“Ash—”
“Are you meeting with Eris?” he asked.
Kallie shook her head and watched as he balled up his fists at his side.
“Ash ... it isn’t—”
Then he was the one to take a step away. Inch by inch, putting more space between them. Kallie took a step toward him and his body stiffened. She stopped immediately, clocking his reaction to her closeness.
“It isn’t what you think,” Kallie said.
“That phrase sounds familiar.”
“Then you know it’s true.”
Ash bit down onto his lip and Kallie cursed herself for ever getting into this situation. For ever walking into the building and succumbing to his plea for help. For ever picking up that phone call or taking that package from that damn delivery man or even leaving the island early.
Kallie cursed everything that had led her to this point.
That had led to the distance between her and a man she naturally gravitated toward.
Chapter 14
Ash
Ash immediately felt her absence, but he ignored the longing. He kept stepping back from her, trying to ignore the rage boiling in his chest. He crossed his arms over his chest to hide his fists. Kallie was meeting another man tonight. He could tell. Those red cheeks of shame and the guilty look in her eye. Her skin was still flushing down her neck and she wouldn’t meet his eyes. Not when it counted.
He needed to know.
Ash needed to know who she was meeting
“You’re seeing him again, aren’t you?” he asked. “The man from your apartment.”
“Please don’t do this,” Kallie said.
“I haven’t done anything. There was a man in your apartment when I arrived in the city. That’s who you’re seeing tonight, isn’t it?” he asked.
He watched Kallie take in a deep breath and he braced himself for the impact. For the hurt her words were going to bring him. Rejected for another man. A man who wasn’t good enough for her. Part of him feared she would lie to him. Tell him what he wanted to hear instead of the truth. But instead of a lie, he got the truth.
And he wasn’t sure if it was any better.
“I am,” Kallie said.
“You’re having dinner with him.”
“I am.”
Ash snickered and shook his head.
“The man in my apartment was James, Ash.”
His gaze whipped back over to Kallie and he found tears in her eyes.
“He’s ... he’s trying to get me back,” she said. “He bought me a gift he’s still got the receipt to and I have to meet him for dinner, so I can return it.”
“What?”
“This morning, James sent me a gift. This ... this necklace I’d been eyeing for months. It was beautiful, and for a split second I thought—”