Page 75 of Cold Hard Kisses (London Mafia Kings)

I didn’t even want to tell her what he’d implied about me and Jayden. I didn’t want to tell her about the cameras either. The thought of him conducting such an invasion of privacy was humiliating. He’d argue that it was his house, and he’d probably had the cameras installed long before I ever came on the scene, but it was the fact he’d never bothered to tell me about them that hurt.

I laughed at myself, but it contained no humour. “I’m such a fucking cliché. I actually thought I could change him. I thought I could make him a different man, but he isn’t one, is he? He let me see what I wanted to see, and then the mask slipped and I got the real Tam Cornell again.”

“Oh, sweetie.” She took my hand. “I don’t know what to say.”

I shook my head. “Jay should never have mentioned Harvey, either. He was deliberately trying to wind Tam up.”

Layla winced. “He mentioned Tam’s dead brother, the one you were supposed to marry?”

“Yep. Said he would have preferred Harvey as a brother-in-law.”

“Shit. He’s lucky he didn’t get his head kicked in.”

I groaned. “They’re both a pair of dickheads.”

She squeezed my fingers. “Men tend to be that way. Unfortunately, we like the dicks in their trousers, too, so sometimes we have to figure out what’s worth sticking around for.”

“I feel like I’ve spent my whole life living up to other people’s expectations—othermen’sexpectations. Maybe it’s time I started thinking about whatIwant from life.”

“What do you want, Hallie?”

I bit my lower lip hard enough to hurt. “Up until tonight, I would have said Tam, but if I base my whole future on whether or not he’ll let me down, I’m bound to be disappointed. I need to create a life for myself, and one day, maybe the right man will come into it.”

“You don’t think Tam is that man?”

A tear slipped down my cheek, and I swiped it away. “For a moment, I did, but how can I now?”

“You don’t have to make any decisions now,” she said. “You can stay here as long as you want.”

I blinked through my wet lashes, so grateful to have her in my life. “Thanks, Lay. What would I do without you? I’m so sorry I’ve been neglecting you because of him.”

Layla grinned. “Sisters before misters?”

“Exactly.”

And we both laughed.

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