Page 253 of By His Rule

“Thank you for everything. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Before I can talk myself out of it, I close the door.

“Shit,” I hiss, collapsing against it.

My eyes burn, and a messy lump of emotion crawls up my throat.

Before I know what’s happening, a single tear slips free, and I hang my head in shame.

You did the right thing.

Kian isn’t your King.

He’s your boss.

And a super-hot lay, but that’s by the by.

I rest there way longer than I should, trying to decide if he just walked away like everything between us meant nothing, or if he’s even a little bit affected by it all.

When I eventually stand up straight, the peephole taunts me.

Just look. See if he’s still there…

But despite the little nagging voice in my head, I turn my back on the peephole. I already feel empty enough right now; I don’t need evidence of the obvious to make it worse.

Kian doesn’t care. Okay sure, he cares. He wants me to be safe in my own home. He cares that I enjoy myself when we’re together. But he doesn’t care care. Not in the way I crave a man to care for me.

Ignoring the living room, I walk into my bedroom and immediately stop in the doorway.

“Wow,” I breathe.

Not only has any evidence of the damage been eradicated, but the entire room has had a facelift.

The wall behind my bed is now a deep, gorgeous emerald green that…

“Fuck,” I bark.

It’s the same color as his eyes.

Unable to look at it without falling apart again, I focus on my suitcase that he abandoned in the middle of the bed and set about unpacking.

Anything to keep my mind off my reality.

Ididn’t stop all night. After finding homes for all my new hair products, I pulled on a pair of sweats and a tank and set about cleaning every inch of the apartment. Anything to stop my mind from wandering. And not just to Kian and our hot few days, but also to what happened here not so long ago.

If I so much as think about someone invading my privacy and doing what they did, I get a little closer to running out of the door and never looking back.

Once everything was sparkling, I found my cell and called both of my brothers. Wilder kept his conversation short. He was heading out to hang with friends, but Hendrix was happy to keep me entertained for a while. We switched to a video call, and he allowed me to help him with an assignment, which is something he only ever does when he knows I need a connection to home.

He never asked what was wrong, and I never offered up any information. But I was more than grateful for the distraction.

By the time the sun set, I was emotionally and physically exhausted. But neither was enough to put me into a deep, restful sleep.

Instead, when my alarm went off this morning, I barely felt like I’d gotten an hour.

“Good morning,” Melissa greets me with her usual cheer as I walk into the office ten minutes before I’m meant to start with two coffees in hand.

Things will probably be weird as hell between the two of us today, so I figured I should at least come armed.

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