I should probably be worried that she’s able to lie so easily to him. To cover her dirty tracks so smoothly, but I’m not. I already know her darkest secrets, and I fully intend on discovering any others she has before long, too.
“Shit, come and sit down,” he encourages. “Do you need anything? A glass of water?”
“No, I’m okay. I think it’s passed.”
“A cuddle on the sofa it is, then. You know, I’ve always fancied myself as something of a doctor.”
“You hate blood,” she points out.
“Only my own,” he argues, and I don’t need to look around the doorframe to know that he’s pouting.
“Ugh,” Rhea complains. “You two are annoyingly cute.”
My heart begins to race as I consider Calli caving to his offer of a cuddle.
Taking a huge fucking risk, I lean forward, desperate to see what’s happening on the other side of the wall.
I don’t need to lean far.
My breath catches in my throat as I stare at my girl in my brother’s arms.
My fists curl, my nails digging into my palms hard enough to draw blood as my pulse races and my jealousy burns hotter than ever.
How can’t he smell the sex on her? Smell me on her?
Is he that fucking lovesick and delusional?
As if she knows I’m here, her eyes meet mine in the glass unit I’m watching them in, and all the air rushes from my lungs.
She smiles. The little fucking minx smiles.
She knows exactly what she’s doing, despite the fact that she told me only minutes ago that she’s not playing games with Alex.
She may have told him that she’s not interested, but as she leans into his side, she’s giving him a very different idea. Even if her reasons for doing so aren’t to lead him on but to torture me, to try to force my hand into admitting what I want outside of our stolen moments in the dark.
“Rhea,” Calli warns. “I think it’s bedtime, don’t you?”
Rhea huffs like a petulant kid, and I stand there a little longer, expecting her to argue. But to my utter shock, she just gets to her feet and begins moving toward me.
“Shit,” I hiss, needing to find a hiding place and fast.
I dart toward the under stairs cupboard and just close the door before her footsteps hit the wooden floor of the hallway.
My head spins and my blood rushes past my ears.
I’ve done a lot of scary shit in my life. But there is nothing more terrifying to me than people finding out I’ve got a weakness.
That my dark and twisted heart does actually beat.
And only for one person.
* * *
“What the actual fuck, Bro?” Alex barks a second after the lights come on around me, illuminating his bedroom at Dad’s house.
He glares at me, his heart probably trying to beat out of his chest at finding me sitting on his bed in the dark.
I didn’t know if he’d come back here, but seeing as it’s closer to Damien’s place than our flats, I took a punt that he might show his face—assuming he didn’t stay the night with Calli, of course.