Page 14 of Well Played

I had no idea how that was possible, but the girl who gave me so much grief was in the same damn room as me, and just had her claws in my man.

My man.

I shouldn’t have looked.

“Hallie,” Solace murmured, concern and authority lacing his voice. “Talk to me.”

I shook my head, pushing at his chest then shoulder when he wouldn’t budge. “Let me out.”

He sighed and stepped back, his fingers trailing my wrist. “Tonight?”

I shook my head, kept my eyes on my floor and scurried back to my desk, setting up my work for the afternoon behind a towering intray that thankfully allowed me to hide from everyone else.

Solace didn’t approach me for the rest of the day, and I wasn't sure if that was a good thing, or a bad thing. Nor did I see him when I headed for my bus, my single footsteps my only company.

When I got home to my cat, Mica, my hands shook so much I could barely feed her. Shaking and crying stupidly over something that happened so long ago, something I thought I’d managed to extricate myself from, I slipped into bed without eating, without turning on a single light, and tried to fall asleep.

Sometime after midnight, I half woke from a doze about a girl with a pink dress and gold nails wrapped around Solace to realise I hadn’t sent him a message to say I’d gotten home safely. I rolled over, knocking Mica off the bed. She mewled piteously and left me alone and feeling more guilty than ever.

Two AM. Way too late for a man who went home last thing and got up hellishly early to be there when I opened the office too. I couldn’t wake him now, if he even cared after the way I blew him off.

Fresh tears tracked my cheeks, the overwhelm of the whole week leaving me shuddering and alone through the coldest hours of the night.

I openedmy door the next morning–well, same morning, really—grumpy, tired and bitching about leaving my thermos in the Chimera’s kitchenstillwhile pushing Mica’s head back in thedoor and nearly screamed at the behemoth standing right on my freaking doorstep.

“Holy shit, Solace.” I thwacked him with the back of my free hand and hurt myself. That earned him a glare. “What are you doing here?”

“I thought you said you weren’t a screamer.” He surveyed me with a tired smile, though his eyes travelled over my body hungrily.No change there.“No tights, huh?”

I cocked a hip, pleased when Mica’s head finally squished back in where it should be, and my door locked. “Some wrecked my best ones.”

He braced an arm over my head, pushing my freshly filled coffee thermos into my hands. “I promised you I’d get you more.” His eyes searched mine.

I swallowed and stared back, unsure what this was exactly as I spotted his yellow sports coupe out front of my rental townhouse. “Thank you for coffee.” Then my mind thunked into place without its usual caffeinated lubricant. “Wait, have you been out here all night?”

He shrugged. “Wanted to make sure you got home alright.”

I gaped at him guppie style. “I woke up at two in the morning and felt so guilty. If I’d known, I would have—” I closed my mouth with a snap.

His eyes glittered at me. “You telling me I should have been camping out here all week rather than pining for you at home and edging fuck out of myself when I couldn’t have you, beautiful?” The predator in him rose to full heat.

I backed into my door, flattening myself to the scarred wood, but there was no way around him. “Solace, you’re too much, sometimes,” I murmured, my breaths coming short.

“Only sometimes, huh?” He caught my chin with his knuckles and grazed his mouth over mine. “You eat last night?”

I bit my lip and shook my head. “No.”

He nodded. “I didn’t think so. I watched you go inside, and the place stayed dark. My heart fucking shattered, Hallie. I came so close to pounding on that door until you answered, but I didn't wanna scare you.”

My vision of him blurred. “I wish you had.”

“Christ.” His arms dropped, folding around me and my thermos. Mica pawed and mewled at the door from the other side frantically. “Hell, I’m scaring your other pussy.”

I giggled in his arms, resting my head against his chest. “I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have slept rough because of me.”

“But I did.” He tangled his fingers through my hair, massaging my scalp. “You know why.”

I nodded, knowing what he’d say and weirdly, not needing to hear it any more. I’d kind of come to accept who he was and how he was with me in the last hours, though my heart still bore the scars another man left there.

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