Page 331 of Power Play

“I’m protecting myself.”

Briggs’s expression remained steady. “I know that too.”

The words settled between us as I walked toward the bathroom. I stopped beside him before passing through the doorway.

“If she comes, she stays in the second cabin.”

“I’ll make sure she knows.”

“She doesn’t enter my room.”

“Got it.”

“She doesn’t touch my shit.”

“Understood.”

“And those books…” My voice caught before I could finish.

Briggs glanced toward the black duffel sitting in the living room. The books were buried beneath my clothes, still wrapped for a woman who no longer existed inside my future.

“I’ll handle them,” he said.

“They’re mine.”

“I didn’t say I’d give them to her.”

I held his gaze for a second before nodding.

He stepped aside so I could reach the bathroom. “Ryan.”

“What?”

“You don’t have to see her today.”

“I know.”

“If she cries, you don’t have to comfort her.”

“I know.”

“If the girls get emotional, you don’t have to fix that either.”

“I know.”

Briggs’s mouth twitched. “Now you’re doing it.”

“Get out of my bedroom.”

“That isn’t what bedrooms are for.”

I shut the bathroom door in his face, and his laugh followed me through it. The sound was stupid and familiar, and for half a second, my apartment felt less like a place I was abandoning. I hated him a little for that.

By the time I showered and dressed, Briggs had finished most of the coffee and every piece of food I had left in the refrigerator. He stood beside my truck wearing sunglasses beneath a cloudy sky, the bruise along his jaw visible even beneath them.

“You have a black eye,” he said when I stepped outside.

“You gave it to me.”