I waited with bated breath to hear what he’d say next, but our conversation was interrupted with a loud bang of a door.
“You’re a goddamn asshole!” Charlotte yelled as her steps pounded down the hall. I caught a flash of her face, twisted in a grimace, before she stormed out the front door.
I stood up in alarm, ready to investigate what was going on when Mason appeared.
“What happened?” I asked.
He ran a hand through his blond hair. “I broke it off with her.”
There was a flutter in my belly. “Oh.”
His gaze wouldn’t let go of me, as if he were trying to communicate something solely with his eyes.
My thoughts ran in multiple directions. What had happened between them for him to call it quits? I’d made a point to stay far away from their relationship, but Charlotte had to have meant something to Mason. Why else would he have her around as much as he did?
“About time.” Kaz’s dry voice broke through the silence. “I wonder what finally pushed you over the edge?”
The challenge in his tone dropped the temperature of the room by a couple degrees, and Mason finally tore his attention away from me. Kaz rose from the couch and took a few steps toward the drummer. “What’s changed, Mase?” he demanded, his voice low.
I was intruding on whatever the hell this was, and I felt a sudden urge to get out of here. This wasn’t my business. I didn’t need to know why Mason had broken up with Charlotte, or why Kaz seemed to radiate contempt at his best friend.
This isn’t about me.
It couldn’t be about me. It was absurd and narcissistic to even contemplate the possibility… if it weren’t for that one look Mase gave me.
The wild thing banged against her cage.
I swiped my bag off the chair and pulled out my car keys. “Actually, I think I’m going to go. I just remembered I have something to do at home.”
Kaz shot me a dark look but didn’t say anything.
“If you’re sure.” The smile Mason gave me was tense.
“I’ll see you on Monday.” I rushed out the house and squeezed inside my car before taking a deep breath. There was no point in hypothesizing about what had just happened. No sense in letting my thoughts drift to unlikely scenarios.
Like the one where Mason had broken up with Charlotte because maybe he still felt something for me.
* * *
Dark clouds gathered above the hills on the horizon and obscured the setting sun as I drove myself home. The digital clock on the dashboard read seven-thirty, but the gloomy atmosphere made it feel like we were in the middle of December instead of August. I gripped the wheel tightly, keeping my eye out for drivers rushing too fast to get home. It was a good thing I’d only managed to have a few sips of the beer before Charlotte exploded out of Mason’s room.
I wanted to talk to Adeline, if only to keep my thoughts from spiraling down all kinds of rabbit holes, but it was the middle of the night in London. What would my sister say if I told her I was starting to have feelings for two men at the same time? It was such a cliche. Me following in her footsteps. But few stories that start like hers have a happy ending, and I was more than certain mine wouldn’t. If there was even a small chance I was the reason behind the current tension between the two men, I couldn’t let it go on. Maybe I needed to rethink pursuing a friendship with Mason, and I definitely needed to put a stop to what was happening between Kaz and I, no matter how much I enjoyed being with him physically. It was all becoming too messy.
I parked outside my apartment building as the first drops fell out of the sky. The weathermen were going to be happy. For the last few weeks, they’d been bemoaning the exceptionally dry summer on the radio. But I had no desire to get caught in the rain, so I grabbed my bag and hurried across the parking lot.
The sky opened up when I was halfway to my destination. I ducked inside the building and wiped the wetness off my face before taking the stairs. It was very quiet, the normal sounds of life in the concrete structure drowned out by the pouring rain.
When I reached my floor, the light at the end of the hallway was out. It dawned on me then I didn’t have my keys ready like I usually did, and I scrambled to turn on the flashlight on my phone before pointing it inside my bag. Damn it. I’d been in such a rush to escape the rain, I’d just tossed them right in, and now they were lost somewhere at the bottom beneath my laptop, makeup case, and a dozen other random items.
I dug and dug until my fingers closed around the jagged edge of the key.
The floor behind me creaked. Fear seized me, turning my blood cold. Before I could lift my phone and shine its light around me, a hand closed over my mouth. It muffled the scream that tore out of my throat.
“Got you,” a hoarse voice whispered right into my ear. “Now don’t get any funny ideas. Open your door.”
Cory pressed his body against my back, letting me feel his growing erection. I’d rather die than let him inside my apartment. My heart felt like it was about to explode out of my chest.Ta-dum, ta-dum, ta-dum.His palm smelled like something acrid—a chemical from the recycling plant where he worked? It was suffocating. The time to act was now.
With all the strength I could muster, I sank my teeth into the fleshy part of his hand.
