Avoiding Temptation (Avoiding #3)(85)

Lexi just couldn’t take it.

“You didn’t even care that your fiancé had cheated on you before he proposed. You don’t get to be involved in this at all,” Lexi said, her voice barely above a whisper but so threatening that it might as well have been deadly. “So, why don’t you just go scamper off and worry about your marriage or something equally useless?”

Bekah’s eyes were on fire, and she was visibly seething. “You don’t get to talk to me like that, you little bitch. You weren’t good enough for Jack, and you’re certainly not good enough for my brother—”

“Bekah,” Jack snapped, moving in between them, “just leave her alone.”

“What?” Bekah nearly screeched. Her nose was scrunched up as she stared at Jack in shock.

“I said, leave her alone. You don’t need to attack her like this right now. It’s bad enough that someone wrongly accused Ramsey, and she’s dealing with the aftereffect. You don’t need to lay into her, too.”

Lexi and Bekah both just stared at Jack. When had he ever stood up against Bekah? When had he ever kept Lexi and Bekah from each other’s throats? Lexi didn’t know what to say to that. She just wanted to thank him because him speaking up had actually shut Bekah up…and that was all Lexi had wanted at this point.

“Come on, Bekah,” Jack said, taking her hand, “just walk away.”

So, she walked away.

And Lexi stood there, speechless.

Chapter 15

How fast had she run out of that apartment?

Jack’s lips had hovered so close to hers. His eyes had been drunk with more than whiskey. She could practically hear his heart beating out of his chest. Or had that been hers? The heat rising between them had been like a blazing inferno threatening to overpower them both.

She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t look into those blue eyes and give in to the feelings he always stirred in her. They were friends now…just friends. And if he felt otherwise, then maybe she should stay away from him.

But her head knowing that didn’t seem to connect with the rest of her body begging and pleading with her to stay—just stay, just one moment, give in. Give in to that smirk, those eyes, the pheromone-spiking smell of sex, to the heat and desire and passion that consumed them inside and out. All she would have had to do was close her eyes. It would have been that simple.

Jack knew what she wanted. He had always known. And it would be no different now.

No different.

No…it certainly wouldn’t be different than any other time they had gambled their relationships away. No different than all the other times they had drawn a line in the sand only to cross it over and over and over again. No different than any of it.

“Then, I should go,” she had whispered into the stillness.

His hand had come down hard on the doorframe to steady himself, and she had thought for a split second that he would cross that line they had drawn more than two years earlier.

“Yeah…yeah, you should.”

“Your hand is still…” Lexi had gestured to the door where his hand had been covering hers.

He had withdrawn his hand with a sigh, and Lexi had turned the knob.

“Hey,” he had whispered.

Taking a deep breath, she had turned back to face him one more time. He had reached out and tucked another lock of hair behind her ear.

“I’ll miss you.”

And then, his lips had landed softly on her cheek, way softer than she had thought they would, considering how much alcohol was in his system. She had swallowed, yanked the door open, and bolted from the apartment.

Her hands shook as she fished out her car keys. She dropped them once and cursed loudly before picking them up and pushing a key into the door. Once it was open, she fell into the front seat and slammed her hands down repeatedly on the steering wheel.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” she cried, the tears threatening to let loose. “No. Please, no.”

She leaned forward, pressed her forehead into the steering wheel she had been abusing, and let the tears fall. She didn’t even know how to articulate what was ripping through her chest, but it hurt like a motherf*cker.

She just wanted to claw her way through her chest and make all the pain go away. How could he say those things to her? How could he say those things when he knew it didn’t matter, when he knew that she was marrying someone else? How could he put her in that position?

The tears ran hot down her cheeks as the roller coaster of emotions unleashed all around her. And she couldn’t stop them from falling because she didn’t even know the true source of her pain. Was she angry that he had said those things to her at all…or that he had said them too late?

“So, let me get this straight,” Chyna said, pacing her flat.

Lexi sat with her feet scrunched up underneath. She had just told Chyna the whole story from start to finish, and she was waiting to hear the backlash.

“Jack told you that he loved you and that you should leave, and you actually walked out of his apartment?”

Lexi nodded solemnly.

“Chica, I’m shocked. Have you actually grown up? Do you have a temperature?” Chyna asked, walking up to her and pressing the back of her hand to Lexi’s forehead.

Lexi brushed her off. “No, I’m not sick, you crazy person.”