Page 42 of Brutal Prince

TWENTY ONE

Gretta

“You’re home early,” my mom crowed.

I glanced at the man next her whose normally soft brown gaze was sharp and full of hurt.

“Ollie?” I asked surprised. “What are you doing here?”

He held his dark gaze. “You said you had stuff to do with your mom, so I thought I’d come over and help.”

“Looks like you had your wires crossed,” Mom tried to soothe the situation. No matter how they looked at it, I betrayed them. I told Mom I was with Ollie and told Ollie I was with Mom. And where was I really? Meeting a damn psycho killer in a hotel room, who didn’t show. I was stood up by a psycho killer, talk about feeling like a loser with a capital G.

“Um.” They waited for an explanation and I couldn’t think fast enough. “Um. I’m going to take a shower.”

I felt their judging eyes follow me as I walked into my bedroom off the living room to grab my pajamas and a clean towel. Ollie appeared at the doorway casting a shadow across my room.

“Is there someone else?” he asked.

I stuttered, unsure as what I should say. I’d been sworn to secrecy for fear that muttering a single a word could ruin everything.

“No,” I answered truthfully. “You think I have time for two men.”

He stepped deeper into my room filling up the entire space with his size. The expression on his face was foreign to me and unnatural to him. His chest heaved in angry breaths and all I could do was apologize.

“You made me look like a fool just now,” he murmured in his deep voice. There was so much contempt in his tone it staggered me. This was not the Ollie that I knew, yet I’d betrayed the lovely big man and I was receiving my just punishment.

“I’m sorry.”

“Are you going to tell me where you were?”

I owed them both an explanation, but they weren’t going to get one. “I can’t. I think you should go.”

His eyes hardened. Any fool could tell what was on his mind. He turned and my body relaxed. He was going. Good.

I was wrong.

Instead of leaving, he closed my bedroom door. Jaw clenching, demeanor menacing. I did not recognize this man.

“I can’t,” I whispered. “Mom’s in the next room.”

“You’re an adult.”

“What’s gotten into you?”

“I said I wanted to protect you. I can’t do that when you lie to me.” He was right over me now as I searched for that small town shy boy and found some asshole who laid claim on my body. This was not how it was supposed to go.

Mom called from the living room and his jaw twitched, losing his nerve. “Just tell me where you were.”

“I can’t, Ollie.”

“I thought you and I had a thing, an understanding.”

“We do.”

“So, why lie?”

“It’s something I can’t tell you, but rest assured I’m not seeing another guy.”

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