Page 38 of Knot Your Business

I continue past the bar, trying to not run to the safety that the bathroom provides. The hall is dark, only a couple small wall sconces offering light. A hand closes around my elbow, and my heart freezes, my breath catching in my throat.

“Violet,” Jasper murmurs, his voice low enough that it sends a fucking shiver through my body. “We need to talk.”

I keep my face as neutral as I can manage as I turn around. His eyes are intent on me, his jaw clenched.

“What happened in Seattle?—”

Oh God. He cannot be trying to bring up Seattle in a hallway where there’s no other witnesses. Has he already signed the annulment request? Is that why he’s back here with me? My stomach turns, and I can’t hide the panic that must shoot across my face. I push the door to the bathroom open and flee inside. I stand at the counter, staring at my reflection, trying to figure out what to do, breathing through my nose to keep from being sick.

My hands shake as I pull out my phone.

This is me squeezing your arm twice.

Be there in a sec.

Rylan’s knock is soft, and I keep my head down as we leave the back hallway. The group of friends wave, a chorus of goodbyes following us out the door. The blade twists again as I see Jasper take up the seat between his friends again, not even looking back toward me.

Eighteen

RYLAN

Iwalk down the hallway toward the bedrooms, trying to ignore the sinking of my stomach at the reality sitting in front of me. This match is falling apart, and it hasn’t even been a week. She isn’t even living here yet. Dominic’s door is closed, but I know he’s not inside. The small Maserati was gone when we got home from Sunday’s performance. He’d timed coming back so that he wouldn’t run into either of us.

I blow out a breath and shake the thought from my mind. Dominic isn’t the biggest problem right now, and certainly not one that I have any hope of trying to fix. When Dominic and I disagree, we just end up fighting. And the last thing I feel like dealing with right now is a fucking split lip.

Jasper’s door is ajar, but I still knock on the threshold, not wanting to intrude if he’s intent on being alone today. He’s dressed in just a pair of sweats that have me immediately distracted. His eyes are tired, though, dark circles under them. The urge to calm him overwhelms me, and I palm his neck. His breath hitches as I run my nose over his jaw and down his throat, biting the soft spot where his shoulder meets his neck. Right where Liz’s bond mark was last night.

Fuck, thinking about bond marks is not a good idea right now.

Jasper’s dick hardens against me, and it twitches as I bite him again.

“What happened?” I ask when I pull away.

He sighs and runs a shaking hand through his hair.

“I tried to bring up Seattle so we could at least… I don’t know. Be on the same page, maybe? I was scared to do it privately. I thought asking her at the bar would be better.”

His body trembles under my touch, and not in the good way. I run my lips over his collarbone, trying to distract him. After a minute, he sighs.

“She ran into the bathroom. Like when I tried to bring up that blowjob I gave you when you were angry in the fall.”

I grunt. Not my best fucking moment. He’d been trying to gauge where we stood after he sucked me off, acting on instinct when I’d been so angry over the hickeys Dominic had left on his throat the night before. And instead of actually having a conversation like a 28-year-old man, I had hid in my room like a fucking terrified teenager.

“She looked…” His throat ripples with a swallow, and I urge him farther inside. “She was fucking terrified of me, Rylan. Why would she be scared of me? Unless she thought I was going to rip into her over how she left me?”

I take his hand, pulling my lips away from his skin. I guide him to his bed, sitting against his headboard, and bringing him to kneel between my bent legs. He rests his hands on my knees, his dick tenting his sweats, but I stay focused on his face. For now, at least.

“I think there’s something wrong with what happened between you,” I say, trying to come up with a decent way to tell him my suspicions.

Jasper drops his hands and backs away from me. I grab his wrist before he can get all the way off the bed.

“I would never lie to you,” he growls, trying to rip out of my hold.

“I didn’t say you did, Jas,” I murmur, trying to pull him toward me again. “I’m saying that I think there might be discrepancies between what you remember and what she remembers.”

He pauses and swallows again. “What do you mean? Like she thinks something different happened between us?” When I nod, he grunts. “What did she say to you?”

Pulling him toward me, I shake my head. “Just nonverbal clues, mostly. Nothing I could really put into words.”

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