Worth Every Cent (Worth It 2)

I nodded again, but I didn’t want to say anything. I kept my features tight and unreadable, because the last thing I wanted to do was ruin anything else. Decimate anything else. Chance the inevitable destruction of my time with Grayson by saying the wrong thing or shooting him the wrong glance or giving him the wrong impression.

But I he

ard the agitation in his voice. I knew he already had the wrong impression.

So all I could do was tell him the truth and hoped it would alleviate the tension that laced us together. All I had to do was not screw it up.

Chapter 13

Grayson

I was proud of my ability to master my rage. The second I knocked on Cecily’s door, she opened it up with a feral smile on her cheeks. Trying to press her hand against me and snuggle up to me. I knew she was up to something, but I had no idea what the hell it was. Not until the bathroom door came bursting open and Michelle charged out in nothing but a towel and dripping wet.

And the second Andy walked out behind her, I knew why.

Michelle stood there, all pink from her hot shower with her ex standing right behind her. What it looked like was that Michelle had taken a nice roll in the sack with her ex. What it looked like was that Michelle had decided to take a morning to herself and indulge in the pathetic excuse for a man I knew Andy to be. It looked like he had worked her up and down in that damn shower, pressing her against surfaces he had no business pressing her against.

And the flush of Michelle’s cheeks told me a similar story.

The guilt that flooded her eyes punched me in my gut, but the anger Andy threw my way when he charged out the front door didn’t match the scene. He was angry, and Cecily was a bit too proud of herself. Michelle seemed to be a mixture of embarrassed and confused, when she didn’t look guilty as sin. Either way, I didn’t want to stick around in that bullshit excuse for a house any longer than I had to.

I had no idea if that scenario was what it looked like, but I was too angry to address it.

As I sat in my car waiting for Michelle, I thought about her with that asshole. I thought about his slimy hands on her and his lips pressed against her neck. That was my neck. My body. My hands should be the only hands on Michelle’s curves. I considered driving away. Leaving her to search for a damn place of her own volition. It was obvious she didn’t need me to get what she wanted. To fulfill the cravings of her own feverish body.

But I wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth.

I wanted to hear her admit it.

Michelle sat down in my car and I headed off, not bothering to look over at her. I guided us towards our first address, making nothing but small talk to try and ease the tension. But she was quiet and her features were tight. The tension grew between us with every beat of silence that pulsed. I wanted to ask her outright. I wanted her to tell me what the hell had been going on that morning.

But she beat me to the punch.

“I swear I didn’t know Andy was going to show up this morning,” she said. “Cecily came knocking on the bathroom door telling me I had a visitor, and I thought it was you. So I grabbed a towel and went to speed up getting ready when Andy barged right into the bathroom. That’s all that happened, Gray.”

I nodded my head as I came to a stop in front of our first destination.

“He was drunk. I don’t know if it was fresh or if he was still hungover, but he was drunk and trying to corner me in the bathroom. He kept saying he wanted to talk and I kept telling him I didn’t want to talk to him. He kept asking me to come back home and that he missed me. That at least he could give me a warm body to sleep against, whereas you’ll be leaving soon—”

I snapped my head over to look at her and found her wide eyes staring back at me.

“I’m not interested in Andy in the slightest, Gray. He’s repulsive. Annoying. It’s why I want to find a place of my own. He won’t know where I live, so he won’t be able to force a confrontation like that anymore.”

“Why did Cecily let him in?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “Maybe she’s annoyed with me and wanted the encounter to trigger my leaving her place. Maybe she told Andy to go away but he forced himself in. I honestly don’t know.”

Her words did ease the tension a little bit, but it brought up a host of other questions I wanted to ask. But they were questions I knew Michelle wouldn’t have answers to. Only Cecily would. Because I sure as hell wasn’t going to talk with Andy again.

I’d beat the shit out of him if I tried.

“Lets go look at this first place,” I said. “It’s a little small, but well within your price range.”

We walked into the front office and the woman led us to a mock-up of the studio apartments they rented out. The thing was a damn crackerjack box. No more than six hundred square feet of space. But the look in Michelle’s eyes was unmistakable. To her, this was a palace. My gut still rolled with uncertainty and disgust. My mind still kept flashing back to all sorts of moments she and Andy could’ve shared.

Andy could give her something I couldn’t?

Hardly.