Page 368 of Power Play

My gaze moved toward the pool table. Briggs stood with one hand resting against its edge, while Cade, Easton, and Rider remained behind him. All four of them knew exactly who stood in the hallway with me.

“She asked to get her bag,” Briggs said. “I told her it was fine if she came straight in and left while you pissed.”

I looked back at Charm. Her eyes were swollen again, and she’d changed into leggings, boots, and an oversized sweater that hung from one shoulder. The woman I’d spent years wanting stood ten feet away with everything soft and familiar still attached to her.

My body wanted her before my heart could remind it why I didn’t.

“Fine.”

Relief moved across her face. “Thank you.”

I walked past her toward the bar, and she started for the front door.

“Want a drink?”

Charm stopped. I reached for the tequila, changed my mind, and took the bottle of mezcal Rider had opened earlier. After pouring a shot, I slid it across the bar and watched her stare at the glass.

“Oops.” I glanced at the bottles lined against the wall. “No pinot noir.”

“Ryan.”

“Guess you’ll have to drink with the worm like your gutter-born ex.”

Pain moved across her face, and every one of my friends went silent.

“What were we again?” I asked. “Your ex ‘us,’ right?”

“We were more than that.”

“Were we?”

“Yes.”

I laughed and lifted my own empty glass toward her. “That’ll be news to Bliss and Aura.”

Her face lost what little color remained in it. “That’s what I thought.”

“I don’t want the shot.”

She turned toward the door, and panic tightened around my lungs. I’d wanted her gone from the moment I saw her, but watching her walk away ripped open the same wound she’d left in the parking lot.

“Wait.”

My voice cracked across the room. Charm stopped with her back to me, and every one of my friends went still.

She turned slowly.

I crossed the space between us before anyone decided whether to intervene. Charm watched me approach, breathing shallowly, her overnight bag clutched against her body like a shield. I took it from her hand and set it on the floor.

“Ryan, you’ve been drinking.”

“I know.”

“You said you didn’t want me near you.”

“I changed my mind for a second.”

Confusion flickered across her face. My hand closed around the back of her neck before I could question what I was doing. I didn’t hurt her. My fingers settled exactly where they always had, firm and possessive against the warm skin beneath her hair.