Once.

“Please tell me that fucker is in jail,” I say through the hot, burning rage boiling in my gut. “Because, if he isn’t, I’m going to fucking kill him.”

“He is. For now.” Rhys’s smile is cold. “And when he gets out, you’ll have to get in line. So, I’m going to ask you, right now, what your intensions are with Kate, and you’d better be brutally honest with me.”

“I love her. I’m not leaving here without her.”

“Not good enough.”

I raise a brow. “Love isn’t good enough?”

“No.” He shoves his hands in his pockets. “It isn’t.”

I mirror his stance, hands in pockets, in a stand-off with the man protecting my girl.

I like him.

“She scares the fuck out of me.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere.” His lips quirk. “If she didn’t scare you a little, she wouldn’t be the one for you.”

“I will take my own life before I ever even think about hurting her in any way. I’m not saying I won’t be an idiot and say things that I’ll regret, but I would never intentionally hurt her, Rhys. I’d never touch her in anger. She’s…everything.”

He studies me for a long moment, and then finally nods. “Okay. I like you.”

“They didn’t have the milk and cookies ice cream flavor, so I got chocolate chip cookie dough,” Kate announces, as she comes in the house through the entrance to the garage, lugging plastic grocery bags. “And you can stop judging me right now, Rhys O’Shaughnessy, because I deserve ice cream.” She sets the bags down on the kitchen island, then looks up, and her eyes go wide when they land on me.

Fuck, she looks amazing.

“Someone came to see you,” Rhys says.

“And you can show him out,” she says to her cousin, and turns to march out of the room. “I don’t have anything to say to him.”

“Looks like this is going to be a challenge,” he says, and claps his hand on my shoulder. “And something tells me few things are a challenge for you these days.”

I smile and walk after her.

“I love a challenge.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Earlier that day…

Kate

“Seriously? Weren’t you in this exact spot, doing exactly this, when I went to bed last night?” Rhys is standing over me, hands on his lean hips, frowning down at me. I’m lounging on the couch, eating stale popcorn.

“What? I’m in the middle of a season of Vampire Diaries.”

“How many seasons have you watched in the past three days?”

“Four.” I scowl up at him. “I finished with Orange Is the New Black.”

“Kate, you haven’t eaten real food in days. And you smell…ugh.”

“Then don’t come in here.” I stick my tongue out at him and return to my show. “By the way, Damon is hot in this show. Why are the hot guys always the jerks?”

“I’m a jerk?”

“You’re not hot.” I smirk and then squeal when he takes my popcorn away and sits at the opposite end of the couch with it. “Give it back!”

“No.” He shoves a handful in his mouth, and then spits it back out again. “This is disgusting. When did you pop it?”

“I don’t know.” I shrug and reach for the Twizzlers. “Two days ago?”

“Now you’re just being gross.”

“I’m being lazy,” I correct him, and cringe inwardly. I am gross. I do smell. I haven’t washed my hair in a week. I don’t remember what my own bedroom looks like because I haven’t left the downstairs since I got home.

Not that I’m going to admit that to him.

“So, what’s up with that chick, Elena?” he asks, pointing to the screen. “She’s hot for a vampire.”

“She’s not a vampire. Well, her doppelganger is.” I catch him up on the show, giving him the highlights, and sigh when the credits roll. “This is seriously good TV.”

“Kate?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m worried about you.”

“Why? Because I love the Vampire Diaries?”

He raises a brow and stares at me like I’m stupid. And I’m not stupid.

“There’s no need to worry. I’m just taking some lazy time between jobs, that’s all.”

“You’re sad,” he says softly. “I can’t stand it when you’re sad. Have you talked to him at all?”

I shake my head no. “I don’t want to hear from him.”

“Maybe you should call him,” he suggests.

“Maybe not,” I reply.

“You’re being stubborn.”

He fucked another woman while I was right next door, pining for him! I’m so not telling Rhys that. Talk about humiliating.

But the most humiliating part? I know this. I know it, and I still miss him so much it hurts.

Because I’m a stupid girl.

And I’m sick of being stupid. And sad. And…smelly.

“You know what?” I say and stand, stretch, and ignore him when he winces at the smell of me. “You’re right. I’m done sitting on the couch. I’m going to go take a shower and go to the grocery store.”

“Good, you could use some sun. You’re as pale as those vampires on that show.”

“You know, you used to be nice to me. You used to love me.”

“You used to smell good,” he replies with a grin and crosses his arms as I saunter by. “Take a shower, and I’ll love you again.”

“Conditional love.” I tsk tsk as I walk by. “There aren’t supposed to be strings attached to love, Rhys. Maybe that’s why you can’t keep a girlfriend.”

“I don’t want to keep a girlfriend,” he replies with a laugh. “Girlfriends expect stuff from you.”

“Yes,” I agree sarcastically, “like kindness and cuddle time and sex.”

“Hey, I can handle those things. Especially the sex.”

“Ew.”

“But not the other strings like commitment and all of my time and nosing into my financial business.”

“And monogamy.”

He just smiles and I make puking noises as I walk upstairs to my room. I love Rhys. He always makes me feel better.

The shower feels amazing. I stay in long enough to wash my hair three times, shave my legs, and drain all of the hot water.