“I was miserable,” he admitted. “I hated working there—and fuck Kyle.” He relaxed against me. “I knew what you were doing the moment you messaged me,” he murmured. “You thought you were being slick, but I saw through it. Cam might’ve been the only one that was blindsided by you. I wasn’t.”
Carefully, he pulled out of me, and after a moment, he stood on shaky legs. He pulled the condom off and dropped it into a trash can. He tugged the blankets back from the bed and sat back on it. He looked at me. “The question is, are you still using us?”
I turned and sat beside him on his bed. I shook my head. “I didn’t get the satisfaction that I wanted when all of this first started.” I bit my lip and pulled the sheet up to cover myself, feeling more exposed than when he had been in me. “I meant it when I said I wanted to see where this could go before Kyle showed up.” I pulled the sheet up to cover my breasts. “You’vemade me feel things I’ve not felt before.” I grimaced as I had to face the truth. “I’m not ready to give it up.”
He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. “Me either,” he murmured as he raised my chin up to kiss me. “If you can forgive me, I can forgive you.”
I nodded carefully, not wanting to upset the gentle kiss he was giving me. It made this look promising. Even if I was the bad guy, there was still a chance I could have a happy ending.
Chapter 14
Grace
Adam was kind enough to drop me off at the dealership after waking me up. The morning was pleasant, though I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t oddly domestic. It wasn’t something I expected from him.
But it was apparent that he thoroughly enjoyed dropping me off at his old job. “Have a good day,” he said, grinning. “Tell the boss I said he could go fuck himself!”
I guess that meant he wasn’t bitter.
No one even noticed that he dropped me off. It was early, and most of the business was clogging up the automotive bays in the back. Something that was normal. I went around back to clock in and drop my purse into my locker.
Kyle was waiting for me just outside the employee room. He looked irritated, and I should’ve expected it. Apparently, there were a few people that were familiar with Adam’s truck. Someone must’ve said something to my brother.
“Not even bothering to hide it, are you?” he asked.
“What’s to hide?” I shot back.
”Everyone knows what his truck looks like. He bought it here. Any work that he’s had done to it, was done here,” he pointed out. “So everyone knows he dropped you off and they already know he was fired.” The further along he got, the louder he got. “It’s not gonna be hard for people to put two and two together.”
My gut reaction was to snap back at him, that his yelling wasn’t helping. But then reality kicked in. “Why do you care if other people know?” I asked.
“Other people?” he asked, brows up. “If Dad sees you jumping out of Adam’s truck, what do you think he’s gonna think?” He came closer, his voice lowering as he spoke. “You want him to know what kind of whore you are?”
I gritted my teeth, and it took everything in me not to slap him. “It’d be fair if you just came right out and told him, don’t you think?” I asked. “Why lord it over my head like this? What do you have to gain from it?”
There was something about his expression that surprised me. “What do you think is gonna happen when he finds out?” he asked. “You think he’s gonna fire you? Cut you out of the will?” He snorted. “Be real, Grace. I’ll be lucky if all you get is a disappointed frown.”
“Considering the last time you had something against me and showed it to our parents, I ended up in a boarding school, yeah,” I said irritably, “I’m being real.” I took a shaky breath, trying to ignore the feeling twisting up in my gut. “I don’t know what his reaction would be. But I can’t imagine he’ll sweep it under the rug the same way he did with you.” I waved my hands. “What’s to sweep under the rug? Your ego?”
Kyle sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re a fucking adult now. Mom and Dad can’t send you anywhere.” He folded his arms over his chest. “Worst-case scenario, you’re fired. That’s it.” He pointedly rolled his eyes. “The way I got blamed for that shit, I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d get in troublefor your shit decisions too.” He leaned against the door frame, his narrowing as he spoke. “You’d be doing yourself a favor if you just quit. It’s only a matter of time before gossips start telling Dad about Adam dropping you off.” He shrugged, trying to appear unbothered, but there was no hiding the tension in his shoulders. “Then when Cam or Darius do it, there’ll be no hiding what you’re doing.”
“I don’t know if you noticed. I’m not trying to hide it,” I huffed out. “If I had been, then you wouldn’t have found out.” I stalked toward the door, not trying to step around him. “You don’t have to worry about Darius anymore,” I said as I bumped into his shoulder. I didn’t look back at him. I didn’t want to see his shit-eating grin knowing that all of this was failing.
“Did you tell him about Shay?” he asked, sounding nervous.
That made me stop. I was in the hallway that had the coffee maker and there were a few clients hanging out in the waiting room. If he got loud in the hallway, it would definitely get their attention.
I plastered on my customer-service face and spoke carefully over my shoulder, hopefully so no one else would hear. And they wouldn’t make assumptions about our conversation. “No. We didn’t tell him.” Hopefully, he wouldn’t take that as an incentive to tell Darius that Shay played a bigger part in all of this than he knew. I didn’t wait for his reaction. I went out back toward the line of cars that were left for grunt work.
I was relieved when he didn’t follow me. The whole confrontation just dragged me right back down into the hole I’d been in yesterday. There wasn’t anyone I could go to with my problems, aside from maybe Cam or Adam. And if I went back to their apartment, I doubted I’d get any notable advice. I’d just end up in bed with one of them, or both.
“You’ve got some work ethic,” Dad said from the other side of the car I was wiping down. “I’ve got to admit, I figured this wouldn’t be something that lasted long with you. It’s hard work.”
“Thanks, Dad,” I huffed as I climbed out from the sedan.
“I didn’t mean it as an insult,” he said as I went to the next car. He followed. “You have to admit, you never gave me a sign that you would be this much of a hard worker.”
I resisted the urge to gripe about where I’d spent my better years at. “I have to pay bills,” I said absently. “If I sit on my butt all day, I won’t be able to do that.” It sounded dismissive, and I didn’t bother to correct it. After the conversation with Kyle, I needed to lose myself in work.