned me inside, then shut us in. My hands went to my hair and I pulled on it hard enough to hurt.
“Brooks kissed your ex,” I blurted.
“Motherfucker. What the hell?”
“I don’t know. I… Fuck, what is wrong with me? I should’ve known. You were right. He doesn’t care. I was a placeholder, a way to cure his boredom. Maybe it fed his ego knowing that I was obsessed with him.”
A knock on the door made me jump. Dean looked at me, then opened it. I nearly threw up when I saw who was standing in the hall.
“Go away,” Dean ordered. “I don’t want to see you.”
“It’s a good thing I’m not here for you, then.”
“He’s not interested either.”
“I need to talk to him.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “Just let him in.”
It looked like Dean would argue, but eventually, he huffed and opened the door further. Brooks looked at him a little smugly and there was a moment where I thought he’d get punched. I’d wondered why he chose to kiss Sadie and now I knew. He was being a petty asshole.
“Can we talk in here?” I asked Dean.
“Are you sure?”
I nodded, so he left the room. I felt very trapped when it was just me and Brooks. It didn’t help that he wouldn’t take his eyes off me. To keep myself from doing anything stupid, I sat on the floor and leaned back against the wall.
If all else failed, I could curl into a ball and hope the sun exploded.
Chapter 30
“Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart.”
Brooks
On my way to enlightenment- hopefully
Blech. Kissing Sadie was the opposite of a vibe. It was a straight up nope. It was downright traumatizing.
It was out of pocket to do something like that, but it was what I needed to get Tilian’s attention. Well, the kissing part. The choice of woman was to piss off Dean and help Linc and West.
Tilian hadn’t said a word to me since we got in the car, not for lack of trying on my part. Talking to other guys didn’t do the trick. Since subtleties didn’t seem to bother him, I took one for the team and now I was staring at him, sitting on the floor with his arms resting on his knees. And he still wouldn’t look at me.
“Tilian.”
He ignored me. Clearly, he was angry. That was part of the point. I wanted him mad because otherwise, he wouldn’t be fucking straight with me. He’d stand there and tell me I should find someone who could make me happy. For a minute there, I’d almost let him go, but if that’s what he really wanted, he’d have to tell me plainly.
“A duck walked up to a lemonade stand,” I started singing softly as I wandered around the room, touching random things. “He said to the man running the stand. Bum bum bum. Got any grapes? The man said no, we just sell-”
“Can you shut the fuck up?”
“Oh, you talk now.”
“What the hell do you want me to say?”
