I nodded, a shiver tap-dancing up my spine.
A speck of relief surfaced in those cold blue eyes. He was still fuming, and for once, I couldn’t tell if he was angry at me. This wasn’t my fault… entirely. Did I play a part in it? Yes, a tiny, minuscule piece, but that was a mistake I made two years ago. Could I really be faulted for that now? The rest was all on the frat prick.
Micah was the one bleeding, yet his concern was for me. For those who didn’t see this side of him, they wouldn’t have thought it possible for the Elite playboy to be worried about anyone other than himself and his three best friends. Micah was damn good at projecting his image to the world. He knew his part, and he played it to perfection, often at the expense of others.
But I got to see who he truly was without the labels, the facades, and the expectations of others. He was the type of boyfriend who opened doors for me. He saw to my needs before his. He made sure I ordered first at a restaurant and that the servers set my food down before his. The list of little things he did without thinking scrolled endlessly.
And it would be one of those little gestures that cracked the last bit of shield protecting my heart from Micah Bradford. He had chipped it away, little by little, over the past few months.
Lifting my hand to get a close look at the cut, he jerked his head away from my fingers. Pain flared in his features, stabbing me in the chest. I had done nothing to feel guilty over, yet I was riddled with that horrid emotion.
This was such a mess, and I wanted to fix it. I had to tell Micah about the photos. It was the only way to prevent Sterling from using them to hurt him, but that meantIwould hurt him. And knowing Micah, he would likely do more than beat the shit out of Sterling for threatening to use them, and for having taken them without my knowledge.
He held my gaze for another moment before brushing past me.
I whirled around, staring at his retreating back. “Micah, wait,” I called after him, not wanting us to part like this. My heart couldn’t take it.
He kept walking, taking a part of my splintered heart with him.
This wasn’t happening.
Not to me.
Not when I had literally done nothing wrong, excluding that enormous mistake of sleeping with Sterling two years ago. Never in a million years would I have thought an error in judgment would come back and bite me in the ass so fucking hard.
I started to go after him, needing to explain everything, but Grayson stopped me. “Give him some time to cool off.”
“I didn’t do anything. I swear,” I said, desperately wanting, needing someone on my side.
“You don’t have to tell me. I know you, Mads. And although it might not seem like it at the moment, Micah knows it too. He just has some shit to sort through.”
“What shit?” I shrilled, my eyes imploring. If he had information, I wanted to know.
My cousin made an exasperated sound in his throat. “Just trust me, you need to stay away from him.”
“I’m trying.” A moment of silence stretched between us. I glanced down at my shoes, scuffing the toe over a pebble. “He has pictures of me, Grayson.” I peeked up when he didn’t say anything immediately.
Grayson’s face had gone from concerned to scary. “What kind of pictures?”
A sense of foreboding built inside me. “The ones you don’t want your boyfriend or your family to see.”
He swore, forking a hand through his dark brown hair. “Seriously, Mads?” he reprimanded. “That’s something I would expect from Kenna or Josie, but not you.”
And why not?I wanted to argue—which was stupid, considering—but didn’t get the chance.
“What would you expect from me?” Josie asked, appearing at Brock’s side with Ainsley and Kenna.
Ainsley’s gaze took in the disbanding crowd. “What the fuck did we miss?”
Kenna didn’t even wait for me to respond. “We can’t leave you alone for two minutes. Where the hell is Micah?” Her eyes bounced from Elite to Elite.
Grayson shook his head.
I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling small in this big world. “This is not my fault.”
Josie stumbled slightly, struggling to keep her balance. “What isn’t your fault?”
My hands went up into the air, full of animation, frustration, and sadness. “Everything.”