Page 177 of Power Play

“Charm.”

“I was such an asshole.”

“Okay.” I kept my hands firm at her waist while trying to create enough space to see her. “Slow down.”

She finally lifted her head.

“I should’ve called you. I should’ve answered you. I shouldn’t have said any of that shit about other women because I don’t think that about you, and I knew I didn’t think it while I was saying it. I was angry because you kept stopping, and it hurt. I wanted you to hurt enough to understand how it felt.”

The softness in my face tightened around the memory.

Her showing up mattered. It didn’t erase the words, but it mattered.

“I knew that part hurt you.”

Shame moved across her face, and she looked down. “I’m sorry.”

My fingers tightened slightly at her waist.

Cade cleared his throat somewhere behind us.

Charm turned her head and seemed to realize for the first time how quiet the lobby had become. Cade, Briggs, Easton, and Rider still stood where she left them, along with enough Frost players to make her face change color.

Briggs rubbed one hand over the back of his neck. “Maybe you two should take this upstairs.”

I looked over her shoulder at them, then returned my attention to Charm. “Yeah.”

One of the Frost players checked his phone. “Bus is still midnight.”

Charm looked toward him, then at me. “Bus?”

“We’re heading to Milwaukee.”

“Tonight?”

“Yeah.”

Her face fell as she looked toward the clock above the lobby desk.

“You’re leaving in less than an hour?”

“Yeah.”

She stared at me, suddenly furious at time itself. “I drove all the way here, and you have fifty-something minutes?”

A corner of my mouth moved despite everything. “That sounds like you’re blaming me for the schedule.”

“I might be.”

“Fair.”

I bent, picked up the duffel, and reached for her hand with the other.

Her eyes dropped toward it.

For the smallest second, fear moved through me. The lobby was full of people, and this was the moment that mattered more than her running into my arms while emotion carried her.

This choice was quieter.