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With shaking fingers, I put in my password. I bit my thumb as Albion grabbed his iPad and stormed toward the front of the bar and the exit. Terror pelted through me as I stumbled after him. I managed to snag his arm when he was outside on the sidewalk.
“I—I didn’t?—”
“Quiet,” Albion thundered. He scrolled through the messages I’d never deleted from Xadrian, and I moaned.
This was awful. I’d thought tonight might be nice after everything he’d done for me today, but now it was ruined—and I couldn’t stand it. Everything always seemed to fall apart around me, no matter what I did. No matter how hard I fought.
It wasn’t fair.
12
ALBION
Rage bubbled insideme like an angry volcano. The heat burned my insides, making it difficult to suck air into my lungs. Xadrian’s name taunted me as I scrolled the messages, reading each one he’d sent to Wade—and Wade’s very few replies. Xadrian’s only message since his departure had been today, but there were numerous missed calls on Wade’s phone from him, probably because it was after six and he was at Wade’s apartment, waiting for him so he could get off.
“How long were you together?” I asked bluntly, a sickness clawing at my chest. It was a feeling I didn’t know well—jealousy. I hated the thought of another man, more specifically Xadrian, touching the one who belonged to me. Wade was my sub to play with, and his responses were perfectly in tune with my orders. He was mine, by contract mostly, but in other ways, too. I’d expected him to say the safe phrase sooner rather than later to end all this, but he hadn’t. If anything, he seemed to enjoy every day more and more.
“Not long,” Wade said in a small voice, head lowered. “He.... He used me. I thought I liked him, but he never treated me well. He never cared about me.”
Wade had said he’d wanted to be cared for, didn’t he?
I scanned the messages carefully. Mostly they consisted of the same kind of language in each demand.
Xadrian: I’m coming over. I want to fuck you.
Xadrian: Be ready for me. I want to get in, get off, and get out.
Xadrian: Don’t make me fucking wait.
His tone was obnoxious, but that didn’t surprise me. Xadrian had always been a douchebag. Ugh, I hope I didn’t sound like that.
My gaze rose to Wade, and I noted how his shoulders shook and a blush of embarrassment spread across his cheeks and down his neck. I hummed in thought. “Did you love him?”
“No,” he answered immediately, jerking his stare up to me. His eyes widened. “He’s all I had.”
“What about the brother you told me about?” I raised my eyebrows as my grip on his phone tightened.
“It’s complicated.” His jaw firmed up, and for the first time since I’d met him, I noticed some hardness bleed into his stare. Family had always been a touchy subject, something I understood well, but I hated not knowing. I could ask him more, demand answers, but along with the resistance in his eyes was something else—vulnerability—and I couldn’t quite bring myself to order him to say anything.
“Do you remember your safe word?” I asked, just as a reminder.
He frowned, bottom lip wobbling. “Yes?” He paused for a short moment, scratching his hand idly. “Do you want me to use it? Are you done with me?”
“No.” I handed his phone back to him, and he almost fumbled it to the ground. “But I want you to know that you can use it at any time.”
“I don’t want to,” he whispered a little desperately, grabbing my hand. “I like being with you. I wasn’t planning on letting him fuck me, Sir. I promise.”
For some reason, I believed him, but that didn’t mean I had to accept the situation.
Pleasure curled low in my stomach and heat spread through me, yet when my thoughts drifted back to Xadrian, anger writhed in my guts. Wade watched with wild eyes as though he expected me to leave him here alone. The fear in his gaze shouldn’t have affected me, but something new and strange embedded itself in my chest, digging deep and burrowing in.
“Wait here.” My voice was too soft and it hadn’t come out the way I’d intended, but Wade responded as well as he had when I’d used a harsher tone. He stood in the same spot, like a trained puppy, while I went back in to take care of the tab, and then he followed me to the truck. I opened the passenger door for him, and he slipped inside. He blinked in surprise when I tugged the seat belt and leaned over him to latch it. I closed the door and went around to my side.
Once I got in the truck, I turned on the ignition and pulled out of the parking spot. “Where’s your apartment?”
He tensed. “Xadrian will still be there.” As if to make a point, he showed me his phone which had once again begun to vibrate, Xadrian’s name flashing on the screen.
“Text him and tell him you’re on your way home now.”
