CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Valen
I had no right to feel as disappointed as I had when she’d pulled away from me then walked out of the room like shit hadn’t just changed between us.
Because they had.
I really never saw it coming.
After the cold shoulder I’d been getting since the whole shower thing.
But then there she was, looking as good as she always fucking looked, and she didn’t sass at me or rush away.
So I went for it.
Then, yeah, shit got a little out of hand.
I should have known better.
To break down Louana’s defenses, she needed the shit she normally didn’t allow into her life. The soft, the sweet. Long hours tangled in bed. Intimacy, not just sex.
Sex, she could compartmentalize.
Intimacy, not so much.
But getting just the sex meant she could walk away.
And walk away she did.
Not just out of the prospect room.
Oh, no.
Out of the entire fucking clubhouse.
I’d like to say I didn’t look for her, but I couldn’t help it. Hours passed with no sign of her.
“What?” Brooks asked when I walked out front for what had to be the tenth time, like being outside would make her Mustang come pulling back into the yard faster.
“Nothing.”
“She’s not back yet,” Brooks said, clearly reading the situation.
“Who?” I asked, getting a humorless laugh from Brooks.
“Please, Valen. The only person you’re fooling is yourself here. And even that, I suspect, not well.”
“Where’d she go?” I asked.
“I’m not her father, man,” Brooks said. “Have I asked you where you’ve been disappearing to left and right lately? Or called your boy Voss on covering for you and lying to my face?” he asked.
Of course Voss had covered for me.
Without a pause. Without even asking where I’d been, and why he’d needed to put his neck on the line.
“Why haven’t you called us on it then?”
To that, Brooks looked away from me, staring off at Navesink Bank.