Page 132 of California Wild

And when he did?

He blinked like she was interrupting him. Like she was in his way.

Then—flatly, casually—he said, “What?”

Hayley’s heart detonated.

She saw red.

No—she saw black.

Her voice came out low. Controlled. Lethal. “What?”

He blinked again, confusion giving way to something tighter. Defensive.

“Hayley—”

“Where the fuck were you.”

He exhaled hard, already walking past her like she hadn’t just been up for an hour losing her mind.

“I needed some air.”

He grabbed a glass, filled it with water. Drank. Like it was nothing. Like she was nothing.

Hayley stared at him. Stared at the muscles in his back flexing with every movement. The same body that had curled around her just hours ago. The same hands that had touched her like she was sacred.

Now?

He couldn’t even bother to look at her.

“You needed air,” she repeated, each word sharper than the last. “At two in the goddamn morning.”

“You were asleep.” He said it without turning around.

She wanted to scream. Wanted to throw something. Wanted to slap that indifference off his face.

“So?”

She could barely breathe. Her voice was shaking now, her chest rising too fast. “You left me. Alone. Again.”

Jesse turned finally. His jaw was tight. “I didn’t think I had to check in every time I stepped outside my own apartment.”

And that—that—was what broke her.

She actually stumbled back a step. Like he’d hit her. Like the air had been punched out of her lungs.

“Oh my god,” she whispered, her hands going to her temples. “You really don’t get it.”

“Then help me get it.”

“No. No. I’m done helping you understand basic fucking decency.”

She stepped closer, her voice rising, cracking. “You used to disappear all the time, Jesse. You’d vanish. For hours. For days. And you know what I’d do? I’d lie awake, sick to my stomach, wondering if you were dead or if you were just too high to answer your phone—or too busy fucking someone else to care.”

His face went still. His entire body froze.

“I’m not that guy anymore,” he said tightly. “I haven’t touched another woman since you came back.”

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