So I killed the dream he’s been conjuring up in his asshole brain that he’s gonna get you into his bed.”
“Bass is not an asshole and he does not have the hots for me.”
“No? So you’re telling me he doesn’t like women?”
“What?”
“Women, Addy. Are you telling me that Bass doesn’t like women?”
“I assume so, considering I’ve seen him with a variety of girlfriends in the years I’ve known him.”
She was no less pissed, but some of the venom had left her tone.
“Is there a reason you don’t want him knowing you’re in my kitchen making breakfast?”
“Of course not. I just don’t like you pissing on my leg.”
That made me smile. Which was the wrong thing to do if her downturned lips were anything to go by.
I couldn’t resist. “Baby, as kinky as that sounds, I’m not into golden showers. You wanna give that a go, we can—”
“You’re gross. I don’t—”
She let out a squeak of surprise when I tagged her around the waist and jerked her forward. Her hands hit my chest to brace her fall.
“Adalynn, straight up, that guy’s into you. Heard it the second he said your fuckin’ name. What I don’t know is, are you into him?”
Her hands spasmed and her body locked tight. Seeing her reaction sent tiny, sharp spikes into my heart.
What the fuck?
“No, I’m not into him,” she spat. “He’s my kickboxing instructor. He’s also a friend and his grandmother owns the condo I live in. Sometimes we have lunch after class.”
I believed that they were friends, but there was something more there.
“Addy,” I pushed.
“What?”
“Sometimes you have lunch after class?” I prompted.
The change in Addy was immediate. It was also violent and way over the top. Her hands left my chest, then they were back and she shoved me hard enough I had no choice but to let her go so I could keep my balance. Her hip hit the corner of the island, her face registered pain, and the audible groan that followed had me reaching out to stop her retreat but my arms arrested when she flinched away from me.
What in the actual mother fuck was that?
“Addy, baby, what’s going on?” I gently asked.
Her answer was to retreat further, not physically, but emotionally. She closed down and locked herself away from me.
She looked like a doe caught in the sights of a crossbow—certain death imminent with nowhere to run.
Again, what in the actual mother fuck?
“Adalynn, what’s wrong?”
“You don’t get to tell me who my friends are,” she rasped.
Her voice was not her own—none of the shy, sweet Addy could be heard. None of the pissed, cute, devilish Addy present. No, this was new, it was hurt-filled and ugly. And my gut roiled at the reason why she’d respond the way she did. It wasn’t a kneejerk reaction, it wasn’t her being pissed Bass knew she was cooking breakfast in my kitchen.
It was the reaction of a woman who had experience with a man telling her who she could be friends with—the severity of that experience was what had me on edge.
“Baby, I need you to explain why you’re telling me that.”
Still rooted, body strung tight, fear in her eyes, she didn’t delay laying it out.
“I get to be friends with Bass if I want. You don’t get to tell me I can’t. If I want to go to lunch with someone, I’ll do that, too. And I’ll go to kickboxing, and I’ll teach my classes, and you can’t tell me not to do that either. Never again will you tell me I can’t have friends.”
Never again will you tell me I can’t have friends.
The bile started churning.
“Addy, that wasn’t where I was going with my question. The way you said it, the way he sounded on the phone, gave me the impression one of you was feeling the other out. Bass is interested in you for sure. So I’m thinking he was angling for an in using lunch to get it.”
“So what if he is? You still don’t have a say, Keith. I get to be friends with who I want.”
Bile turned to acid. A deadly poison polluted my blood as it pumped through my veins.
She’d called me another man’s name. And when she’d done it, she had motherfucking fear in her eyes. Fear. My Adalynn.
Now, what in the motherfucking shit was that?
“Addy, baby, need you to tell me who Keith is.”
Her torso swung back as if I’d power-punched her to the stomach. Her head also snapped back so fast I was