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I felt an overwhelming sense of anger at the sound of her name. “Yes! She’s up there right now. Hurry along before she sinks her claws into your brother again. Wouldn’t want to be the loser this time around, would you?” I asked callously, not caring in the slightest that I sounded like a raging bitch.
He looked from me, to the building, and back again, the indecision written all over his face. But I was done. Without so much as a backwards glace, I walked away. Trying my best to hold on to what very little pride I had left.
I needed to get home. I needed to call Lauren and request a new job and an indefinite amount of time off. I prayed she understood because what I needed the most at that very moment was over a thousand miles away in Texas.
I needed my family.
Her face.
God.All I could see was her ravaged expression as tears ran down her cheeks. I’d never seen such heartbreak in another person’s eyes before. I couldn’t understand the severity of her reaction. If she would have just let meexplain,if she would have just listened to me, I could have taken that look away. Why wouldn’t she just hear me out?
My knuckles stung from where I’d just put them through the sheetrock in the wall next to the elevator doors. She'd gotten away. I needed to go after her. But first, I needed to get that goddamned succubus out of my apartment and my life.
“Fuck!”
Storming back into my apartment, I found Bree standing in the entryway, arms crossed over her chest, hip cocked, a put-out expression on her painted-on face. Pointing at her as I rushed to my bedroom to find a t-shirt, I hissed through gritted teeth, “Get the fuck out.”
“Rowan, we need to talk,” she insisted, following after me.
That was exactly what she had said when she showed up at my front door. And because I was the world’s biggest goddamned idiot, I’d let her in, thinking I could finally get the closure I ignorantly believed I’d needed.
“There’s nothing to talk about! You’re the fucking devil, you know that?”
I lost sight of her when I pulled my shirt over my head. It was just long enough for her to move in closer. “Baby, please. I know you felt the same thing I did when you kissed me.”
She reached for me, placing her hands on my chest, and I cringed away from her touch. “I didn’t kiss you!” I shouted. “You kissed me and I can assure you, I didn’t feel a goddamned thing. You need to leave now, before I do something I regret. Do not make me repeat myself.” Shoving past her, I started for the front door, coming to a screeching halt when I caught sight of yet another nightmare. “You’ve got to bekidding me!” I shouted skyward, desperate to know what I’d done to God to piss him off so badly. “I don’t have time for this shit.”
Richard’s hands were held up, palms out. “Row, just give me two minutes. That’s all I’m asking.”
“I don’t have two minutes! I need to get to Navie.Christ!”
“Richard?” I spun around to find Bree standing behind me, staring at my brother with a soft, dreamy expression on her face. “What are you doing here?”
Richard had always been the calmer, soft-spoken twin. When we were growing up, I was the one who acted before thinking. Richard was the one who always tried to do the right thing. And whenever I came up with some harebrained idea that would have either landed me in jail or the hospital, he was the one who had my back, either saving me beforehand or rescuing me after the fact. That was probably one of the reasons his betrayal crushed me as badly as it did. So seeing him standing there, looking like he was just seconds away from going Hulk in the middle of my apartment was unexpected, to say the least. And what he had to say was even more shocking.
“I’m here to keep my brother from making the same mistake I did and ruining his fucking life.”
Bree looked like someone had just slapped her.
“Richard,” she whispered, tears forming in her eyes. In the past, just the sight of those tears would have slayed me, but as I stood watching her just then I realized something. I didn’t care. Bree hurting, clearly in pain, had no effect on me whatsoever. It was as though I was standing in front of a stranger, disengaged as I watched the scene unfold. It was nothing like the gut-wrenching pain I felt when I’d seen Navie so heartbroken.
My gaze bounced back and forth between the two of them in confusion. “What the hell’s going on here?”
Richard’s glare was full of hate as he focused on the woman behind me. “Do you want to tell him, lovely wife, or should I?” he asked caustically.
“Tell me what?”
“Rich,” she choked on a sob, her voice desperate and pleading.
“Bree and I dated briefly while I was in law school. It wasn’t serious—hell, I never even brought her home to meet you guys. I was young and ambitious, and didn’t want to be tied down. It was just sex, at least for me.”
“Jesus Christ,” I grumbled, squeezing my eyes closed and pinching the bridge of my nose. I had the distinct impression that shit was about to get a thousand times more complicated than it already was.
“I was focused on finishing law school and starting my career. I wasn’t even thinking about a wife and kids. I broke it off with her when I realized she wanted more but for the next couple of years, I was stupid enough to hook up with her occasionally.”
“Can someone please explain what the fuck that has to do with me?” I cursed, looking from Richard to Bree, who’d suddenly gone an unhealthy shade of white.
“Well, brother, as it turns out, Bree here deserves a gold medal in being a manipulative bitch. I had no fucking clue you two were together when we were hooking up. She never once told me she was seeing mytwin brother,” he spit at her, his voice laced with disgust. “If I had known that, I wouldn’t have touched her.”
