Page 67 of Lock 'em Down

“He shouldn’t have spoken to you like that,” I grind out, furious all over again.

We fucked in Barcelona, yeah?

He said it so damn casually. So cool and clipped. Like he was just remembering the incident. Like he could have had Cami and forgot her.

That pissed me off.

But the fact that he once claimed my wife at all? That made my blood run hotter than lava and my hands curl into fists and my calmness evaporate. I couldn’t have held back from hitting him if I tried—and I didn’t want to restrain myself. I wanted to knock the fucker out.

I’m even mad at him for holding up his hands in apology. A part of me wished he lashed out, so I could’ve dropped him, my reputation be damned.

Cami twists in her seat, facing me straight on. “He was the relationship that ended badly.”

Yeah. I got that. “Did you love him?” It’s the question I most and least want the answer to. Tension coils lightly in my body as I wait for her response. It doesn’t matter that she said they’d only dated briefly.

We got married in a couple of hours.

Feelings are feelings regardless of the time invested.

“I thought I did,” she muses. Then sighs heavily. “I fell for Levi fast. He was different than any man I’d ever met.”

I feel physically ill. But I lock down my reactions and listen to Cami. I want every word she’s willing to give me and none at all. What a mind fuck.

“He was larger than life, you know?” She glances at me and then pales. The tears come faster. “I’m sorry. I’m?—”

“No.” I shift closer. “No, I want you to tell me.”

She exhales and tucks her hair behind her ears. She turns fully and my hand slides off her thigh. She hugs her knees to her chest and presses her back against the passenger door. “I’ve never told anyone the full story before. I mean, other than my family.”

Well, that makes me feel marginally better. That means she trusts me, right? “You can tell me whatever you want, Knox. I’m not here to judge you. I want…” I grip the back of my neck. “I want us to be honest with each other.

She bites her bottom lip. “Levi was this international rock god and I was just…me. A nineteen-year-old kid in Europe for the first time. I studied abroad the first semester of my sophomore year.”

“Don’t most students go junior year?”

“Yeah,” she snorts. “But when I was a sophomore, Jenna was a senior. I was studying near home, in Minnesota but she went to Pepperdine in California.”

I nod, having heard of the university in LA.

“I missed her. And our parents felt better about us being in Europe together. So, I went a year early, she went a year late, and we agreed on Spain.”

“That must have been a cool experience for you two,” I admit, wondering where I would have gone if I studied abroad. The only thing I did through college was focus on hockey. My brothers were mostly the same. While we’re fortunate to have traveled for the game, we never had the exciting adventure of a semester abroad.

“You have no idea how grateful I am that Jenna was with me. I met Levi my first week there. The band was on their European tour and had a handful of dates in Spain. It was…wild.” She shakes her head, her eyes flashing. “Being with them, it’s like being in another world. It’s a level of stardom, of fandom, I can’t explain. My sister kept warning me. But I was enamored. At that time, I would have followed Levi to the ends of the Earth.”

I work a swallow and drop my hands to my lap as they curl into fists. I hate that Levi fucking Rousell got some of my girl’s sparkle. And then he dimmed it.

“He was my first,” Cami admits, her voice low. “And because of that, I think I needed to believe that what was between us was real. Even though, logically, it couldn’t have been.”

I frown. “Don’t say that. You?—”

“No,” she cuts me off. “Don’t comfort me. I’m not saying it couldn’t have worked because of me. It couldn’t have worked because of him. He was so deep into the spiral by then. Drugs, booze, women. Everything was about the party. The moment. And it was fun and reckless and euphoric in this big, exciting way. There was limitless access to all these forbidden things. And I was tempted, curious, excited… I wanted to try everything with him.”

Fucking hell. I scrape my upper lip between my teeth. “Did you?” I grate out.

Cami nods. “It all went sour one night. Levi wanted me to take pictures.”

I close my eyes, feeling the blood drain from my face.

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