Page 49 of Don't Break My Heart
Reef steps out of the driver’s side, but he doesn’t move away from the car. He watches me, but it’s with caution, like he’s purposely keeping his distance. Good, he’s on my shit list as well. “Why would you do something so careless, knowing what we have all been through?” His voice is hoarse.
That earns him a bitchy-as-fuck glare from me. “What you have all been through!” I huff out a laugh. Is he fucking kidding me?
“That’s right, it’s all about you, isn’t it, Sloane. You didn’t get what you wanted, so you’re throwing a tantrum. Real mature,” Reef snips back.
I’m so surprised by the words coming from Reef’s mouth and the attitude that accompanies them that it takes me a second to formulate a sentence. “Are you fucking kidding me, you’re pissed with me?” I glare daggers back at him.
He shakes his head as if he’s disappointed in me. “I get it, we wrecked your big plans in Italy.” His hand slams down on the roof of the car. “Could you be any more selfish. How dare we put our fucking lives on the line day after day, make every fucking sacrifice possible, and get you out of there when it became obvious it was too dangerous. When all you wanted was to stay and fight for a cause you only just discovered.”
I stare back at him, my face glowing with heat. What the fuck? Am I completely insane or is he saying I’m the asshole here and not them. I slam my car door. With my heart in my throat, I stalk toward Reef. He looks down at me, crossing one arm over the other, towering over me in a way that never intimidated me before, but now, now I feel small and insignificant. “You drugged me and took away my ability to make the choice to stay or come home away from me.” I poke him in the chest. “You had a choice, I fucking didn’t. You could have come home without me.”
He throws his head back in a sarcastic-as-fuck laugh, and Romeo joins him. “If you think we had a choice, you don’t know us at all.” He takes a step back from me and hops in the driver’s seat of Romeo’s car again, slamming the door behind him. He glares back at me as he starts the engine.
I step out of the way so he can tear out of the parking lot, a look on his face I have never seen before. He’s furious with me. What the actual fuck? What upside-down world did I wake up in today? Onyx confessing his love for me, Cruz siding with him, and Reef hating me.
Romeo’s lips tug up at the sides. “Shall we? Lots of work to catch up on, doll face, and it looks like I have you all to myself for once.”
Yeah, he’s still the same flirtatious, smug motherfucker I have come to know. I guess at least that’s something I can rely on. I stalk past him and enter the code to let us in. I stop as soon as I enter the back hall, the smell of bleach hitting my nostrils in a nostalgic way I didn’t think I could ever miss. I inhale deeply. I’m back.
Romeo’s hand comes to the small of my back gently.
“Don’t touch me, asshole,” I snip over my shoulder just so he knows where we stand.
He lets out a lighthearted chuckle. “Just like the old days. This is going to be fun.”
I can’t help but roll my eyes, even though a small smile tugs at the corner of my lips. I turn away from him so he can’t see. I’m not letting him off the hook just because he’s being cute. He destroyed what we had when he sided with his brother.
I scan my swipe card to my office door. It opens quickly, and I can’t help the scream that leaves my lips when I see Asher’s bare ass. “Asher Stryker, you have to be fucking kidding me.” I close the door as quickly as I opened. “For fuck’s sake, now I’m going to have to burn that sofa.”
Romeo bursts out laughing. He must have copped an eyeful as well. Asher with some girl bent over my beautiful jade-green velvet sofa. “Welcome home, doll face.” He laughs even louder, and I know he’s doing his best to lighten the mood, but fuck my life.
“You know what I’m going to have to burn? My eyes. Scratch that, my brain.” I scrub a hand over my face, trying to get rid of the visual now lodged in there.
“That makes two of us,” he agrees.
My office door swings open again, a flustered Asher pulling up his jeans. “Hey, little sis, you’re home.” He throws his T-shirt on over his head and wraps his arms tightly around me, kissing me on the cheek.
“Don’t kiss me with those lips, God knows where they have been,” I snap at him, bitchy as all hell.
He takes my face in his hands and stares down at me. “God, I have missed that smart mouth. It’s good to have you back.”
“Hmmm,” is all I can say in return as a shy-looking brunette comes to stand in the doorway, her red dress now firmly back in place, thecolor mirroring that of her cheeks. “Say goodbye to your little friend, Asher, we have work to do.”
“The Italian vacation didn’t lighten her up?” he asks Romeo over my shoulder like the two of them are old buddies. Fucking great. Now I’m going to have them teaming up on me.
“Trip was cut short. She’s not happy about it,” Romeo says back to him.
Irritation crawls under my skin, but instead of sticking around so they can make me feel even worse, I shove into my office, leaving them to their banter in the corridor.
I go to the bathroom and find the disinfectant spray, covering my velvet sofa until the can runs empty. “Fucking manwhore Asher, of course he’s been screwing whoever he can in my office,” I mutter under my breath. I take a vanilla-scented candle out of my second desk drawer and light it, placing it in the center of the coffee table, helping the fresh vanilla waft around the room.
Romeo joins me, fanning his face and coughing as he walks further into my office. “You really are trying to blow the place up.”
“Fucking Asher, this is your fault for leaving him in charge.” I point at him, pinning him with my glare.
He sighs, offering me a half smile, a hint of sympathy in his eyes. “Sloane, profits are up, staff are happy. He might like to sleep around, but he’s a decent, well-respected manager. He did me proud in your absence.”
“I bet you would have a different opinion if it was Sally who was sleeping round.”
