“But…” Words failed me.

“I lost my phone,” he said reading my mind. “Some Hollywood starlet was irritated that a nobody was texting me.” He shifted his feet nervously and looked at the floor, his face slightly red.

Numb, I glared at Alec, willing him to say something, anything to make the pain in my chest go away.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

With a cry, I beat him with my fists until he relented, finally letting me escape from his hold. It was the second time in only five days that I had run crying from their house. Would I ever learn?

“Nat! Nat!” Alec screamed after me.

I pushed against the door to my house grunting with the impact.

Alec’s arms braced around me holding me to him. “I’m sorry, Nat, I know how that appeared.”

“Oh really, Alec?” I sobbed. “Because it looked pretty life-shattering.”

His arms tensed even more around me. “I know, but it isn’t what it looked like.”

I hung my head. “So you didn’t just make out with me in hopes that your brother, who apparently still is my boyfriend, would come home and catch us. You are a piece of work, you know that? Both of you! I hate both of you!” My voice cracked as my body slumped back against his.

“He’s lying to you!” he shouted, making the hair on the back of my arms stand at attention.

“How do you even know that? He didn’t have his phone.”

“I just know him, Nat, okay?” His voice strained in the nighttime air. “Are you going to be alright?”

“No.” I turned around in his arms, my face inches from his. “I’m not just going to be alright. You said he was second, suggesting that you got to me first. What the hell, Alec? You’re not that guy. I don’t believe it. Why would you hurt me like that? Why would you throw something like that in his face?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“So I don’t matter?”

Alec muffled a curse. “That’s not what I said.”

We stood in silence, me still in his arms, and Alec’s breathing turning more ragged by the second. His head descended, and he very gently brushed a kiss across my lips. I was still in too much shock to push away. His words jolted me out of it.

“I was mad, okay? I know it was uncalled for. I’m sorry.”

“Damn right, you’re sorry!” I tried to pull away, but he tilted my chin up for another kiss. I couldn’t think when he was near me, when he was kissing me as if I was his reason for living.

I threw my arms around his neck and opened my mouth to him, the kiss deepened, and my hunger for him grew. Even though I wanted to hate him, my heart wouldn’t let me.

“What are you doing to me?” I whispered against his lips, finally allowing my body to fully slump into his embrace.

Alec nibbled my lower lip and pulled me into a tight hug. “Let me go talk to him for a minute, okay? Leave your window open tonight.”

“So you can sneak in and have your way with me?” I glared.

Alec shook his head. “So I can pull you into my arms and tell you everything’s going to be okay.”

I shivered and crossed my arms over my chest while I watched him run back into his house. Part of me wanted to chase after him, to see what kind of fight he and Demetri would get into. I wanted to believe Demetri, but pictures didn’t lie.

I walked into my house and flipped on the TV. Now would be a good time to have piles of chocolate conveniently placed in a bowl on the table, but we needed to go grocery shopping. There wasn’t a morsel of chocolate in the house.

I settled for popcorn, crossed my legs and flipped to the entertainment channel.

Of course it wasn’t long before Demetri’s beautiful face popped on.

“Must be nice being a rock star!” the commentator gushed. “Demetri Daniels was seen leaving another club late last night with yet another starlet on his arm! This time he made his intentions known as he snuck a kiss briefly before going into another club. Our party boy must be tired. He was seen going back to his hotel at four A.M!”

I glared at the TV.

It wasn’t what the reporter was saying that bothered me. Nope, it was the picture of Demetri looking at his cell phone and then putting it into his pocket.

Lying bastard.

If he had it yesterday, he saw all my texts.

Irritated and way more hurt than I thought possible, I threw the remote onto the couch and marched up to my room, slamming the door in the process. I didn’t even bother to wash my face. I tumbled under the covers and fought back tears. Why would he lie to me? Had he been lying the whole time? What purpose would that serve?

I hid further under the covers then remembered Alec wanted me to leave my window open, I hopped out of bed and opened the latch then tried desperately to fall asleep.

Chapter Twenty-two

I awoke to Alec kissing me, which on one hand could be considered slightly horrifying. Since I hadn’t washed any makeup off my face, I knew I looked slightly insane if not at least partially unstable.

I opened my eyes. His large body was hovering over mine. “Hey.”

“Hey, yourself.” I blinked my eyes so they could adjust to the pure male beauty in front of me and then Alec smiled. It was his same magic smile, the one he reserved only for me. I sighed.

After a few minutes of silence Alec spoke. “He’s sorry.”

“I don’t care if he’s sorry. Sorry means he realizes what he did was wrong. Sorry means he wasn’t lying to me the entire time we were together. How the hell can you defend him?”