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“You need to go, Ali.”
“Harvey, what are you talking about? We are not done.”
“Yes, we are.” I walked out of the room without looking back. I did everything that I could to keep my mind and body healthy. What I had just done was not good for my heart or my soul. I had allowed temptation to cloud my judgment. Damn it! I went straight to the stairs and down to the first floor. There I popped into the powder room off the living room and washed my face and hands and stared at myself in the mirror. What an ass you are!
As I was coming out of the bathroom, I heard the floor upstairs creaking. I went into the kitchen and pulled a beer out of the fridge, jerking the cap off and then guzzling over half of it the first time I tipped it up.
I set the bottle down hard on the counter and placed both palms on either side of it, hanging my head. I was hyper-vigilant on the sounds upstairs, and when I heard her on the stairs, I braced myself. She was going to be pissed, but whatever. She could be angry with me all she wanted. I wasn’t the one that had just cheated on someone.
I stood in the archway between the kitchen and living room and braced one arm on the wall as she reached the first floor. She turned to look at me, but what I saw there almost took me to my knees. It wasn’t anger; it was sadness and confusion and hurt. We stayed where we were, neither of us moving or speaking.
A tear eased from her eye and started to blaze a path down her cheek, and I almost stepped forward. I had hurt her. That wasn’t my intention. God, I was such an asshole. Before I could do or say anything, she jerked her head to the side, swiped at the wetness, and then walked to the door. She paused at the door as if waiting for me to do or say something, but I remained where I was. I could not be with someone who would cheat on another person, no matter how good or bad a relationship was.
She started to glance back, but stopped herself, and instead let her gaze fall to the bins. I saw her lips purse, saw her nod just the slightest bit, and then she jerked the door open and walked out. She didn’t even close the door, just walked through it and kept going.
I didn’t move from my spot until I heard her engine turn over, and headlights flashed into the room, making a wavey pattern through the entryway as she pulled out of the driveway and drove away. I listened to the sound of her engine fade, and only when I could hear nothing but the night did I move toward the door.
I closed it and turned the lights off, going up the stairs to my room. I stared at the messy bed and turned away from it, going into the bathroom and straight to the shower. I tried not to think about her, tried not to recall her scent or her taste, or the sound of her voice as she said my name. I didn’t want to relive every minute of her time in my house, but I did. Over and over again—and I came twice in the process.
When I finished my shower, I returned to my bedroom, grabbed my pillow, and turned the lights out. I went into the guest room two doors down and curled up on the bed.
I had wanted that woman beyond reason. Unfortunately, my reasoning had come back to me, and at the moment, I wasn’t sure if I was happy or sad about that. I hated that I had hurt her, but what else was I supposed to do. If she could cheat on Blake, she could cheat on me, and that was not okay. I closed my eyes, shut down my mind, and drifted off to sleep.
* * *
I woketo the pounding on the front door and glanced at my watch. Shit, it was ten. I rolled off the bed and stretched my back. There was a reason this bed was in here and not in my bedroom. It sucked! I glanced around as I went, unsure where my cellphone was, and as I got to the first floor, I saw it on the side table.
Another round of pounding filled the air. “Hold your damn horses, I’m coming!” I partially shouted and growled at the same time as I glanced at the screen on my phone. There were a bunch of missed calls and texts, but I ignored them to pull open the door. “What?”
Alex stood on the other side. “You’re alive. You alone?”
“Yes, I’m alone. Did you forget that I was working on the cameras until after three in the morning?”
“No, I didn’t forget, but you never miss a text or call. I was just going to let you know that I was dropping your truck off, but you didn’t answer.”
“So you came over here to pound on my door? What if I wasn’t home?”
Alex cocked his head and started to smile. “Where else would you be?”
I glared at him and then walked away from the door. I needed coffee, and I wasn’t in the mood to play games. Yes, I had fallen asleep relatively fast, but I’d woken up about five or six times and hadn’t gotten all that much sleep.
“How is Lexi?”
“She’s fine,” he stated. “How did it go last night?”
I stared at him for a moment and then went back to pouring the water into the coffee maker. “Before I answer that, I want to know if Lexi really had an issue last night, or if that was a setup to get Ali and I together?”
“Did it work?”
“You’re an ass. All of you are assholes.” I grunted. “The system is up and running. It just needs Mike to make it live.”
“It’s already live.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah, Mike did it first thing this morning.”
“Does it look alright?”
