“Is that her?” She looked at me in disgust, and I couldn’t help but flip her off.

“No, she’s nothing to me.”

“Then why is she here just sitting there?”

Keenan’s jaw tightened, but the bitch was too busy sneering at me to notice. “Missy, if you don’t mind, I have another client in five minutes, but how about I take you up on that offer this weekend?”

“That would be great.”

“Cool. I’ll call you,” he said without looking at her. I rolled my eyes at the vision of her flouncing from the shop.

“You’re a pig. It’s a wonder you haven’t contracted something.”

“I’m always careful, Sheldon.”

“I can’t tell. You never use a condom when I ask you to.”

“That’s because you’re different.”

“A minute ago, I was nothing.”

“What can I say? I have to keep my clients happy.”

“In what way? With your dick? I don’t care what they say. A slut is a slut whether it’s a man or woman.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he gritted.

“I know you haven’t changed. When does it ever become enough for you?”

“Shut the fuck up, Shelly.”

“Tell me… how many women have you slept with since we’ve been apart? One a night? Two? Six?”

“Zero.”

Maybe it was the pounding of my brain or the hammering of my heart that caused me to misunderstand. I managed to bounce back from the shock of his answer and say, “Not only are you an unfaithful whore, but you’re a liar, too.”

“When have I ever lied to you? I may have kept my shit from you, but when you found out, I never lied so why would I lie now? I’m not looking for a future with you. I haven’t touched a single fucking woman in four years.”

So many emotions assaulted me at once. I swallowed the weight of it down, but it just kept coming back up until I puked my guts all over the floor. My dry sobs caused me to lose focus, and because of my spotty vision, I never saw him move, but I felt his hands lifting me.

“For fuck sake, Shelly. Breathe!”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

KEENAN

I DON’T THINK I remember ever being this frightened. Not even when I met Keiran for the first time, or when I felt the first bullet enter my body and threaten to end my life. Not even when I was confined to a hospital to die.

“Shelly, please breathe, baby. Don’t do this to me.”

“Not… dying,” she coughed.

“Then what the hell are you doing to me?” I hadn’t realized I was shouting until her body flinched in my arms.

“Please, stop shouting.” She groaned and leaned against my chest. I briefly wondered how tight I could hold her without crushing her.

I’m losing it.

She possessed the power to drive me insane without doing much at all.

“Were you serious?” she asked after some time had passed. I continued to rub her back, hoping to keep her calm.

“What?”

“I’m your first?”

“Well, not my first. Remember there was—”

“Keenan.”

“Yes, you were my first and my last.”

“Why?”

I blew out heavily and thought about the last four years. “I got the urges, but I couldn’t do the deed. I don’t know why.”

“So you could be faithful to me when we’re not committed, but not when we were together?”

“What do you want me to say? Give me the right words and I’ll say them.”

“It doesn’t matter, and it’s none of my business. I shouldn’t have asked. Now, if you don’t mind, the smell of my puke makes me want to puke all over again.”

She slid from my arms, and I let her because I didn’t know what else to do.

“Where is the bathroom?”

I pointed to my office, and while she was gone, I gathered some cleaning supplies and cleaned up the mess. Once the floor was spotless again, I went to check on her.

I found her standing frozen at the entrance of the bathroom. Her hand was held tight over her mouth as tears streamed down her face. I stood confused and followed the direction of her gaze until my own landed on the sketch of her that took up most of the right wall. It was in clear sight of the bathroom and would have been the first thing she saw when she came out.

My eyes closed with regret over my screw up. She was never supposed to see that.