Ryan seemed genuinely scared for a moment, then nodded and quickly moved to the door. He didn't even look up to take one last look at me before making his way out of the apartment. I watched him slam the door to the now empty apartment. All of the other people had left.
I looked up at James, who was still obviously seething with anger. His whole body was tense. I came up behind him and wrapped my hands around him. That seemed to calm him down. “Thank you,” I said.
“No problem. You okay?” He barely waited for me to nod into his back. “Let's check and see if there are any stragglers here.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
James went to the door and locked it, and then pushed the deadbolt into place. He was eerily silent as he looked around his apartment. He checked in every room, behind every curtain even. Every motion was sharp and angry.
I followed him around, growing increasingly uncomfortable. As he checked the last bathroom, I spoke up. “James, I-”
He turned and crossed the distance between us before I could say anything else. He had my face in his hands, crushing his lips against mine as he did so. I melted into him. At that moment, he was my lover, my protector, my hero, my stepbrother.
His lips crushed mine. Lips weren't enough. For a moment, I thought that we'd fall to the floor right there, making love without even bothering to go to a bedroom. Then, he broke from the kiss and looked at me with that cocky grin. “I can't seem to leave you alone for one minute without you getting into some kind of trouble.”
My jaw dropped. “You are such an asshole!” I exclaimed, swatting him in the chest harder than I had intended to. He winced slightly, but then grabbed my hands and held them to my sides. I couldn't hit him again, even if I had wanted to. He came in for another kiss, which I eagerly returned.
“I'm glad you're okay,” he said softly.
I gave a little happy moan, then went back to kissing him. He started to move toward the bedroom, and for a moment I kept moving with him. Something was bothering me in the back of my head, though.
“You mentioned something about a girl named Audrey?” I asked.
He stopped dead in his tracks. “I don't want to talk about that.”
I shook my head. “It's important. Audrey Lipman?”
“You know her?”
I gave a 'no duh' kind of look at him. “Of course I do. She was the queen bee of the girls that made my life a living hell in high school.”
He stared off into the distance. “Figures. Look, I'm sorry. I didn't know that-”
I cut him off. “I don't care about that now. High school is over, and she's got a beautiful belly on her.”
“I know,” he said.
I waited for him to follow it up with something, anything at all. “You know? That's it.”
“Yeah, I know. What more do you want?”
My jaw dropped. “I want to know why you kicked her to the curb.”
He looked at me sideways. “I don't know what you t
hink you know, but unless Audrey has been talking outside of her non-disclosure agreement, you don't know anything.”
I crossed my arms in front of me. “I deserve to know.”
He looked frustrated as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Okay. It's true, you do. Especially if she was your high school enemy. I owe you that much.”
“It's not about that,” I said. “I need to know your connection to her.”
He shrugged. “Well, whatever then. I first met Audrey when I came home in October 2013 for a conference. I took some guys out to Annie's Place and she was our waitress. She had just turned 18 and we hit it off.”
“So you are the father!” I gasped. “How could you just leave your child like that?”
Heartache rippled through me. I had guarded my heart, afraid of this, but the realization still reached into my chest and squeezed. I couldn't breathe.