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He steps forward with clenched fists, eyes fixed firmly on Vaughn, who hasn’t moved from his place at my back. “Isaid, get your fucking handsoffmy girl! I won’t ask a third time, Burton.”
Vaughn increases his grip on my shoulders until I reach up and pat his knuckles gently. He glances down at me, questioning me with his eyes.
I give him a small smile of reassurance, convincing him with wide eyes, and he reluctantly moves his hands.
“Vaughn, could you give us a moment? Please?”
My friend’s jaw tics as indecision flickers across his face.
“I believe she said you can take a hike, wanker!”
Irritation rolls off of Vaughn in waves as he huffs a sigh, but he nods at me and edges backwards and out of the alcove. “I won’t be far, Summer.”
Once we’re alone, I stride past Cade and into the darkened corridor beyond. My hands easily find the security pad for a private room that I know is not in use. I press my palm atop the scanner, and the door swings open.
I enter first, Cade follows, and I close the door after us with a heavy bang.
Finally, alone, we stare at one another for a long beat.
For several long beats.
His hair is messier than usual, as though he’s been running his hands through it in frustration for hours on end.
His eyes are bloodshot, with pupils dilated, giving him an almost feral look.
His chest is rising and falling as rapidly as my own, but neither of us moves. Neither of us speaks. The only sound in the dimly lit room is that of our combined breathing.
Until suddenly, without warning, Caden stalks closer. I step backwards and find my body flush against the wall behind me. His hands snake out, one catching my mask and tossing it to one side. The other grips my wig tight in his fist. He tugs harshly, and the flame hair falls away from my head, floating to the floor beside us.
Our eyes move from the wig at our feet back up to one another’s faces.
“I shouldn’t be surprised at the lie.”
I scrunch up my face in confusion. “What do you—”
He holds up a phone in his hand. It takes me a moment to register that it’s Jesse’s.
“You said you were at work and needed to talk to me.” Spreading his arms out on either side of his body, he smirks unkindly. “So, here I am, Summer.Talk!”
I swallow down a retort, unused to this cruelness in his tone, but forcing myself not to rise to his taunts.
“Yes, I do need to talk to you. It’s about an article that ran in a gossip column today. I needed to tell you that there’s no truth behind it. The truth of my working here can’t come to light—”
He slaps his hands onto the wall on either side of my head, boxing me in when he brings his face right down into mine. “So youdowork here!” The words are hissed through his clenched jaw, and I curse the timing of that damn article. “At leastthatwasn’t another lie.”
“It’s not what you think…”
“Stop saying that. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a motherfucking duck, then it’s not a goddamn chicken now, is it Summer?” He drops closer to hiss across my lips. “What kind offooldo you take me for?”
I exhale heavily, my mind whirring with ideas of how I can explain so that he will hear what I’m saying, but I come up with nothing. I’ve never seen him so enraged.
“I think it’s best if we both get some sleep and talk things through with clearer heads in the morning, Caden.”
“Don’t.Patronise.Me.” Each word is enunciated with crystal-clear precision.
He leans forward, running the tip of his nose along my jawbone. I can hear him inhaling deeply before he rests his forehead on my shoulder. “You don’t smell like a woman who’s been freshly fucked.” His tone is light, in complete contrast to his harsh words. “Are yousureyou’re working tonight?”
I suck in a sharp breath at the insinuation in his tone. “I told you—”
