“No, what . . .” She checks her phone, eyes stretching. “Oh my God. Is this true?”
“Photographic evidence.” Max’s delighted laugh lights up his face. “Well, at least now we know who Bristol was with and what she was doing.”
My head snaps around when he mentions Bristol’s name. So does Rhyson’s. He beats me to the punch.
“What are you talking about?” He walks over to Max’s lounge chair. “What about Bristol?”
Max and Sarah pick up on the fact that neither Rhyson nor I find the prospect of Bristol on Spotted, one of the most viral gossip sites, as amusing as they do.
“Gimme your phone, Sarah.” I stretch my open palm to her, waiting until she reluctantly hands it over.
Well, shit.
Spotted has a pictorial chronicling Bristol’s date last night. Bristol and Charles Parker climbing into a helicopter. The two of them drinking in an intimate nook, the Vegas strip lit up behind them. Parker deplaning at a private hangar and getting into his Viper. Him pulling out of her driveway this morning. And then him kissing her in front of a jewelry store not even an hour ago.
Really? A viper? You can’t tell me this guy doesn’t have a small dick. He’s overcompensating for something. Has to be. But my girl . . . or I thought she would be my girl one day . . . is sitting on his fucking lap in Vegas drinking vodka martinis. And it looks like he spent the night. Every detail is a poisonous dart piercing my skin, toxic to my system. Jealousy, rage, resentment crawl through my blood.
“Charles Parker?” Max looks impressed. “One of the biggest fish you can catch. Go big or go home, Bristol.”
“What are you talking about?” Bristol asks, standing with Kai at the patio door. “Go big? Go home? What?”
“You dark horse.” Max crosses over to her, his grin and eyes eager. “Your secret’s out.”
Her eyes fly to mine, and we have a wordless conversation. My eyes ask questions that hers tell me I don’t want to know the answers to.
“What secret?” She frowns her confusion at Max.
“You’re all over Spotted,” Max drawls. “You and Charles Parker. How dare you keep all that juiciness from us.”
“What?” Panic widens Bristol’s eyes. “What the hell?”
“It’s all here for the world to see.” He hands her his phone. “Someone took the time to document your night out.”
Bristol’s expression darkens while she reads the Spotted post. By the time she hands Max his phone, she’s smoothed her face into a blank, shiny surface.
“Wow.” She takes the spot Max occupied on the lounge chair. “Must be a really slow news cycle if that’s all they have to talk about. No news there.”
“Are you kidding?” Sarah leans forward, her face alight with salacious speculation. “You’re dating one of the most eligible bachelors, like in the world, Bris. How could you keep that from us?”
“Bristol’s business is just that.” Rhyson flips steaks over the open flame. “She works hard and deserves some privacy when she finally takes some time to play. So leave her alone.”
His words come casually, but we all know he means it. He knows his sister as well as I do. She may be playing it cool, but this is not the kind of spotlight Bristol enjoys. She’s uncomfortable, and he doesn’t like it. They exchange a look, and I suspect there will be a follow-up conversation.
Meanwhile, I may as well be that steak Rhyson’s flipping on the grill.
Raw. Tossed. Seared. Hot.
I’m hot as hell. Riled like a horse with a bur under the saddle. If I don’t get out of here, I’ll explode all over this sunny day. And then there will be no secrets left. There won’t be a person on our team who doesn’t know how bad I have it for Bristol. Or how little she cares. And how sick to my soul I am of all this shit.
“I’m gonna head out,” I tell Rhyson at the grill.
“Marlon, no.” He stops flipping meat and gives me a searching look. He knows what this is about. “Dude, stay. Food’s almost done. We can—”
“I actually have a flight to catch.” I lean over and do the man pound-thump to his chest.
“Flight where?” His eyes move over my shoulder, I presume to his sister, before settling back on me.
“I got a few days off. I’m going to New York.”
“But—”
I turn away from him and address everyone else.
“Yo. I’m gonna bounce, guys.” I fist pound Max and Simon. Give Sarah a quick hug. “Got a plane to catch. I’ll be back next week.”
I head over to Kai, ignoring Bristol as she gets up from the lounge chair even though I feel her eyes on me. I feel her eyes on me all the time, but maybe I imagined it was more than it really is. After seeing those pictures of her with Parker, knowing he wants to marry her, knowing that she’ll probably do it and be miserable for the rest of her life just like her mother, I’m sick of trying to crack her code. I’m done deciphering how what she actually wants differs from what she says she wants. She says she wants Parker? I’ll take her at her word.
“Take care of my niece while I’m gone.” I leave a quick kiss on Kai’s cheek.
“Don’t go.” She grabs my wrist to stop me from pulling away, her dark eyes worried. “Grip, I’m sure that—”
“I’m not sure.” I cut off whatever assurances she would offer. “Not anymore.”
Brushing past Bristol standing there as still as a statue, I head back into the house, through the rec room, and up the stairs. I’m in the foyer at the front door when the clack of heeled footsteps catches up to me.
“Grip.” Bristol’s voice at my back stops me with my hand on the door. “When were you going to tell me you were leaving town?”
I turn to face her but don’t take my hand off the door handle. If I keep it in my hand, maybe I won’t lose sight of the reasons I need to go.
“Bristol, I’m leaving town.” I turn back to the door. “Bye.”
“Grip, wait. Talk to me.”
Her touch on my arm stops me. Scalds me. I hate wanting her like this. Constantly. Futilely. I lean against the door, indicting her with a narrowed glance. She wants to talk? Let’s talk.
“You fucked him, didn’t you?”
Her long lashes flutter in a rapid blink before lowering over her eyes. I’ve caught her off guard. She steps back, her hand falling away. A deep breath fills her chest and whooshes past her lips. She looks at me, biting her lip, but doesn’t answer.
“Tell me.” My words are chipped with stone. “Did you fuck Parker last night?”
She looks up at me, a spark of defiance lifting her chin like it’s none of my business.
“Yes.”
Such a softly spoken word, but it slices me down the middle like I’m a cadaver. A humorless stretch of my lips is all I can manage.
“You must have laughed at me.”
“I didn’t.” She closes her eyes, shakes her head. “I never did.”
“On the roof the other night when I went on and on about how neither of us have been in a relationship in years, when you were already in one.” A laugh hacks at my throat. “Can you believe I thought you were waiting for me? When all along you were waiting for him? Some medieval power couple alliance shit your parents drew up years ago.”
“It isn’t like that. You don’t understand what—”
“Was it good?” I straighten, stepping close, invading her space. My voice, a dark rumble in my chest, boils over between us. “Did Parker figure out how to make you come? Did he fuck you again this morning at your house? In your bed? Did he find the vibrators in your nightstand? Did you show him how you like it, Bristol?”
“Stop.” She tips her head back to watch me, bright eyes welling with hurt. “I hate the way you’re talking to me, the way you’re looking at me like you don’t know me. Please stop.”
I grab her hand and press it to my heart.
“Do you have any idea what we could be together? Hell, what we already are?” The hot words sear my lips. “It’s rare and real and you just keep spitting on it. You just keep ignoring it. Ignoring me. And I’m so fucking over it.”