Page 119 of Stone Vows

“Where’s Greta?” I ask Kyle, when I walk through the door and see him holding Ellie.

“I sent her home,” he says, without bothering to look at me.

“But I need to pay her, Kyle.”

“Do you think I’m stupid, Lexi? Of course I paid her.”

He still hasn’t looked at me. In fact, he’s doing everything in his powernotto look at me. He’s pretending to wipe something off the counter, but I can see from here, the counter is perfectly clean.

“Is something wrong?” I ask, closing the door and walking across the room.

“What could possibly be wrong?” he asks sarcastically. “Ellie’s happy. I had a great day at work; diagnosed a difficult case. Oh, and you—there’s obviously nothing wrong with you, I mean with all your exercising and all. And there sure as hell isn’t anything wrong with Conner Ridley.”

I have to pull my lips into my mouth to suppress a smile. He must have seen me talking to Conner. “Oh, you know him?”

He finally turns and faces me. “Everyone knows Mr. 2105.”

“What?”

He raises a questioning brow. “Do you mean to tell me he didn’t give you his apartment number?”

“He told me,” I admit. “But he was just making polite conversation.”

“Polite, my ass. He tellseverybodyhis apartment number. And he’s slept with every woman south of fifty who lives in this building.”

My jaw falls open. “Really?”

“Yes, really. So stay away from him, Lex. He’s bad news.”

“We were only talking, Kyle. He’s nice.”

He shakes his head in disgust. “Of course he’s nice. How else do you think he gets women to follow him home?”

The vein at his temple is pulsating and I have to bite my lip to hold in the laughter. Skylar may have been right. However, he’s hardly declaring his love for me. More like looking out for his roommate, I’d say.

“Did you tell him where you live?” he asks, putting Ellie down in her playpen.

I look at him like he’s gone crazy. “No, Kyle, I didn’t. You know me better than that.”

“Do I?” he asks.

I narrow my eyes at him, not bothering to justify his question with an answer. I think hehasgone crazy. Or better yet, I think Mr. 2105 hasmadehim crazy.

I walk over to kiss Ellie before I head to the bathroom to take a shower. “Ellie will be fine in there for a few minutes while I clean up.”

I close the bathroom door behind me, but it immediately opens and Kyle walks through, pinning me against the counter with his stare. “Do you want him, Lexi?”

“Do I want the playboy of the western world? No, Kyle. I don’t want him. Now would you mind if I shower, please?”

“He was eye-fucking you and you were letting him,” he says, crossing his arms defensively.

“Eye-fucking? Are you kidding me, Kyle? What iswrongwith you?”

He shakes his head. “I think we’ve already determined thatnothingis wrong with me. What the hell is wrong withyouthat would make you want to talk to that scumbag?”

I blow out a frustrated breath. “I didn’t know he was a player. Give me a tiny break for not being able to read everyone’s mind, okay? Plus, I was onlytalkingto him. For like two minutes, no less.”

“Is that why you have your tattoo covered up?” he asks, nodding to the bandage on my wrist. “So you cantalkto guys? Or is it so they won’t know you have some other man’s name branded into your flesh?”

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