Page 72 of False Play
I aimlessly followed him, at a loss for words, with a sense of gratitude and confusion following hot on my trail.
SEVENTEEN
HENRY
I KNEW A PRAISE KINK WHEN I SAW ONE.
The fumesfrom the windy city assaulted my senses as I dragged Kennedy out of the restaurant.
Every feeling imaginable hit me all at once. I was irritated, pissed,confusedas hell. Mostly, I felt guilty about how I acted. It was shocking how I managed not to grab that piece of shit by the collar of his shirt and punch him. But when Kennedy stopped me, and her voice urged me to take a step back andthinkfor once, it calmed me. One look at her was all it took.
Kennedy and I had been making progress, and here I went, fucking it up by threatening her ex-boyfriend.
“Kennedy, I am so?—”
She interrupted. “Thank you.”
I reared back in surprise. “You’re not mad?”
She etched her brows together, which made her look ridiculously cute. “Why would I be mad? He was being a dick.”
I let out a humorless laugh as I pinched my index and thumb fingers together. “I was this close to punching him if you hadn’t stopped me.”
“Thank God you didn’t, we don’t need another scandal.”She laughed, followed by a sigh. “At least now we know you’re capable of listening.”
Here I was pissed about what happened back at the restaurant, and she was worried about ascandal? The knowledge alone made me irrationally angrier.
“I couldn’t give less of a fuck about a scandal,” I shot back. “Why did you let him speak to you like that?”
None of these people deserved Kennedy.
Who the fuck was this person standing in front of me? Because she sure as hell wasn’t the woman I knew and liked.
Where was her fire?
And why was I so pissed?
There was too much happening; my mind was reeling.
Her body visibly tensed, and she tried to get out of my grip, but I didn’t let her.
“Let me go, Henry,” she said coldly.
“Not until you answer. What the fuck was that back there?”
She raised her free arm in defeat. “I don’t know,okay? Joe has always been kind of a douche, but he?—”
“Understatement of the century,” I deadpanned. “But I’m not talking about his attitude. I’m talking aboutyou. If anyone at work dared talk to you like that, you would have brought down hell on them. So why does he get a pass?”
My body trembled with anger. Fuck, I was livid. At her—forher. It made me furious the way I witnessed how little she cared about herself and her feelings.
She finally managed to get out of my death grip. “I have to demand respect at work because otherwise, they will all see me as a joke,” she shouted with a shake of her head. “And why am I even explaining myself to you right now?!”
She wasn’t wrong. She didn’t owe me any explanations, but excuse me for being confused as hell at the bait and fuckingswitch she’d done. The situation was getting out of control with every passing second, and I was eager to get this over with. I loved bantering with Kennedy, butfighting? That I loathed with every fiber of my being.
I threaded my fingers through my hair in frustration. “How do we go from you thanking me to arguing?God, Kennedy, you’re so infuriating!”
Her eyes practically came out of their sockets in disbelief. “I’minfuriating? You started it!”
