Page 40 of Home Coming

Looking for a good dose of bad Karma.That sentiment was worthy of a T-shirt or a bumper sticker. Or even better, a song!

She’d have enjoyed it more if she didn’t feel like she might be due some Karmic payback for her own actions.

“What about me? Am I a bad person? Do I deserve it if Axel does post…” She couldn’t finish the sentence.

God, she’d been so stupid. She should have known better than to send him a naked selfie.

She hadn’t wanted to. It took her an hour to get even one shot she thought looked good enough to send.

But he’d been away, traveling with the band. When he’d asked for a picture she’d been more afraid he’d look elsewhere if she said no. So many girls were always hanging around the band.

She’d never even considered he’d use it against her—

“Hey.” Quinn’s voice brought her head up. “You are not a bad person. And even if he is a dick and posts your picture, it won’t be the end of the world.”

Said the man built like a carved marble statue of some Roman god. All hard muscles and beautiful lines.

Any nudes of Quinn floating around the internet would raise his public profile and his self esteem. As opposed to hers, which would only do the opposite.

Nudes—ugh!

After being so damn stupid she deserved whatever she got.

CHAPTERFIFTEEN

Wearing the T-shirt and sweatpants he’d packed in anticipation of spending at least one night in the city, Quinn stood at the stove, pushing the scrambled eggs around in the pan so they didn’t burn.

He’d finally convinced Bailey that they both needed some food. It was late for breakfast but early for lunch. Luckily she had eggs in the fridge. Even he could handle cooking those. And he figured they should use them up since she was moving out and, hopefully, not coming back.

Not that it was such a bad little apartment. Or at least it wouldn’t have been if he didn’t see security nightmares everywhere.

The lock on the building’s front door to the street was broken so people didn’t even need to be buzzed in. Not that a crook would need to use the front door since the fire escape led right to a window in her apartment that had a broken lock.

He’d nailed that shut last night, which wasn’t ideal. If there was a fire, she’d have to break the window to use the fire escape. But again, he didn’t plan on Bailey being in this apartment after today.

While he renewed that vow to himself as he pushed the now solidified scrambled eggs around the pan, he glanced up to see what Bailey was up to.

Given the entire apartment was about the size of his parents’ living room, he could see Bailey clearly where she’d cocooned herself into the corner of the sofa on the other side of the room.

She looked adorable in an oversized sweatshirt, her head bowed over her cell phone.Her legs were curled beneath her, while a blanket draped over them in spite of the heat blasting out of the apartment’s radiators.

He’d had to say her name three times before when he’d asked if she wanted toast before she’d lifted her head and noticed he was speaking.

Realization hit him. There was only one thing that would have her so rapt.

Axel.

Quinn would have guessed she’d done another deep dive into the gossip sites and the threads of vicious reader comments except he heard the sound of low tinny music.

The volume of whatever had her attention glued to the phone was low but he could just make out the strains of a song, thanks to the fact he was barely ten feet away from her in the cramped city apartment.

If he were a betting men, he’d wager she was listening to Axel’s song. The one bashing her in retaliation for hers about him.

Time to save her from herself.

He turned off the stovetop burner and scooped the eggs onto two plates. After grabbing two forks from the drawer in the surprisingly efficient kitchen area, he headed toward her on the sofa.

She looked up from the cell clutched in her hands guiltily as he held the plate out to her and said, “Eggs.”

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