Page 53 of Before You Fell

“You fucking bulldozed it.”

“I was being friendly.”

Her eyes flick over my face, flat and unimpressed. “You don’t know how to.”

I let the smirk sit because it is easier than giving her anything soft enough to cut. “You looked bored.”

“Stop with the bullshit, Phoenix.” Her voice stays low, sharp enough to slip under the music and find skin.

“What bullshit are we talking about?”

“That little king complex you drag out whenever you decide the world has touched something you think is yours.”

My smirk doesn’t move an inch but everything beneath it does.

I set my glass down on the bar. “Careful, Wills.”

Her eyes flash. “Don’t fucking call me that when you’re acting like a selfish prick who only remembers I exist when another man looks at me.”

I laugh once. “You think I’m fucking jealous of that polished little label pet?”

“What would you call it then?”

“Common sense.” I lean closer. “He was looking at you as if he wanted to fuck you against that bar.”

Her mouth tightens. “So what if he was?”

My smile disappears.

Willow steps closer, but there is nothing soft about her steps.

“If I want to fuck Memphis Cross, I will,” she says, low enough that only I hear it. “If I want to fuck anyone in this room, I will. If he asked me to get down on my knees and suck his cock, I fucking could.”

Something inside me goes black.

My gaze cuts past her shoulder, hunting the crowd for Memphis before I can stop it. I want to find him. I want to drag that fucker back by the throat, press my mouth to his ear, and explain that he doesn’t fucking ask Willow for anything.

The thought of it makes every ugly thing inside me stand up and bare its fangs.

Willow sees it.

Her laugh is small and vicious. “Look at you.”

“Wills.”

“No.” Her eyes flash, bright and furious beneath the smudged black around them. “You don’t get to fucking stand here and collect half the women who come your way. You don’t get to keep a hard-on for every bad decision that breathes near you, then lose your shit because another man looks at me.”

I could say something cruel. I could smirk and turn this into another fight she’ll write into a song, making me sing it back to her in front of thousands of people who’ll never know I deserve every word.

“You don’t own me, Phoenix. Get it through your fucking head.”

She sets her glass on the bar, turns, and walks away. Not leaving me a single thread to pull her back to me.

For once in my miserable life, I can’t think of a single thing cruel enough to save me that will not prove her right.

Chapter Nine

Willow