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“It offends me that she blooded you,” he said, his jaw hard. “If I hadn’t known you’d be pissed at me for interfering, I’d have stopped the fight before it could start.”
Bailey shrugged. “If it hadn’t happened tonight, it would have happened some other time. You heard the way she talked. She considers me someone who stole you from her. She no doubt had every intention of confronting me at some point.” Idiot.
He dumped the wet cloth in the hamper. “You’re probably right about that.”
“What exactly did she say to you before I made my way over? I didn’t hear a lot.” She felt her blood pressure go up as he relayed it all to her. Her snake slapped the floor with her tail, wishing she’d bit the woman twice. “Ballsy little skank, isn’t she?”
He rubbed at the corner of his brow. “Maybe I should have expected her to do this. But considering she’d managed to go two and a half years without seeing me in person, I didn’t think she’d turn up and declare she was here to stay and wanted us to be together.”
“She shouldn’t have bothered. You’re mine.”
His eyes gleamed with something soft and warm.
When he just stared at her for long seconds, she frowned. “What?”
“I like hearing you say it. That’s what.” Snatching her off the counter, he took her to the bedroom, where he then roughly dumped her on the bed with a teasing smile that made her chuckle.
“Do you think anyone knew that Dayna was coming?”
“She talks a lot to Gerard and Therese. Neither seemed shocked to see her, so I think they knew.” He dug his cell out of his pocket and placed it on the nightstand. “Or, at least, they knew she might turn up sometime soon.”
Bailey twirled her hair around her finger. “If Therese did know—or at least suspect that it might happen—it would explain the stuff she said to me yesterday about how you’d sling me aside if Dayna ever showed up.”
He snorted and began shedding the rest of his clothes. “I suppose it’s my own fault that they’d believe that. I stuck to my promise for too long.” A long exhale left him as he lay beside her on the mattress. “She’ll go back to Australia when it hits her that this was a waste of time.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Bailey warned, leaning into him as exhaustion crept up on her. “I really don’t see her letting go easily.” The feline had declared before the entire pride that, in so many words, Deke would be hers. That she’d had no qualms about doing it so publicly meant she was quite confident that she could win him to her side—why else would she have risked being rebuffed in front of everyone?
“I made it clear that I’ve moved on.”
“I don’t think she believes that you truly have. I think she believes as Therese does—hell, it might have even been Dayna who first tossed out the theory. I think she believes you marked me to spur her into coming home.”
His brows snapping together, he gently hauled her closer, his hold protective … as if to shield her from any hurt that that viewpoint might cause. “That’s bullshit, baby—I made that clear to you yesterday.”
“I know it’s bullshit. But I think Dayna believes it’s true.”
He shook his head. “If she thought I’d only done it to get her attention, she wouldn’t have been jealous when I confirmed via a video call that I’d marked you.”
“Just because she was jealous doesn’t mean she thought I meant anything to you. No female would ever be blasé about their sort-of-man branding another woman.”
His gaze turning inward, he absently smoothed his warm hand up her thigh, over her hip, and up her side … only to then backtrack in yet another smooth glide. “You might be right that she didn’t take it seriously. She seemed genuinely shocked just now when I told her I was truly done.”
“Of course she was. You were slowly pulling away over time, but she didn’t sense it. She had no idea you weren’t in the same mental place as her. For Dayna, you backing out of the vow has come out of nowhere. She probably thought that her turning up here would be enough to change your mind; that you’d feel she’d proved you’re important to her.”
He sighed, put out. “She couldn’t have just texted me and said she’d made arrangements to come home?”
“It wouldn’t have had the same impact. Nor would turning up at your apartment to speak with you alone. She wanted to make a statement—not just to you, but to anyone who thought they could take her position in your life.”
“She always was a little dramatic,” he griped.
Snuggling into him, Bailey lazily skimmed her fingers through the small tufts of his hair. Her eyelids were going heavy, but she kept them open, wanting to finish their talk. “I don’t believe she’s here to stay.”
