I can easily go again, especially if I have at least a half hour in between.
She sweetly smiles at me. “Stop that, Ryder… That’s actually really tempting…”
I look her in the eyes, close enough to see her eyeliner has smudged a little. “One, you can call me Joey when we’re not fucking. Two, Andrew—which I am sure you’re worried about—can get fucked.I’mthe one fighting through Warlord and letting him ride my coattails, so if I want to spend my spare time with you, then that’smybusiness.”
Her warm, hazel eyes dart back and forth, and I notice one of them has a tinge of blue next to the iris. Something richer blooms in that gaze of hers, and I love watching that develop. I hated seeing her so flustered earlier.
She gently smiles, touching my neck. “Alright… I can’t say no to you.”
I’m about to kiss her, with the intent of sensuality rather than carnality, but a knock comes on the door. Julie’s legs squeeze tighter around me.
“Fucking occupied,” I grunt, glancing at the door.
“I know. I watched you walk in,” says a voice that grates on my ears and soul.
Julie’s eyes widen like she’s getting a fucking eye exam, and everything in me goes cold. “Get dressed. Wait here,” I quietly say.
Julie nods, all emotion pulling back in her gaze. I button myself up and wait for her pants to cover those lithe legs before I reach for the door.
I open it, shutting it behind me right away. I remove all warmth from my voice before I warn, “This counts as stalking, you know.”
Heather looks behind me at the closing door, her arms crossed, her low-cut shirt displaying her cleavage. Her brown eyes stare at me in contemplation. She blinks and looks away. “I want to talk.”
“Obviously.”
“You know, some men make a habit of dating nurses. I can see whatyoursis,” Heather quips.
“Get to the fucking point.”
“We deserve a second chance, Joey,” she opines, taking a step closer. “And I’ve been trying to get a hold of you, but you won’t answer. So, I had to stalk you down to the bathroom. I forgive you for this, forher. I know you don’t owe me anything. But I can’t stand around andnotdo anything. We didn’t part on good terms, and I want to fix that.”
My hands slip into my pockets, my pulse pounding in my neck. “It’s called giving you a fucking hint. Jesus, just leave me alone.”
She isn’t fazed. Initially, I used to like her resiliency, but that’s before I learned how far she’d go for vindication.
Heather quietly says, “I’mthe one that helped with your case, Joey. If it weren’t for me, you could have been behind bars for much longer. I gave you space with your sister, but now that you’re back in the game, I really want to give this another try. Don’t make me the enemy.”
I lean in, just so I make sure only she can hear me. “I spent time behind bars because of the shityoutold your brother. He’s the one that got me in there, butyourwords made him attack me, and now I got a lovely fucking scar for it. A lawyer would have worked just as well to get me out, which I was in the process of getting, and you know that. You only helped me foryourown gain, not to actually take care of me.”
I think about the scar on my back, remembering how that crazy motherfucker came at me with a butcher knife, and I damn near killed him while bleeding out myself. Cue my arrest for assault—while he recovered from a coma in the hospital—until Heather admitted I was defending myself.
All because Heather thought I’d cheated, when in reality, a girl—much like the ones here tonight—kissed me at an after-party. I had pushed her off, but Heather didn’t see that part.
Gossip and drama.
That’s the reason I suffered.
“I didn’t know. I just told him what I saw. You let that kiss linger longer than it should have, but that’s behind us. As soon as I realized I was wrong, I worked endlessly to get you out. I still care for you, Joey. I had no idea Alex would do that to you.”
Her brown eyes show the gravity of her statement, but they’re a stranger’s now. “That’s called accountability for your actions, not a reason to string me along in something I don’t want.”
“I can start rumors about you and your newfriend,” Heather states, her eyes widening with a crazy edge.
It’sthatedge that didn’t rear its head until a year in.
She pulls out her phone and shakes it at me. “I have pictures of you two coming in here. And of you at the gala. There’s one where she’s looking at you in ways she shouldn’t be. And one at the hotel where you two were having an intense conversation, like a lovers’ quarrel. And of tonight, when your hand was pretty low on her back. I’m pretty sure your coach might be interested in that.”
I don’t respond, and instead, just glare at her. The only thing going through my mind is Julie and what this will do to her. She seems to want to avoid shit like this, and here Heather is, lighting everything on fire.
