“Why?” was all Brennan managed to say as he walked into the living room, his gaze locked on Tristan.
Tristan’s eyes shifted back and forth between me and Brennan as he took several steps backward towards the door.
“You lied to me?” Tristan whispered as tears flooded his eyes. “You both lied to me?”
Brennan reached Tristan, but the second he tried to touch him, Tristan jerked away from him. “Don’t touch me!”
“Tristan,” Brennan said quietly, his voice pained.
“Tristan,” I said firmly and was glad when Tristan’s angry eyes landed on me. “I forced Brennan to keep our relationship a secret.”
His eyes shifted back to Brennan. “Was this all some big joke to you?” he asked, his voice cracking. His gaze came back to me. “Did you get off on watching me make a fool of myself in front of you? For telling you how I felt about him?”
Pain lanced through my chest and all I could manage was a simple, “No,” as I shook my head.
“Tristan, please,” Brennan tried but Tristan shoved away from him.
“I have to go,” was all he said and then he yanked the door open and left.
My body actually hurt as I reached for the phone to let Phoenix know Tristan was on his way down. When I hung up the phone, my eyes settled on Brennan who was watching me with a mix of confusion and pain. “What the hell happened?” he whispered.
“You should go after him,” I said. “I’ll have Cain wait for you downstairs,” I began as I started to dial.
“No!” Brennan snapped and he grabbed my phone and slid it down the counter so it was out of my initial reach. The only way to get it was to get past Brennan. “We should go after him,” Brennan said.
That was exactly what I wanted to do, but the need to protect myself won out. I needed to rip the fucking Band-Aid off. “And then what?” I asked. “Tell me how this whole fucking thing ends, Brennan.”
“I don’t know-”
“Well, I do!” I bit out. “And I am not going through that again!”
“So what happened between us tonight doesn’t matter anymore? What I said to you doesn’t matter?” Brennan asked.
“Not when you said it about him first,” I said, suddenly feeling tired.
“What?” Brennan whispered.
“That day in the apartment – the day you got shot. You wanted me to tell Tristan you loved him.”
Brennan stiffened and took a step back.
“Well, now’s your chance to tell him yourself and from the looks of things, the feeling is mutual,” I murmured. I turned away from Brennan and went around the counter and into the kitchen, so I could easily retrieve my phone since I didn’t trust myself to be anywhere near Brennan at the moment.
But Brennan was Brennan and he came after me and pinned me against the counter with his body. “I don’t just say those words to anyone,” he bit out. “I’ve never once said them to another living person and yet you think I said them to you because you were what…a placeholder until the man I really wanted came along?”
“Aren’t I?” I asked, hating the raw pain that sifted through me.
“So we’re to back this,” he whispered and I hated the shimmer of tears in his eyes. “Just call me a liar to my face, Memphis, and get it over with.”
“Tell me it didn’t excite you to hear him admit he wanted you and I’ll believe you,” I finally said.
Brennan’s eyes held mine as he countered with, “Tell me you didn’t feel anything when you kissed him and I’ll believe you.”
It was a lie I just couldn’t utter. “The difference is, I chose you and I stopped what was happening between me and him.”
“And what if you didn’t have to?” Brennan asked and I shuddered when his hand brushed my chest.
“Didn’t have to what?” I asked as I fought the urge to grab him.
“Stop kissing him,” Brennan said softly. “Choose me over him.”
I didn’t get a chance to dwell on the bout of excitement and lust that flooded through me at his words, because my phone began vibrating.
I reached behind me and snagged it and saw that it was Phoenix.
“Yeah,” I said.
“I just dropped him off at his fathers’ apartment,” Phoenix said and I could tell he was pissed. I had no doubt who he was pissed at either. “He was crying so hard when he came out of the hotel that I made him let me take him wherever he wanted to go so he wouldn’t get behind the wheel again.”
I closed my eyes and felt tears pricking the backs of them. God, how had I fucked this up so badly?
“We’re on our way,” I said and hung up. “He’s at his dads’ apartment,” I said. “Do you have a key?”
Brennan nodded and stepped back. “It’s one street over and just down the block.”