Page 42 of Obsessed with the Heartbreaker

Maddox stepped away, like a good, if mostly disobedient puppy, then left the room to go into his own.

Which was right opposite Henry’s.

Why don’t they just move in together? They live on top of each other already.

Thankfully, I didn’t voice that thought, because even in my mind it sounded jealous as fuck.

And that was yet another emotion that I didn’t need to show on my face when I was right in front of Henry.

Picking up one last T-shirt that looked completely clean and putting it into the hamper, Henry said, “You shouldn’t taunt Maddox.”

“Maybe he shouldn’t tauntme.” I reached out and took the hamper from him, since this was the reason I’d come here. “You should have trained your Hellhound better if you didn’t want him to bite guests left and right.”

A hint of amusement at the wordHellhoundpassed through Henry’s eyes, one that softened his face a little bit from the somber expression it had had when I’d come in.

“It wouldn’t be a hellhound if it was trained,” he said, and as if we’d summoned him from the depths of Hell, Maddox reappeared from his room.

He was also carrying a half-full hamper, andthis onewas definitely not full of clean clothes like I suspected Henry’s was.

With a saccharine smile, he turned the hamper over Henry’s—which I wasstillholding—and when all of the clothes had fallen, he said “Oops.”

Then he left again, closing his bedroom door behind him.

* * *

Once in the laundry room downstairs, I started sorting through the clothes. Thankfully, there were no stinking socks in there—the bastards were probably blessed with unscented feet—and I sorted everything into two piles, since it would take two loads to wash.

The whole time, I felt Henry’s presence and prying eyes from somewhere behind me. I was torn between nerves and the tingling feeling of excitement, having the whole of his attention, with no Maddox here to interfere. I almost wanted to go and close the door just to make a point. The tingling feeling grew until I just had to break the ice and the temporary silence between us.

“Maddox and I are clearly getting married any day now,” I said as I readied the first load of clothes.

Henry huffed, currently perched on a small counter that was beside the washing machines. “Please, do invite me to your wedding. Someone needs to ruin it.”

Why did the thought of it make my stomach flutter? Something about Henry’s tone was so…proprietary.

Then I realized that the feeling may not have been aboutme, and my feelings soured.

“Thank you for trying to save me from a lifetime lived alongside yourbest friend.” The buttons on the machine beeped as I set it up, then it rumbled to life. “I can now clearly see all the charm that made him worthy of being my replacement.”

As soon as it came out of my mouth, I knew I’d said too much.

“You think Maddox is your replacement?” Henry’s tone was way too neutral, like he’d surgically removed all traces of emotion from the question.

I shrugged, not looking at him, and instead pretending to snoop around the room. It was a decently sized laundry room, but other than some cupboards, cleaning supplies, and the washing machines, there was nothing much to focus on. Still, I looked outside the window instead of turning to face the guy who had my heart clenched in his fist.

“Isn’t he the one you tell all your secrets to now?”

“Almost all of them.”

Right. He hadn’t told him about our kiss. And Maddox probably didn’t know what our relationship had been like either.

To Maddox, I must have only been a phantom of Henry’s past, an annoying bug that refused to stay where I was supposed to, which was well away from his and Henry’s space, and their life.

“That still doesn’t make him your replacement for one very simple reason: you and I were never friends.”

Well, if I hadn’t thought this thing with Henry couldn’t get more painful, I’d been wrong.

This, right now, felt like I was being physically crushed by a bulldozer, once again.

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