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“Nice to see you too,” I mutter, the heat from his body and his familiar scent makes a deep ache open up inside of me. I don’t enjoy feeling like this and decide the best thing to do in the moment is to get the hell away from him. He’s been avoiding me, so now he can have a taste of his own medicine. I move to walk away but Mark’s question has me pulling up sharp.
“Weren’t you going to meet us there?”
“You’re going too?” I ask snapping my head around to glare at Beast.
“Carter needed me to pick up Princess and drop her off at her friend’s house first. I’ll go home and change then meet you there later,” he replies completely fucking ignoring my question and me entirely. Even Dom and Mark appear to notice his rudeness and are looking between us with questions in their eyes.
I see. So this is how it’s going to be.
“Well, have a good time tonight, lads, and remember to play it safe. I wouldn’t want your dicks falling off from somewell-usedpussy. Oh, wait,” I say, staring daggers at Beast and aiming the next part of my retort at him, “Looks like you might have some trouble with that, given your bollocks have already shrivelled up from overuse.”
Twisting on my feet, I head towards the changing room to the sound of Dom and Mark cracking up. The fact that Beast doesn’t join in takes the edge off the pain I’m feeling. Fuck him and his bullshit anyways. I’m not going to let him treat me like shit. Flirting with me one minute, bringing me the hearts of my enemies the next, not to mention turning down my advances. And then to top it all off by fucking ignoring me completely.
I’m over it.
As I cross the gym, I pass a few familiar faces and some not so familiar ones. Half of the men are undressing me with their eyes and the other half are avoiding eye contact completely. No one that knows who I am, and more importantly, who my father is, would dream of looking at me so openly like I’m an actual, desirable woman. It won’t take long for the newbies to be filled in and then I’ll go back to being fucking invisible again. But I’ll know. I’ll feel their eyes on me.
Just like I feel Beast’s eyes on me.
With anger bubbling in my blood, I shove open the changing room door and head straight towards the shower cubicle, then strip and step inside, turning the shower on. I dip my head under the warm spray and close my eyes, allowing the water to beat down on my head and body.
How fucking dare he treat me like this?
I’d thought better of him.
If I was like any other woman I might allow the tears brimming behind my eyes to fall, but I’m not like any other woman. I’m Grim and Irefuseto cry. He doesn’t deserve my tears, or my affection.
Fuck him.
Forcing myself to move, I grab the shower gel and clean up, taking my sweet time. Once I’m thoroughly clean and pink all over from the hot water, I switch the shower off and grab the towel hanging from the back of the cubicle door, wrapping it around my body. The instant I step into the changing area, I know I’m not alone.
Beast is sitting on the bench on the opposite side of the room, legs spread wide, the back of his head pressed against the wall as he stares at me. He’s beautiful. So beautiful that he makes my heart ache and my traitorous pussy clench.
“What the hell are you doing in here?” I ask, ignoring the flicker of indecision in his eyes as I tighten the towel around my body, and reach for the smaller hand towel hanging over a locker to dry my hair.
“Honestly, I don’t fucking know. But if your father finds out I walked in here when you were taking a shower he’d probably kill me.”
“Probably?” I laugh bitterly. “We both know that he would.”
Beast gives me a look that tells me that Carter could try but he wouldn’t succeed. He’s right. One to one, Carter wouldn’t stand a chance. Then again, my dad is as powerful as he is because he’s not stupid enough to rely on one man to protect him or to dole out punishment. Beast could take on my dad, but could he take on all of his soldiers? Unlikely.
“Then it’s just as well that I asked every fucker out there to leave and locked up before I took liberties and stepped in here.”
“You did what? We don’t close for another hour yet.”
“And?”
“And you can’t do that,” I protest, hating the fact that the skin on my chest and neck heats at the thought of me being naked and alone with Beast with no one around to interrupt should something happen, which it won’t because he’s made that perfectly fucking clear.
Dragging a hand over his face, he leans forward, elbows on his jean clad knees, his hands hanging loosely between his spread thighs,. I try so hard not to stare at the way the veins on his forearms and hands ripple beneath his skin.
“And you’re staring,” he replies, doing exactly what he accuses me of as his eyes rake over every inch of me.
I stand my ground, refusing to feel intimidated. There are so many things I want to say to him. Sharp words sit on my tongue like angry little knives just waiting to be thrown into his chest, but underneath the anger and disappointment is longing. It’s not just sexual either, but an emotional longing, the need to connect with the man who I care about as a friend as much as anything. I’ve missed being around him, and as weak as it might seem, I don’t have to dig too deep beneath the anger to know that I want him still.
“Beast, what do you want from me?” I ask heavily, lifting the towel to my hair as I rough dry it, if only to make me appear more at ease than I am.
For long heated seconds he stares at me, that same indecision I saw in his eyes a moment ago bubbling to the surface. “You want the truth?”
