Page 279 of Face Off
“Bullshit.”
She spins. “You don’t get to walk in here and call everything I say bullshit because you’re angry.”
“I get to call a lie a lie. You’re upset because Lyric opened her mouth, and neither of us is leaving this room without discussing it.”
“Why?” Her laugh comes out broken. “You’ve spent the entire weekend telling me I’m not entitled to answers before you’re ready. Maybe I finally learned how that works.”
I look at her with total shock and a metric shit ton of fury. “You’re doing this to punish me?”
“I’m respecting your boundaries.”
“No, you’re hiding behind them. There’s a difference.”
Her eyes flash. “Fine. I’m angry that you fucked Temple.”
“You’re allowed to be.”
“I’m hurt.”
“You’re allowed that too.”
“I feel fucking humiliated.”
“That belongs to Lyric.”
“She announced it in front of everyone!”
“Which is why it belongs to her.”
“You knew we would all be together this weekend. You knew she would be here.”
“I didn’t know she planned to detonate her relationship with Briggs beside the fire and use my dick for shrapnel.”
“You still knew.”
“I knew I fucked someone a year after I left you.”
“Someone inside our circle.”
“She wasn’t inside any circle then.”
“She was with Rider.”
“She was with no one then.”
“You believed her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I had no reason to believe she would lie about being single—turns out, I was right! Stop making this about anyone but you and your insecurities.”
Charm laughs without humor. “You denied me repeatedly at first, but Temple gets a pass and a night in your bed?”
“She wasn’t asking me to trust her with my fucking heart!”
The answer hits. Charm looks away, but I don’t soften it.
