Page 79 of Devious Knight

“Damn it. I’m so sorry.”

“What about you? I’m sure you hooked up, though, right?”

We may have missed each other but I know we weren’t looking for each other at the same time. Mackenzie had probably gone off with her guy for an hour or so before she thought to check on me.

“Yes. Please don’t hate me. He was hot, not a jerk, and he heads back to Australia today, so I thought why not?”

I want to tell her that the Australia thing might not have been true and that she can’t just hook up with random about-to-vanish guys in a sex club, but I stop myself.

Mackenzie is the liberal girl who enjoys life and never allows anything to stop her from doing what she wants. She doesn’t worry unless she needs to and, with the exception of her parents, she certainly doesn’t live by other people’s rules.

In a way I envy her for that.

She wouldn’t have come home last night and worried herself into an oblivion because Kade had jarred her brain.

Men don’t jar Mackenzie’s brain. But maybe she hasn’t yet met a guy who could.

“Did you get back okay?” She brings her hands together and looks me over.

“Yeah. I did. I left after I couldn’t find you, but …”

“But what?”

“Not before running into Kade.”

Her eyes nearly pop out of her head. “W…what? He was there? There’s no way that was a coincidence.”

I wasn’t going to talk about it but I now need to. “He tracked me through my phone.”

Mackenzie’s skin pales and she places a hand to her heart. “Shit, Isabelle, this is getting out of hand. There has to be a way to put a stop to this.”

“I’d love nothing more but… that’s the least of my worries.”

I breathe out a ragged sigh and walk into the living room. Mackenzie follows me.

I sink into the sofa and she lowers next to me. She looks concerned, but I can tell she’s thinking about the time she saw me almost kiss Kade at the football stadium.

“Talk to me, Isabelle. What else happened?”

I think for a moment. There’s so much shit inside my head bursting to break free. I want to scream it all out until my mind is empty. The problem is, once everything is out of my head I won’t be able to put it back in.

“We kissed and…did… stuff.”

Mackenzie’s mouth falls open and her face turns even paler. “What kind of stuff?”

“Stuff that’s close enough to sex that it feels like sex.” That’s the best way I can explain it even though I don’t know what sex feels like.

“Oh…that kind of stuff.” She bites the inside of her lip. “What else happened?”

“Nothing much. I left after.”

“Isabelle…”

“I know. You’re going to tell me I’ve lost my mind and am acting crazy.”

She shakes her head. “Actually, I was going to say I saw this coming.”

“You did?”

---