AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Damon,” she said, quiet and even, “what areyou—”
“Did you think we were going to spend the whole night cuddling and I’d make you breakfast in the morning? Not really my style. Anyway, don’t you need to fly back home where you belong,angel?”
Rose closed her mouth. She looked at me for a long moment—long enough that my skin started to prickle. Then she reached for her clothes and got herself dressed, one piece at a time, that gorgeous angel’s body disappearing bit by bit. I turned to grab a shirt, to act as if I didn’t care about the view. I’d seen it all already, hadn’tI?
She got up to step into her shoes. The soles squeaked against thefloor.
“You don’t have to do this,” she said to my back. “Nothing you say is going to make me regret what wedid.”
My throat closed up. I swallowed before I swiveled toward her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We got off. Now I want my apartment back. You knew what you were gettinginto.”
Her dark green eyes held mine, pained but unwavering. “Yes, Idid.”
She stepped forward, set her hand on my chest, and brushed a kiss against my lips, so soft and so fast it was already over before I could react. She backed away, scooping her fallen purse off the floor. “You know where I’ll be,” she said, and started up thestairs.
I didn’t want to follow her up, so I stayed where I was, watching her disappear. When the door thumped shut behind her, the clenching inside me eased—but a dull ache remained. I sank onto the edge of the bed, running my hands through my hair. With each breath, the ache crawled deeper. I gritted myteeth.
I’d taken Rose’s virginity, when I’d lost mine seven years ago and hooked up plenty of times since. I’d taken some little part of her innocence, when I sure as hell didn’t have anyleft.
So why did I feel as if she was the one who’d taken something fromme?
* * *
“I can’t believe Silvio took you aside the other day for a private powwow,” Brad said, shaking his head with his version of awed disbelief, even though this was the fifth time he’d brought it up since the weekend. “Impressing the big boss! We’re movingup.”
“I don’t rememberyoudoing anything,” I said. More sharply than I meant to. I’d hardly slept last night, and my nerves felt all out of whack. We were standing on one of our usual corners, just passing the time, but somehow I couldn’trelax.
“Hey, I pull my weight.” Brad took a swig from the silver flask he took such pride in carrying around and passed it to me. I tipped a shot of today’s offering down mythroat.
The sour liquid hit my mouth with a pungent burn. I almost gagged. Instead I just grimaced and handed the flask over to George. “What the hell did you put in there thismorning?”
“I was getting low,” Brad said. “There wasn’t enough of anything to fill it, so I put in the rest of the gin and therum.”
“It tastes like you mixed piss and lighter fluid,” Imuttered.
George took a sip. “I don’t think it’s thatbad.”
“Well, your taste isshit.”
He gave me a look that was almost wounded. As if I was here to cater to his fuckingfeelings.
I kicked a dented can someone had dropped on the sidewalk. It rattled into the middle of the road. A woman who’d been walking on the other side flinched at the sound. Normally I’d have felt a little victorious, getting a reaction, but when she darted a glance at us and hurried on, all I felt was a different but equally unpleasantburn.
She looked kind of like Rose, dark-haired and pale-skinned. And she looked at me like I was a mutt she didn’t trust not to give her fleas. Her glance hadn’t been scared or cowed, justdisdaining.
I tugged at my jacket, but the worn leather suddenly felt less like a shield and more like a scuffed-up rag. Was that and a scowl really supposed to impressanyone?
How pathetic were we? Spending the whole day talking about nothing, drinking shitty alcohol, acting like big men just because we moved stuff around in a warehouse a couple times a week. This was mylife.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’sdosomething.”
“Like what?” George said, looking blank. “Is something goingdown?”
“There’s never anything to do in this town,” Brad said with a roll of hiseyes.
I sighed and opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I didn’t have any ideaseither.
The aftertaste of the alcohol turned even more sour in my mouth. That was the worst part, wasn’t it? How was I any better than these dipshits? What the hell had I ever done to deserve a chance with a girl likeRose?
