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“I came all the way over here to show you that I’m trying, and hopefully figure out what was going on between us. The least you can do is actually keep up with your part of the bargain.”
“I don’t—”
I held out a hand to stop her speaking. “Go get my wallet,” I told her quietly. “It’s in my bag.”
Like hell was I going to get it myself and leave her here with him, and I didn’t think he’d take kindly to me shoving the door closed in his face. Craig was the worst kind of Alpha. He was a ticking time bomb ready to go off when it hurt someone the most. I wasn’t willing for that person to be Sloane.
“You don’t have to pay him for me.”
I stared at her, telling her with my eyes I wasn’t moving from this door, and I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. She pressed her lips together, a blush staining her cheeks. As much as I loved seeing that pink there, I wasn’t going to let her be embarrassed about this. The only person who should be embarrassed was the asshole at the door.
When she came back, she had a robe on over her nightgown, and my wallet was in her hand. I took it from her gently and opened it. I counted two-hundred dollars and held it out to him. I knew how much concert tickets were, and I doubted Craig had sprung for the good seats. “We done here?” I asked him.
For a second I thought he might hit me. The anger simmering in his gaze told me this went deeper than what was happening here. Instead, he went to open his mouth, looking at Sloane, and I put my body in front of hers again. “If the next words out of your mouth aren’t ‘Goodbye, Sloane,’ you’ll regret it.”
He narrowed his eyes at me, jaw flexing before he turned his gaze back to my Omega. “Goodbye, Sloane. For now.”
“We’re done, Craig.”
He didn’t respond, stalking down the hallway. I didn’t like that he was even in the building. But I shut the door and locked it, turning to lean against it and hold out my arms.
She came to me, and I tucked her against my chest, purr springing to life. As long as I lived, I’d never get tired of the way her body softened and eased against mine. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I can pay you back. I just didn’t have cash.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” I said. Keeping cash on me at all times was a habit I couldn’t break. When you had a childhood like mine, you learned to make sure you always had a way out whenever you needed one. Often, a way out meant money.
In the bedroom, my phone’s alarm went off, and I groaned. “I guess we can’t go back to bed.”
“No.”
But I didn’t release her. “You want to tell me about him?”
Sloane shrugged. “There’s nothing to tell. I saw him on and off for a bit last season. Strictly friends with benefits, and we just kind of fizzled. I called him up recently. Mostly because he was familiar, and I was lonely. You heard the rest. I was just done. And the next morning you showed up.”
Despite the pang in my heart from hearing her say she was lonely, I smiled into her hair. “I did.”
“Sorry. I’ve barely looked at my phone. He said some stuff after I bailed on the concert, but I didn’t think he was serious, just pissed off. I definitely didn’t think he’d just show up.”
“Can I see it?”
“Yeah, it’s in my bag. I’m going to brush my teeth. I’ll grab an extra for you.”
Glancing at her, I made sure my tone was teasing. “You keep extra toothbrushes?”
“Everyone keeps extra toothbrushes.”
“Not everyone, sweetheart.”
Sloane narrowed her eyes. “I’ll tell you one thing that hasn’t changed in the last five years. I’m still not a morning person.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll get you caffeine.” My fingers twitched with the urge to reach out and touch her again, but I let her retreat, opting for her phone instead.
The battery was low, but it was still on. Her password hadn’t changed. There were a couple of messages from her best friend, and I didn’t read those. I only clicked on the messages from the asshole who woke us so rudely.
The more I scrolled, the more I saw red.
CRAIG
