Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men #9)(93)

“That is not true at all.”

“Oh, shit.” Chad had finally noticed me in the doorway, his next bite of pizza frozen halfway to his mouth.

Sasha glanced over and gasped, slapping her hands over her mouth.

When Tyla saw me, she immediately began to shake her head. “No.” She stepped toward me. “JuJu—”

But I retreated a foot, and she slowed to a stop.

“I was just letting you guys know I was home,” I said quietly. When I swung my gaze toward Theo, he actually had the decency to look contrite. “And I’d appreciate it if you would stop calling him that white douchebag. His name is Colton.”

Then I turned away and walked stiffly to my room. When I reached it, I closed the door without any fuss and moved immediately to my closet to pull out a suitcase. I had no idea where I was going as I filled it. I just didn’t want to be here.

Outside Sasha and Ty, I wasn’t really friends with anyone else in town, not friendly enough to ask to stay with them, anyway. And bothering Colton was out of the question. His family didn’t know about us for a completely different reason. Besides, he was miserable and in pain right now. He needed a break.

Maybe Pick could help me out. I’d heard of some pretty awesome things he’d done for a couple of my coworkers, even though bothering my boss when he was probably at home with his family right now seemed all kinds of wrong.

I’d just stuffed a handful of underwear, all plain cotton but with vibrant colors, into the suitcase when a soft knock came at my door.

Tyla pushed it open, hesitantly peeking inside. Sasha crept in right behind her.

“He’s gone,” Ty told me, her eyes full of apology. “I kicked him out.”

“Chad left too,” Sasha reported.

I sighed and dropped my armful of socks onto my mattress. “You guys, you didn’t have to do that. I can go.”

“What? You’re not going anywhere,” Sasha stated firmly. “This is your home. And why is there blood smeared on your shirt?”

I glanced down and blinked at the rusty smear covering my right breast. Colton had broken open his knuckles and scraped his arm in the fight. That must’ve been where this had come from.

I didn’t know why, but seeing his blood on me broke me. I sat down on top of the sock pile, buried my face in my hands and proceeded to cry.

“Oh, honey.” Sasha sat next to me, and Tyla took my other side. Their arms wrapped around me and held me close as they rocked me back and forth.

“What did that bastard do to you?” Tyla demanded.

I shook my head and wiped at my tears. “No. Colton didn’t do anything wrong. He’s perfect. He’s so f*cking amazing; he’s the best man I’ve ever known. And I’m just so scared because it wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be fun and done, get it out of our system and never talk to each other again. But he was just so amazing. And then he brought me candy when I was on my period and told me his secrets and listened to mine and got into a fight with some jackass who tried to grab my breasts, and I just…I don’t know. I’ve never felt anything this big for a guy before, except I’m not supposed to. He didn’t want his brother to know, I didn’t want my dad to find out. But then he made it sound like he wanted more tonight, and I want more too. I kind of want everyone to know he’s mine, and if they have a problem with it, they can just go f*ck themselves.”

I exhaled a big long breath after unloading all that, my chest heaving and eyes still sprouting tears. I was pretty much a disaster, and both my roommates were staring at me as if I’d lost my mind, which I think I had.

Finally, Sasha lifted her eyebrows and blew out a breath. “Okay, maybe you should start from the beginning. Whose blood is on you?”

My shoulders fell. “I think I need to start a lot further back than that.”

“That’s fine.” Tyla nodded encouragingly. “How far back are we talking?”

“About a year,” I confessed. “Pretty much a week or two after I started working at the bar. Brandt was my trainer, and I thought he was cool.” I shrugged. “He is cool. The guy has every quality a girl would want in a man, so I thought, why not. He fit the mold I had set in my brain for the perfect guy. But the very night I was going to ask him out, his brother stopped by.”

“And it was like destiny,” Sasha tried to fill in for me, as she pressed her hands to her chest dramatically.

I blinked at her before saying, “No. He annoyed the hell out of me. He was loud and obnoxious and so arrogantly inappropriate, I pretty much wanted to smack him. But then he left, and I found myself sending glances toward the door as if I was looking for him to return or something. It was freaky, so freaky that I went ahead and asked Brandt out because, I don’t know...nothing was freaky or scarily intense with Brandt. But then that bombed, and I have to say, I wasn’t really that disappointed. I was just sad, sad because he’d finally settled with his soul mate, and you’d started seeing Theo.”

I pointed to Tyla before glancing at Sasha. “And you’ve always had Chad. I just felt so alone. The only time I ever felt truly alive was when Colton stopped by to see Brandt at the bar. I think he got a kick out of pissing me off because the more I reacted the more he flirted. After a while, I realized I was getting a kick out of his visits too. We had this bizarre game of him pursuing me relentlessly while I told him to f*ck off. But nothing ever came of it. Not until the night of Brandt’s wedding.”