Page 101 of Devoured

"I need you too."

"No. I mean, Ineedyou. Right now." I grabbed the back of her neck and kissed her hard. I needed her exhales. I needed her body beneath mine. I needed all of her. Because I was guilty of exactly what Isabella said. Penny was my fucking vice.

I moved my hands to her ass and lifted her legs around me. I carried her back into my bedroom.

Penny always gave me what I needed. And maybe that was part of the problem. I could never stop because she kept offering me more and more of her. And I was greedy for all of it.

I was relying on her to make me whole. And that wasn’t fair. She’d never agreed to fix me. Because she didn’t realize how broken I was.Yet.

Chapter 25

Tuesday

I knew going back to reality after spending a day in New York would be hard. But I never expected for it to be this fucking hard.

I wanted to be happy that Isabella had signed the divorce papers.

Instead, I had a loop of “what ifs” going round and round in my head. Penny had helped calm me down. But she’d left for class and my first class of the day wasn’t until later. So all I could do was think about Isabella standing in my living room. And there was only one person I wanted to take it out on. Ian.

But while I waited for him for over an hour, I just got angrier. I was paying for an extra apartment for himhere. His salary was exorbitant on top of that. And he’d seriously dropped the ball. I clenched my hand into a fist and then opened it over and over again, trying to let go of the desire to punch someone.

The elevators finally dinged and Ian stepped out. He opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off before he could give me whatever excuse he had.

“What the fuck, Ian? I pay you more than any security guard in the country and you let Isabella walk into my apartment like she owns the place? Where the hell were you?”

“I called you as soon as I got the alert on my phone, James. I tried to warn…”

“But wherewereyou?!”

“You said it was okay to drive Jen yesterday. You said…”

“Yesterday! Not all fucking night!” I stared at him. His hair looked a little askew. And his t-shirt was wrinkled. I knew he’d probably been speeding back here this morning. That explained his appearance. Or…it could be something else. “Is there something going on between you and my sister?”

Ian frowned. “No. Nothing. She asked me for a few rides around town and I was just helping out.”

“All night?”

“Well, she’s going through some stuff and we got to talking. That’s it.”

I really didn’t want to hear about this. I couldn’t deal with whatever drama Jen was having with whatever new idiot boyfriend she had. I had real fucking problems. But I also really needed to know. Because if Ian’s head was somewhere else, I obviously couldn’t rely on him. “Ian, if you’re sleeping with my sister I need you to be honest with me. Right now.”

“I’m not fucking Jen.” He looked a little horrified by what he’d just said. “I mean sleeping with. I’m not. This is coming out wrong. I meant I’m not making love to her. Fuck, I’m not doing any of that, James.”

I laughed. Because this weirdly reminded me of talking to Penny’s dad.

Ian smiled too. “I’m not,” he said.

“Good.”

He nodded. “Good then.”

I sighed. “But what the fuck, man? Isabella broke into my apartment…”

“And I tried to call you several times.”

“My phone was on silent. You calling from hours away wasn’t helpful. Isabella did exactly what you’re supposed to prevent. You were supposed to be here.”

“I’m sorry.”

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