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“That part is to be decided.”
Fuck, my heart hurt. The last person I wanted to wound was Milo.
“Okay, thank you for being honest with me. Is there anything else I need to know?”
I shook my head.
“I’m going to go up to the guest room to shower.”
My heart plummeted.
“I’m not leaving Mayhem.” That helped. “But I need a minute. Do you understand?”
“I do.”
“Good.” He rose and then paused to cup my face. He seemed to be searching me for something, except I didn’t know what. Then, without a word, he picked up his beer bottle and left the library.
Eyes closed, I fought back the tears that wanted to spill. I told him. That was the important part. He had to know because lying wasn’t an option.
Not with everything in front of us.
Not with everyone else who was against us.
ChapterNineteen
MILO
Leaving the library, I headed up the stairs. Opening the door to her bedroom, I took a deep breath of the room itself. Her scent was everywhere, and it settled me, even as the thoughts ricocheting in my head pissed me off.
It was like her revelation about sex with Ezra was the cue ball and it slammed into the rack. Everything else scattered, but instead of slowing, they were still colliding with each other. The cracks echoed in my brain and I fisted my temper to keep everything even.
Telling me had cost Mayhem. She’d peeled back a piece of herself and hadn’t shied away or tried to pretend it wasn’t happening. Even better, she didn’t try to downplay it. Her reality wasn’t mine…
Hadn’t been mine.
The last few weeks?
Right.
I grabbed some clean sweatpants and headed for the guest room. I could have used her shower, I could have stayed in her room. But she might need it and I needed that minute.
In the guest room, I closed the door and headed into the bathroom. It wasn’t until I was in there that I drained the bottle of beer and set it down. Then I gripped the marble-topped counter, bowed my head, and swallowed the fury burning a path up from my gut.
The night of the auction, Ezra had been all over her. His attraction was right there. I didn’t know if she saw it, but I did. Just like I saw Reed’s. He played it cooler, but he was no less invested. The last thing they wanted was me in her life.
Too. Fucking. Bad.
The last thing I wanted was for her to be hurt. They could hurt her. She said Ezra hadn’t—then she told me about his choice of phrases before he left. If I hadn’t already been ready to break his jaw, that would have done it.
What he saidhadhurt her. The fact it had—well, that was what I needed to think about. Stripping out of the golf gear, I eyed it briefly as I folded them. The shirt and the pants were a lot more comfortable than I’d been willing to admit.
The day at the “club” to “golf” had been more fun than I expected too. It didn’t hurt that Mayhem’s grandfather was a funny old coot. Sharp as a tack, though, you’d have to be a fool to miss the way he tested me.
I might not have all the fine manners or breeding or whatever it is they were looking for, but I stuck with direct. I wasn’t going anywhere. As long as he and I understood that, he could test away.
I wasn’t going anywhere.
That thought played on repeat as I turned the water on to ice cold and then stepped under it. The ice blast was enough to make my balls want to crawl back up inside my body, but I braced my hand against the tile and let it clear away the cobwebs.
