She hiked both her shoulders to her ears and began to back away. “Sorry…too late…I told him you’d be happy to.”
“Well, then go tell them I’m not happy to.”
Nervously, she shuffled on her feet and bit at her bottom lip, so transparent and full of guilt. “The blond one kinda sorta invited me back to his place after work tonight if I delivered the message.”
Exasperated and fighting the rumbles of fear, I rubbed at my forehead.
She had to be kidding me.
I turned back to her. “Thank you for throwing me under the bus. And in case you wanted to know, the cute blond one is Ash.”
There was no missing the bite to my words. But come on. Selling me out for a night with a rock star? Not cool.
She gave me a pleading look. “I’m sorry, Tamar. Really. But he was so insistent.”
I guess I had to give her a break. She’d only been working here for a month. And even I knew those dimples were deadly. The guy could probably talk a vegetarian into joining the steak of the month club.
I heaved out a breath. “Fine. I’ll take care of them.”
An apology crinkled her brow. “Thank you. And for the record, I thought I was doing you a favor.”
I scowled. “Please don’t do me any more of them.”
So maybe I was being a bitch. But I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t help the way agitation churned in my gut and skimmed across my skin, bristling against the raw, potent energy already saturating the thick air.
Stealing myself, I strode to the end of the bar and slipped out into the main room, strutting across the wooden floorboards on my super-high heels. The vibration sent a rush of shivers up the backs of my legs, like a steady boom, boom, boom pulsing through my body.
The sound only increased the closer I got, that energy going wild as my heart hammered and my stomach both lifted and fell.
Those foolish childhood butterflies decided it was the perfect time to take flight when Lyrik’s steely gaze landed on me.
Those sinful eyes seemed to flicker between lust and regret. The spark of need in the flare of his nose and the distress in the pinch of his brow. As if it hurt to look at me.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
This was not okay.
I refused to fall prey to it again.
I knew his games.
Cruel and unjust.
I plastered the old sneer on my face. Tonight, it wasn’t so hard to find. Because the truth of it? I was still hurt and angered by his callous words. Betrayed in the way he’d cast me aside. In the way he’d let me walk out his door when really he’d been the one pushing me out it.
What I’d done was wrong. I knew that. I knew I shouldn’t have snooped. I shouldn’t have let the compulsion to know him, to get closer to him—to understand his reservations and sorrow—cloud the respect I had for him. I shouldn’t have demanded answers he didn’t want to give. Especially when my own jealousy had been the driving force.
But just as strongly, he should have respected me.
Asked me to put it down.
To let it go.
Instead, he’d gone straight for the jugular.
Slicing and cutting me with those deplorable words.
That sneer turned into a perfect, sexy smirk, and I jutted out my hip. “Welcome to Charlie’s. What brings y’all in tonight?”
I played it off as if I didn’t recognize them at all—as if unaffected—while it seemed I was the only thing Lyrik could see.
So maybe a part of me took a little too much pleasure in the way his stare turned greedy.
You threw me away.
Maybe it was wrong I was thanking my stars I’d dressed the way I’d done tonight.
Maybe he’d feel a taste of the hurt he’d left me wallowing in. A taste of that hollow ache amplified by his presence.
But the better part of me—the part he’d resurrected—wanted to touch his cheek, to feel the thready beat of his heart, to tell him I’d take away some of his pain if he promised to take away mine.
If he’d just let me in.
But that was the fool talking.
Ash fumbled out an awkward laugh. “Ahhh…Tam Tam…don’t go breaking my heart by pretending you aren’t happy to see me. I know you have to have been missing me, because there’s no chance these walls are the same without a little Ash. I figured before we packed it up and left for L.A. tomorrow, we’d better get over here and sprinkle a little rock ‘n’ roll flavor on the place before we have to go.”
The look he shot Lyrik belied the statement he made, the way Lyrik grimaced, cringed, and glanced toward the wall.
A new kind of pain cut me open at the realization Lyrik really didn’t want to be here. At the realization he’d been dragged through the doors, probably coaxed and prodded and teased by Ash until he gave in, only here to prove he really didn’t want me.
God.
Insane. Completely, utterly insane. That was me. Because I suddenly recognized the niggling hope I’d had that he’d been here for me. That he’d been here to apologize or maybe to tell me goodbye.
At least something.
I’d lost my damned mind.
Right along with my heart.
I forced myself to let my eyes jump around to all three of them, refusing to cower or flinch when it landed on Lyrik.
Red. Red. Red.