Page 109 of Keeping a Warrior

“Did you sleep with her?”

The SUV jerked wildly in the lane as Rhys fumbled the wheel. “Jesus, Lee-Lee!”

“Did you? It’s okay if you did. I slept with someone, too.”

Through clenched teeth, Rhys ground out, “Let’s not have this conversation while we’re going eighty miles an hour, Lani, okay?”

A heavy silence fell after that, and when they reached her apartment complex, Rhys grabbed his stuff and followed her up to a second floor unit, where he dumped his duffel right outside the door; it was way too dusty to bring inside.

The apartment was small but tastefully furnished. He’d been here once before, the day he’d helped her move out of his. When they were through, they’d both cried, then ended up making love on the floor in the midst of all the packing material strewn about.

Back then, Rhys had taken that frantic sex as a sign of hope, but now he saw it for what it was: something familiar and comforting in a moment of fear and uncertainty.

“Ah, sweetheart,” he murmured, slipping an arm around her shoulders. “What’s all this about? You know it’s over, Lee.”

“You sure about that?” She lifted her face invitingly, lips parted, her hand splaying across his chest. “Doesn’t feel over to me.”

For the briefest of instants, temptation reared its ugly head. Why not try again? Devon’s leaving and there’s a good chance you’ll never see her again. Lani’s here...

Right on the heels of that thought came a hot tide of shame.

No. She deserves more than to be my Plan B.

Sorrow churning in his gut, Rhys eased back. “It’s over,” he said as gently as he could. “It’s been over for a long time.”

“Why? Because you’re in love with that Devon girl?”

“Yes.”

The pain on her face crumbled Rhys’s heart into a million pieces. Snatching her hands away, Lani spun around and walked over to the window to stare outside. “Well, shit.”

After a long, agonizing silence, Rhys approached and stood just behind her. “Talk to me. What’s this really about?”

For a moment he didn’t think she’d answer, but then she snapped, “It’s about the fact that I’m stupid, okay? Because I believed him when he said I was more than a hookup.”

Rhys was utterly bewildered. “Who said? What happened?”

Through clenched teeth, Lani described meeting a tall, mysterious man at the bar where she worked. “He said he worked for the CIA.”

Rhys wanted to tell her that real CIA agents wouldn’t advertise that fact, but mansplaining was the last thing she needed from him right now.

“He took me up to Malibu one weekend,” she whispered, “to a beautiful house on the beach. We walked, and talked, made love...”

Picking up a shell that was sitting on the windowsill, Lani held it up to the light. “It was one of the best weekends of my life, Rhys.”

Fury at this unknown, faceless prick boiled through him. Her first serious dating experience after their breakup had been with some spoiled, rich asshole who got off on lying to women and then ghosting them when the thrill was gone?

No wonder old Reliable Rhys suddenly looked so good to her.

“I never in a million years thought you’d be the one to move on first, you know? When I saw those pictures Aaron took of you and Devon, I—” Lani swallowed hard, her voice going flat as she said, “I guess I just wanted to see how much power I still had over you, that’s all.”

What?

He didn’t believe her. Lani didn’t have a malicious bone in her body, not even in the midst of the worst of their breakup. There was something else going on here. Settling his hands on her shoulders, he gave her a light squeeze, a sudden worry coursing through him and replacing the anger. “Lani...”

Pulling away from him, she forced out, “I’m really sorry, Rhys. I don’t know what I was thinking. You have every right to be furious with me.”

He braced himself. “Does whatever this is have something to do with Tyler?”