Page 22 of Instant Bond

“No! I just… I like that you want me. It makes me feel good.”

“Then I’ll be sure to remind you as often as I can,” he said.

“I wouldn’t mind that.”

When he got up from our comfy entanglement to go to the bathroom, I tried not to mourn the loss of his warm presence next to me. But my silly little complaint was instantly forgotten when his phone, which he’d left on my coffee table, lit up with a message from someone else.

Normally I wouldn’t have read it. I wouldn’t have even picked it up. It was incredibly rude, and I had no reason not to trust him. But the message had a link to an article in it. And the link preview showed a photo of Karter with some other guy. Some guy who was way better looking than me.

My stomach dropped down into my guts, and my head was buzzing as I picked it up off the table.

Omg so embarrassing right?

The contact name above the message field was Lucas Caldwell. Apparently he found the whole thing embarrassing.

I clicked the link to the article, nearly sweating as it loaded. My eyes darted between the web page and the bathroom door, praying Karter wouldn’t come out and catch me snooping.

The headline for the article was in large font. ‘Heir to the Morrison Beauty fortune on date with social media superstar?’

My eyes scrolled down past the photo. There wasn’t much to say about it. He was very obviously on a date, as the title stated. They were sitting across from each other, but their hands were linked at the center of the table. Very romantic. Wherever they were looked fancy and expensive, with candles and fresh flowers.

The article went on to mention Lucas, the guy in the picture, as a model who often did ad campaigns for Morrison Beauty, and speculated whether they’d met through that channel. Unable to read anymore, I hit the back button to close out of the page and put his phone back on the table.

Tears were welling up in my eyes, so I quickly rubbed them away. It was stupid to be upset anyway. I’d never even asked him if he was seeing anyone. I’d stupidly assumed he wouldn’t, since he’d claimed to like me so much. But maybe the rules were different for the billionaire socialite crowd. That should have been obvious from the start.

The bathroom door opened less than ten seconds later.

“I didn’t notice before how incredibly small your shower is,” Karter commented as he sat next to me. “I was obviously very preoccupied when we used it before. I’m not sure how we both even fit.”

It was the worst kind of situation. If I didn’t say anything, he’d know I was upset. But I was afraid if I tried to talk, my voice would crack and I’d look like a complete moron. Part of me wanted to ignore what I’d seen. Even if he was seeing other people, wasn’t it better to have him with me sometimes than to break it off? And then I realized that was maybe the most pathetic thought I’d ever had in all my life.

“Um, Karter? I think… I think that we have a different idea of what all of this is, and as much as I like you, I don’t know if we should be wasting each other’s time anymore.”

He stared at me for a few moments before answering. “What are you talking about? Whose time is being wasted?”

I focused every cell in my body toward the effort of not bursting into tears. It sort of worked, but my involuntary sniffle gave me away anyway.

“Cameron, tell me what’s wrong.” It wasn’t a request. It was an order.

“I didn’t know you were talking to other people. I thought you just wanted to be with me, so…”

“Talking to other people?” He repeated. He looked totally confused. “I’m not talking to anyone but you.”

I would have believed him. He sounded so completely shocked at my statement, but… I’d seen it myself.

“Talking, dating, whatever you want to call it. I just had a different idea of what this was, and that’s my fault.”

It was totally, utterly, and completely my fault. I was an idiot for not questioning things more. I knew better than to believe some fantasy, that some perfectly doting alpha would comerescue me from my pitiful and sad life. The ache in my chest that I felt now was my punishment for forgetting all of that.

At least I hadn’t told Ty about him yet. And I’d downplayed everything between us to Hana, even though she’d been hounding me about him. I guess I had known, on some level, that whatever I was feeling wasn’t some fated connection. As if someone like me would ever be the perfect mate for someone like Karter Morrison. I was so stupid.

“Since the day I met you, I haven’t looked at another person that way. I don’t know what’s led you to believe anything differently, but I swear to you it’s the truth. Why would I want anyone else?”

There were so many good answers I could have given in response to that question, but they wouldn’t make me feel any better. My eyes flickered from his face to the phone on the table. I couldn’t help it. It seemed to alert him, because he instantly picked it up and turned it on, his eyes raking over the screen.

His body language and expression morphed into something I’d never witnessed from him before. His hand clenched into a fist, digging into the fabric of my couch. I watched as he inhaled a long breath through his nose, slowly letting it out through his teeth, like it was a technique he’d learned in anger management or something.

“Cameron.” My name in his voice usually sent pleasant shivers up my spine, or had my pulse skipping. But he sounded livid now, like his rage was just barely being held in. “This message is not what you seem to think. As cliché as it sounds, this is not what it looks like.”

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