she threw on her robe and glasses, and stepped over the pile of clothes they’d so hastily discarded on their way into the room last night. With a smile she couldn’t seem to wipe off her face, she opened the door. “Did you forget—”
She swallowed the rest of what she was going to say because it wasn’t Jackson at her door.
It was Kyle.
Now that was enough to wipe the smile off her face.
She actually verbalized an “ugh”, then added, “What the hell are you doing here?”
The smug bastard had the nerve to smirk at her before side-stepping around her into the room.
“And here I didn’t think vampires could come in uninvited,” she muttered, closing the door behind him.
Kyle glanced down at a pair of Jackson’s jeans on the floor, and one shoe that was sticking out from under the bed. His eyes lifted to hers, and he shot her a look of betrayal and hurt—as if he was the injured party here.
As. If.
“I’m here,” he said, his tone positively oozing false sincerity, “because I was hoping we could work things out.” He did a little man pout that made her want to throttle him. “I miss you.”
Was this a joke? Had she stepped into an alternate reality? This could not be happening. “How did you even know I was here? Did you follow us last night?”
He didn’t answer, but he didn’t really need to. It didn’t matter.
Kendall tightened her robe and crossed her arms over her chest. “Kyle, there’s nothing to work out. You’re a cheating bastard, and you fired me, even though I was the best PR manager you had.” She glanced down her nose at him and added, “And I don’t miss you at all.”
He glanced at Jackson’s shoe again. “We’ve clearly both made mistakes. But if I’m willing to forgive and forget, why can’t you?”
She wondered if it was possible to choke on her own outrage. Or better yet, was it possible for her outrage to choke someone else?
“I didn’t do anything wrong, Kyle. But you want forgiveness? Fine. I forgive you. I don’t care anymore.”
His eyes narrowed. “Because of him? You’re going to throw away everything we have so that you can keep fucking a client?”
She looked him dead in the eye, unblinking, and said, “I’d throw you under a speeding bus to keep fucking him, Kyle. Don’t overestimate what you and I had together, and don’t underestimate what I have with him. Know this beyond a shadow of a doubt: I don’t want you anymore. We’re done.”
And just like that, he dropped the poor, wounded act. It was refreshing, really. Then he said, “So, you’re going to give up your career and, what, move to Bumfuck, Montana to pump out babies with some has-been rock star?”
She snorted. “So much of what you just said is wrong. Who says I have to give up my career? And who says he’s a has-been? In case you haven’t noticed, Jackson Hale is on fire right now. I could get him any gig, anywhere. Which means, I can get myself any gig, anywhere, too.”
She didn’t address the baby part of Kyle’s rant. It wasn’t something she’d talked about with Jackson. They were a long way away from that talk. But she’d be lying if she wasn’t all of a sudden picturing herself with a couple of little Jackson lookalikes clinging to her skirt.
It was not nearly as scary as it should have been.
Kyle sneered. “Can you really get him any gig he wants? Because I can only think of one gig someone like him might want—especially after that carefully placed ‘leak’ about him wanting to work ‘behind the scenes.’ You’re trying to get him the movie score for Fall from Grace.”
Well, Kyle was a lot of things. Narrow-minded, snooty, unfaithful, and bad in bed, to name but a few. But he wasn’t stupid. She should’ve known he’d figure out Jackson’s endgame.
She shrugged. “So what if I am?”
Then he said something that made her blood run cold.
“That might be hard since the music supervisor for that film is Bill Wilding.”
Kendall had to fight to keep from flinching. Bill Wilding was Kyle’s college roommate. Bill idolized Kyle. Kendall couldn’t even count all the jobs he’d thrown to Kyle’s clients over the years. He’d hire anyone Kyle recommended.
Which meant that Jackson wouldn’t stand a chance.
She narrowed her eyes on him. “What do you want? And don’t say you want me back, because we both know that’s not true, and not happening.”
His evil