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“I don’t—”
“Come on, be a big girl and say whatever you really want to say. I’ll even pretend to care, if you like.”
The softness left Thea’s expression. “Keenan and I had something special. I messed up, and I hurt him so bad he’s never recovered from it enough to try a relationship. I’m not saying I think he pines for me. I’m saying he’s holding onto that pain and using it as a shield to keep others away. Because he knows, deep down, he’s never going to find anything that special with someone else. It only comes around once in a lifetime.”
A flare of jealousy fired through Khloé. It shouldn’t have hurt that he’d had “special” with another woman, but it did. Just as it hurt that this bitch could well be right—a subconscious part of him could be clinging to what he’d lost, desperate to have it back. Khloé sure hoped that wasn’t the case, because she’d hate to have to mangle him.
“He and I can start over,” Thea went on. “I’m here, I’ll fix what I broke, and I’ll make him so happy he’ll never regret taking a second chance on me. So if you are with Keenan, if you care about him at all, you’ll walk away and let him have that something special again.”
“That’s a real pretty way of putting ‘stay away from Keenan, he’s mine, mine, mine.’ That is what you mean to say, isn’t it?”
Thea’s mouth tightened. She gave a tight shrug. “I suppose you could sum it up that way.”
“And if I tell you to go squat and piss up a tree, what will you do? I truly am interested to know.”
“I’ll fight for him, if I have to.”
Khloé perked up. “Fight for him as in, like, challenge me to a duel?” Her demon stretched inside her, more than happy to take this bitch on.
“No. I just mean that I’d put in the effort to prove myself to him.”
How boring. “You don’t think it would be a waste of time, considering he’s indicated that he doesn’t want you back in his life?”
“He doesn’t want to risk that I’ll hurt him again—that’s different from him not wanting me around. You can’t understand unless you’ve ever loved someone so deeply that they almost feel part of you. He loved me that way once. You can’t just shake off something like that, no matter how much you might wish you could. It stays with …” She trailed off as her eyes darted to something behind Khloé.
Her brows knitting together, Khloé glanced over her shoulder. Her stomach flipped at the sight of Keenan fluidly stalking through the reception area, anger in every step … like a pissed-off leopard intent on punishing whoever had intruded on his territory. The danger emanating from him right then almost made her demon purr.
Thea backed up a few steps as he advanced on her, his eyes cold and flinty. She raised her hand, as if it would protect her. “Keenan—”
“Don’t know why the fuck you’re here, but you need to get out of my sight,” he clipped, his nostrils flaring. His hold on his temper was clearly wafer-thin.
“But I just—”
“Don’t,” he bit out. “I’m not interested in anything you have to say. I thought I made that clear.”
“I’m not trying to upset you, I swear. I just wanted to talk to Khloé, I wanted to—” Thea cut off as he put his face close to hers, a snarl tugging at his features.
“You stay away from Khloé,” he ordered in a menacing whisper. “You hear me? You don’t approach her. You don’t talk to her. You don’t even look at her. She’s no one to you.”
Pain flickered in Thea’s eyes. “But she’s someone to you? Is that what you’re saying?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. So do the smart thing and stay the fuck away from her. You know me. You know how far I’ll go to protect what’s mine.” He took Khloé’s arm and ushered her toward the private elevator. “Go,” he told Thea. “There’s nothing for you here. I’m not interested in you or anything you have to say.”
Khloé raised her finger and said, “I did try to tell you that, Raini.” She gave a dramatic wink. “It was lovely chatting with you.”
After he’d swiped his keycard and punched in the code, the metal doors slid open. He shepherded Khloé into the elevator and jabbed the up button. Thea hadn’t moved. She was staring at him, her eyes wet and hurt. Security guards surrounded her just as the shiny doors closed.
Keenan spun Khloé to face him, his eyes hard and dark with anger. “Why the fuck would you give her the time of day?”
“She came here posing as Raini.”
“You obviously suspected it wasn’t Raini, because you didn’t let her up to the penthouse. You had to at least also suspect it was Thea, given that she had a kid with her. But even if you didn’t think it was her, you shouldn’t have gone down to see a total stranger.”
