I didn’t move from my spot until I heard her engine turn over, and headlights flashed into the room, making a wavey pattern through the entryway as she pulled out of the driveway and drove away. I listened to the sound of her engine fade, and only when I could hear nothing but the night did I move toward the door.
I closed it and turned the lights off, going up the stairs to my room. I stared at the messy bed and turned away from it, going into the bathroom and straight to the shower. I tried not to think about her, tried not to recall her scent or her taste, or the sound of her voice as she said my name. I didn’t want to relive every minute of her time in my house, but I did. Over and over again—and I came twice in the process.
When I finished my shower, I returned to my bedroom, grabbed my pillow, and turned the lights out. I went into the guest room two doors down and curled up on the bed.
I had wanted that woman beyond reason. Unfortunately, my reasoning had come back to me, and at the moment, I wasn’t sure if I was happy or sad about that. I hated that I had hurt her, but what else was I supposed to do. If she could cheat on Blake, she could cheat on me, and that was not okay. I closed my eyes, shut down my mind, and drifted off to sleep.
I woke to the pounding on the front door and glanced at my watch. Shit, it was ten. I rolled off the bed and stretched my back. There was a reason this bed was in here and not in my bedroom. It sucked! I glanced around as I went, unsure where my cellphone was, and as I got to the first floor, I saw it on the side table.
Another round of pounding filled the air. “Hold your damn horses, I’m coming!” I partially shouted and growled at the same time as I glanced at the screen on my phone. There were a bunch of missed calls and texts, but I ignored them to pull open the door. “What?”
Alex stood on the other side. “You’re alive. You alone?”
“Yes, I’m alone. Did you forget that I was working on the cameras until after three in the morning?”
“No, I didn’t forget, but you never miss a text or call. I was just going to let you know that I was dropping your truck off, but you didn’t answer.”
“So you came over here to pound on my door? What if I wasn’t home?”
Alex cocked his head and started to smile. “Where else would you be?”
I glared at him and then walked away from the door. I needed coffee, and I wasn’t in the mood to play games. Yes, I had fallen asleep relatively fast, but I’d woken up about five or six times and hadn’t gotten all that much sleep.
“How is Lexi?”
“She’s fine,” he stated. “How did it go last night?”
I stared at him for a moment and then went back to pouring the water into the coffee maker. “Before I answer that, I want to know if Lexi really had an issue last night, or if that was a setup to get Ali and I together?”
“Did it work?”
“You’re an ass. All of you are assholes.” I grunted. “The system is up and running. It just needs Mike to make it live.”
“It’s already live.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah, Mike did it first thing this morning.”
“Does it look alright?”
He shrugged. “I have no clue. I guess we will see how it does today when her employees are there. You might need to go in and adjust a camera or two.”
“Not me. Get someone else to do it.”
“Um…” He paused, and I stepped away and opened the fridge to pull out the makings of my green shake. “I thought that things were okay with you two. Did something happen last night?”
I wanted to burst out laughing. “No.”
“No?”
I grabbed the soy milk and put it on the counter next to my greens. “No, I would just prefer for someone else to do it.”
“Harv, did something happen last night?”
“I told you no.”
“Alright, well, I guess if you don’t want to see her again, I can do it.”
The idea of anyone else being around her in the middle of the night irked me something fierce, but Ali wasn’t my problem—and she sure as hell wasn’t mine