Then he’d gone and engaged Kevin in conversation.

He’d started a sick little game between us, one I hadn’t wanted to play.

And once I saw Kevin, the guy I’dsleptwith, put a finger under Antony’s chin, getting ready to kiss him…

I’d lost it.

And I never lost it.

I knew for a fact there’d be questions about it from my best friend when tomorrow came, but for now, I was too focused on getting Antony away from everyone to care.

Opening the door to the upstairs bathroom, I let myself in, and as soon as Antony was inside, I slammed the door closed and used my arms to cocoon him against it.

“What thefuckdo you think you’re doing?” I asked him, a tight ball of anger burning inside my chest.

“Breathing? Existing? Or is that troublesome to you?”

Christ, he had no right to look as good as he did. Dark eyebrow raised, a defiant look in those green eyes, and the most devastating shade of pink on his lips.

They looked way too fucking kissable.Bitable. I wanted to ravage him, devour his mouth like I hadn’t eaten for days, but I still had a shred of self-control, so I didn’t.

“What’s troublesome is the fact that you’rehere. In this house.Uninvited.”

“I thought I should invite myself, given the fact that you had, yet again, decided to ignore my very existence, and I didn’t want to wait three years to talk to you again.”

My molars ground against each other, his sharp words hitting home. Not to mention his tone made my heart squeeze inside my chest, because he soundedhurt, and fuck if I wasn’t useless when it came to a hurt Antony.

I’d crumble faster than a house of cards.

This had never been a good plan.

“I wasn’t ignoring you,” I defended pitifully, because I definitely had been.

“Yes, Henry. You were,” he said in a dead tone. “Do you always run when you’re uncomfortable, Henry? Because this looks an awful lot like a pattern.”

Well, he was now getting way too close to the truth.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

That was the wrong thing to say, because Antony’s eyes lit up like someone had dropped a match inside him, and he wentoff.“You don’t—Fine.I’ll tell you exactly what this is about, and it’s me being sick and tired of this back and forth. Of you coming to me with the stupidest deal on Earth, and then ignoring me for months. This is about you, going hot and cold, bantering with me and taunting me andgiving me hope,and then disappearing again. It’s about how for years you treated me worse than a fucking stranger, and even now you still can’t even call me by my name. To top things off, you dismiss our friendship and make me feel like a lonely, insane person for thinking that we had something special.Thatis what this whole thing is about.”

The ball of anger was now a ball of emotion, tightening my throat. It was the hot press of shame all around my chest. Did he think I wasn’t aware of all of this? Did he think I liked it? Did he think I didn’t hate with every atom of my being every inch that I used to put distance between us?

I hated it. And I hated hurting him.

But it was for the best.

“We weren’tfriends, Antony,” I said, giving up on this one inch of space.

Starting to crumble.

Something flashed across his face. “Then what were we, then? Enemies? Rivals? Was I your nemesis? Because it never felt like it and it sucks that you want to make it look that way.”

What sucked was that he had my heart in his fucking fist and he didn’t even know it.

Clearing my throat, I tried not to sound choked up. “I could never be your friend, not after…”

“After you kissed me?” He let out a frustrated huff. “So what, Henry? It was just one kiss. And peopletalk about itinstead of running away.”