Page 19 of Heart Break Her

Her words are still spinning in the air around me as the handle to the bathroom starts to turn. Not enough time for me to lock it. Not enough time for me to throw my body against it.

I’m frozen. Seated beside a toilet, my puke still sitting in the bowl, when the door opens, and there he is.

Sebastian Kane, filling the bathroom with electricity.

Looking so good I can’t stand it at a time like this. White T-shirt and ripped jeans fitted against a body that’s impossible to forget.

“Hey, Cassie.”

Two words, and he shoots my heart to the flipping moon without my permission. He really needs to come with a warning label tattooed on his forehead.

Then again, I should have known better.

6

Sebastian

Iwassohighthe night I met Cassie, I didn’t know if the girl with the pink hair was actually real. Not until I opened the bathroom door and saw her sitting by the toilet looking how I feel inside: torn to bits.

Even with her hair in a disheveled knot on her head and the stench of vomit in the air, she’s still gorgeous. The most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, and I know I’ve seen the hottest of them. Cassie leaves all the others in her dust. And not just her beauty, but her thoughts, her nervous ticks. The way she stumbles over her words when she’s flirting. The way she sees right through me. The way her hands feel like they belong on my skin.

She’s all consuming.

I can’t remember the last time I brought someone back to my hotel and didn’t fuck them. Or how long it’s been since I’ve gotten so lost in a woman’s being that I didn’t even want to try. But looking into Cassie’s eyes, I knew she wasn’t a one-night stand. Even if I couldn’t stay away, I couldn’t turn her into one either.

Cassie saw the deepest parts of me as I was touching her. Opened me right up. She was a wonderland, and by the end of the night, I forgot where she ended and I began.

But my memory of her from our night together and the girl sitting here now are different. She’s tired, broken. And it kicks me in the gut to know that her being with me is the reason.

Of all the women I’ve brought back to my room, she’s the one who had to get caught up in this mess. I’m going to destroy whoever hid a camera in my room and burn their fucking world to the ground.

Walking over to the toilet, I close the lid and flush before sitting against the wall beside her and tipping my head back.

She centers me in a way I didn’t think was possible with all the shit swimming around in my head. I’m a top spinning out of control, and she’s the finger that slows my speed, bringing me into a gentle orbit. It’s how I felt last week, before she disappeared from my room when I was sleeping. And again now, with her sitting beside me.

“Why are you here?” Cassie breaks the silence.

I turn to face her, but she’s got her eyes closed. She can’t even look at me. “I came to check on you.”

“Do you check on all the women you fuck around with?”

My reputation was never a secret, so I’m sure her comment is just a wall she’s erecting. Still, it hurts.

“No, I don’t.”

She opens her eyes and tips her head in my direction. The green from her eyes has all but faded to a cool blue with whatever she’s feeling. Hurt, sadness, exhaustion. The look flattens me.

“Sorry.” She frowns.

Of course, she’s apologizing. She’s too sweet for her own good. I want her to be pissed, to lash out. After all, even if I wasn’t the one to put the video out there, coming back to my room that night is what did this to her. Me being selfish when I should have kept my hands off.

“You have nothing to be sorry for.” I try to rein in my irritation toward whatever in life made her think she’d ever be at fault for something that clearly lands on my head.

Cassie takes in a deep breath, releasing it just as slowly. “Well, you’ve checked. I’m here. I’m sure you have places to be.”

“Not today.”

After the video leaked last night, it sent everything into a tailspin. The crew and band are scrambling. Eloise won’t stop asking if I’m okay. The guys want to know who the girl in the video is. Adrian is fielding non-stop calls. And in the midst of the chaos, all I wanted to do was check on Cassie.

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