“Come on,” he says quietly, slips his hand in mine and leads me back into our room.
I catch Shane’s worried look before the door shuts behind me. Wordlessly, Landon guides me towards the bed before pulling back the sheets and helping me in. He comes round the other side and makes sure to keep a little distance between us as he turns to face me.
“What happened?”
I shake my head, somehow feeling better in the darkened room than I did out there.
“There was a knock at our door, and it was Noah. He said he wanted to talk. He told me how we need to be together, how he fucked up.”
“And what did you say?” he asks stiffly.
“I told him that I knew about him and Savannah before and I wasn’t interested in his bullshit.”
Landon goes quiet for a moment. “Did he hit you?”
“No,” I say. “I don’t think he was trying to hurt me. He just seemed… unhinged.”
Landon makes a scoffing sound that comes out more like a growl, then I feel his hand tentatively reach around me. I lean up to allow him better access, and it’s all the permission he needs to haul me into his side. He grabs my thigh with his other hand and pulls it over his legs. Then his arms flex around me like he wants to hold me tighter, but he’s restraining himself.
“I’m okay,” I say softly.
I don’t know why I say it. Maybe because something in me just feels like he needed to hear that.
Landon rumbles his agreement before his thumb begins gently moving against the bare skin of my arm.
“Thank you,” I say after a few moments. “For coming. For… pulling him away.”
“You don’t need to thank me,” he says after a moment, his voice rumbling an octave lower than normal.
I nod as I attempt to pick out his features in the darkness. “I’ve never seen you so… mad.”
“Is there supposed to be a question attached to that?” he asks, his thumb still moving in that comforting pattern.
I open my mouth to ask him the first thing that comes to my mind, but I think better of it.
“Go to sleep,” he says.
Letting out a heavy breath, I nod and close my eyes. Slowly, I feel my breathing even out, and I’m almost asleep when I feel the softest press of Landon’s lips against the crown of my head before everything goes dark.
Chapter Twenty Three
Landon
My knuckles are bruised and cracked. I haven’t split them open like this in years. As soon as I woke up, I iced them for a bit before I attempted to scrub off the blood. Whether it was mine or Noah’s, it’s too hard to tell. I really don’t give a shit either. I’ve been itching to fight or fuck, and it looks like I got my wish. For a good cause too.
A thunk outside our room woke me up. That’s when I realized Courtney wasn’t in bed. When the second thunk came, I don’t know why, but I was up and out of bed immediately, then sprinting to the door. I wasn’t sure what I was going to find, but I sure as hell didn’t expect to see Noah pinning Courtney to the wall, all but screaming in her face. I didn’t think, I just reacted. I took him to the ground and started beating his face in.
It’s just as well the others pulled me off him because had I been left to my own devices, I probably would have killed the little fuck. I knew he was hung up on her still obviously, hence the whole hot-tub thing. I didn’t think he was the crazy type, though. He’s lucky he got off as easy as he did. If he even fuckinglooks at Courtney or myself again, he’s going to have to worry about a hell of a lot more than a bloody nose and a busted lip.
Of course, there were no crew members on-site last night, but they clearly saw the feed from the cameras in the hallway because I’ve barely finished icing my knuckles when they haul me into the confessional room and sit me down in front of a camera.
“What happened last night?” the head prick asks.
“Karma,” I answer stiffly.
“Why do you say that? What did Noah do to you?”
I don’t answer because I’m getting real fucking tired of this puppet-show shit. I’m tired of them telling me to jump and me being expected to ask how high.
