“It’s none of your damn business who’s in my bed. Just like it’s none of mine who’s in yours.”
“What?”
She reached out like she was going to shove my shoulder but missed, throwing her off balance. I reached out automatically to help her, but she smacked away my hands. Somehow, she managed to regain her balance, and she looked even more pissed than before. Repeating my question was probably a bad idea, but I did it anyway.
“What did you mean?”
She rolled her eyes. “I guess that answers the question if she fucked your brains out.”
My jaw dropped as I connected the dots. I didn’t know how, but she’d seen Antoinette in my cabin.
Was that why she’d gotten drunk?
Did it matter?
The problem was, the answer to both of those questions was the same.
I didn’t know.
Four
Nyx
I shouldn’t have said that.
Shit.
I’d known kissing Isaac was a bad idea, but I hadn’t realized it was going to send everything else down the crapper. Of course, Bradyn had to do what he’d been doing from the moment I first arrived in Savannah. He just showed the fuck up.
“When did you get back?” he asked, an intense expression on his face. “You were here earlier, weren’t you?”
I shook my head, then regretted the movement as it nearly knocked me off balance. “Doesn’t matter. Like I said, not my business.”
I should’ve just gone straight inside when I got here. Ignored Isaac and just gone to bed.
“I’d like to know how you saw what you did, but I don’t think that’s the most important thing right now.” Bradyn took a small step toward me. “Look, nothing happened.”
“Right.” I pointed at him as he became two people, then came back together into one. “Cuz a naked woman answering your door while you’re in the shower doesn’t scream ‘just had sex.’”
“Fuck,” he muttered. “No, Nyx. I didn’t have sex with her.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t care.”
“Yes,” he said quietly. “You do.”
Dammit.
“Her name is Antoinette Houston. She’s my ex. Really ex.”
I must’ve looked like I didn’t believe him – I didn’t – because he kept talking.
“Look, we started dating in college. I was a senior, she was a junior. We were serious.” He scratched at his cheek, an absent gesture that, for some reason, annoyed me. “A little over a year after she graduated, she and my dad started having an affair. It was nearly six months before I caught them.”
My eyes widened, my drunken brain still functioning well enough to remember what I’d found in my investigation. Something about Bradyn leaving his father’s campaign and an affair Clancy Traylor’d supposedly had.
“She’s the reason you left your father’s campaign.”
His mouth tightened. “You’ve been doing your homework.”
“I’ve been doing my job, actually.”
Shit, I was losing some of my buzz. That was the last thing I wanted, especially around Bradyn. If I got sober, I’d be relieved that he hadn’t slept with Antionette, and that would be a bad thing.
“Yeah, we’ll need to talk about that job of yours, but not now. In the morning, after you’ve sobered up.”
I glared at him, even though collapsing on my bed right now sounded like a good idea. I didn’t need him telling me what to do. I didn’t need anyone for anything.
“Fuck you.”
He took a step toward me, and I barely stopped myself from backing away. “Is that a fuck you and the horse you rode in on, or is it a I want to fuck you six ways from Sunday?”
I swallowed hard and tried to remember that I was pissed at him. Except I couldn’t really remember why I was supposed to be pissed at him. The naked woman thing wasn’t what I’d thought, and what I’d assumed about him and his family might not have been what it’d looked like either.
How the hell was I supposed to think when he smelled so damn good?
He came close enough for me to feel the heat of him, so different from the heavy, humid warmth of an early October night in Georgia. His eyes met mine, and I couldn’t look away. I was frozen in place, desperately wanting him to touch me, even though another part of me never wanted him this close to me again.
He raised his hand and pushed some hair back from my face, his fingertips practically singeing me. For two long seconds, I thought he’d kiss me, and I knew I’d let him. If he kissed me, I’d be lost. We’d end up in one of