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God, I was stupid for even thinking that.
He was an asshole. A genuinely horrible person, and I wanted nothing to do with him. Plus, I was technically dating someone, so there was that.
Sadly, the thought of Clayton didn’t make my heart beat near as hard.
My phone buzzed softly from my jeans on the floor. Staring at the distance, the last thing I trusted myself to do was bend down to pick it up, but it might have been Everly looking for me...or my dad.
Stretching down, I managed to curl a fingertip beneath the belt loop of my jeans and tug them up. When I straightened, my head reminded me with a single hard thump that I wasn’t fully recovered yet. It felt like my veins had been stripped away and my blood was sloshing around free of restraint.
Promising myself I’d never drink again, I hit the button on my phone and stared at the message.
Clayton: This isn’t working. I don’t think we should see each other anymore.
It was odd, that moment. I should have been upset, should have cared that a guy I’d been seeing would so rudely dump me over a text. But I couldn’t bring myself to care.
None of it mattered. I’d gotten what I wanted last night and it had to be enough.
Although I had to think that the timing was strange.
Forcing myself to my feet, I pulled on my clothes and padded barefoot into the hallway. After searching around for bit, I found a linen closet with clean towels, and the bathroom down the hall.
After showering and brushing my teeth, I felt like new, my stomach still rolling a bit from being empty, but it wasn’t anything some greasy food couldn’t fix.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a way home, so I went downstairs in search of Gabriel only to be standing near the front door when it slammed open.
Jumping in place at the bang, I stared wide eyed as Ta
From the state of him, I couldn’t tell which one it was, not that they were easy to tell apart when their faces weren’t busted to hell and swollen.
“Oh my god, what happened?”
Ta
“Is he okay?”
Moss green eyes met mine, pure malice behind them. Every bit of cruel humor you usually saw in Ta
Jabbing a finger toward the twin, he barked, “Keep an eye on him while I grab the other one.”
I would have argued with his harsh demand if it hadn’t been for the state of Damon...or Ezra. I wasn’t sure which one.
“Okay.”
Without another word, Ta
“Can I get you something? Water, or-“
Amber eyes barely peeled open to pin me in place, a growl erupting from his throat that was a good warning to get the hell back. I was more than happy to oblige.
When Ta
“What happened to them?”
Ta
“You need to help me get them upstairs.”
I would have helped, except the twins were twice my size.
“I don’t think I can carry them. But I’ll see if I can find Gabriel.”
Cursing under his breath, Ta
“Just watch Ezra while I do it myself.”
Ezra...finally I knew which was which.
It took him ten minutes to get Damon upstairs and come back for Ezra, and I followed him up on the second trip to see if there was anything I could do that didn’t involve holding up a man that must have weighed over two hundred pounds.
Ezra’s feet barely made it up the steps, but eventually we got him into his room and in bed.
Silently, we moved into the hall, neither of us having much to say to the other, not that Ta
We passed his room, and I walked into grab my shoes.
The door shut causing me to spin back.
Ta
His hair was a mess around his head, like he’d run his hands through it all night. And his eyes - I couldn’t breathe when I looked at them. They had the power to trap you in place, cage you behind impenetrable bars. His skin looked hollow beneath the sharp blades of his cheekbones, and his jaw moved in a way that drew my eyes.
Nothing could hide his body beneath his clothes, his shoulders far too broad, his waist angling down to slim hips that led to muscular thighs. Dressed in a black t-shirt and dark jeans, he was a smear against the white door, a shadow that absorbed light.
“I should go,” I said, shoes in hand, my voice a bare whisper as if anything louder might wave a challenging flag.
Stepping up to leave, I was hyperaware of how he watched me, his body unmoving. I was so close to him that I could feel his breath on my hair, the flutter of the strands near my face tickling my skin.
He was hurting. I felt that too and it was an intrusion for me to know it. Ta
“What happened to the twins?”
Our eyes met.
“They have an aggression problem.”
I would have been surprised that he’d admitted that much if it wasn’t already known that the twins liked to fight.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
Shaking my head, I didn’t have a response. It just felt like the right thing to say, a silly platitude that did nothing to solve the problem.
Why had I said it?
The only answer I could think was that, at this moment at least, there was a vein of humanity I could see in him. A soft spot I doubted many people knew existed. Ta
The silence between us was heavy. But then Ta
“Every time I turn around, you’re here,” he commented, not acknowledging that I’d just told him I was leaving. “It pisses me off.”
And then the soft spot was gone. I shook my head as if I’d been imagining it.
Not surprised by his blunt statement - that’s just who he was apparently - I still felt stuck in place and unable to answer. It didn’t matter, my stillness, he closed the distance between us because his feet weren’t glued in place like mine.
He stopped within inches of me, just shy of physically touching, but close enough I could feel his heat.
“I can’t stand you.”
This was getting ridiculous.
“You’re not my favorite person either.”
His lips twitched.
“Then why the fuck do I want you so much?”
Damn good question. I’d been asking myself the same thing for weeks.
He palmed my cheeks and tugged me the last inch that remained between us, his mouth claiming mine in a storm of cruel lips, a demanding tongue and punishing teeth.
There was nothing sweet or ordinary about the way Ta