Your Fault (Culpable Book 2)

I needed ten or so minutes to get Jenkins off my back. The asshole couldn’t shut up about how stupid it would be for me to reject the offer from New York. I had to take it, he said. It would take my career to the next level, blah, blah, blah. Obviously it would be a dream come true for him because he’d have me off the scene and wouldn’t have any more obstacles blocking his rise in Dad’s company. That would be like killing two birds with one stone. He kept me busy with his scheming long enough that when I returned to the office, only Sophie was there.

“How long ago did she leave?” I asked, stopping in the doorway.

“Five minutes ago. But Nick…” Something in her tone made me freeze and look at her. “I told her about New York, and I don’t think she took it very well.”

“You did what?”

I could tell she was nervous.

“I thought that’s why you guys had been fighting. I’m sorry, I know I screwed up, but I didn’t mean to…”

Fuck!

I stormed out of my office, headed for the parking lot, and when I got in my car, I took off for the university.

I couldn’t believe she’d spilled the beans, especially when that issue was over and done with. I didn’t know how to get people to understand that I wasn’t interested, that I was going nowhere. Sophia had been a huge pain when I told her there was no way I’d go. I wasn’t crazy, I knew it was a huge opportunity I was rejecting, but I wasn’t about to leave Noah, not even if they’d offered me a job at the White House. Jenkins had been on my ass ever since he’d heard about it, and I’d wasted ten minutes listening to him call me an idiot while I repeated that I wasn’t going anywhere. And now I had to confront Noah at a moment when our relationship was a straight-up catastrophe. The whole thing was getting out of hand.

I called to tell her I was going to her dorm. I wanted to explain what was going on to her, but as usual, she ignored every one of my calls. Fifteen minutes later, I was parking in front of her dorm, and as I got out, I started asking myself how I could explain things without ending up with her chewing me out about the same things she’d already thrown in my face before. The last thing I wanted was to make her ask me for even more time apart and for that time apart to turn into an eternity.

Damn Sophia and her damned mouth.

I knocked three times and waited for the door to open. When it did, it wasn’t Noah.

Shit.

“Leister,” Briar said in her cloying voice. All she was wearing was a thin gown. Her red hair was pulled back in a bun, and on her face was that smile that brought back so many bad memories.

“Is Noah here?” I asked, looking past her.

“She’s in her room,” she said, stepping aside to let me in.

Well, that had been easy. I ignored her and walked to Noah’s room, but when I opened the door, it was empty.

I turned to see Briar staring at me with a diabolical grin, sitting on the kitchen counter with her nightgown pulled up over her thighs.

“Oops…I forgot, actually she’s not here. Sorry. My memory sucks.”

I ignored her as I headed for the door, until I saw she’d put a padlock on the inside and had locked it behind my back. Trying to control myself, I closed my eyes and summoned all the common sense I could muster.

“Open the fucking door.”

“I see you’ve got the same mouth as always.” She slid off the counter and opened the fridge. “You in the mood for a beer?” she asked, looking me over from head to toe. “Or maybe something else… You’re not much of a beer guy anymore, are you?”

Getting into an argument with her just then was the last thing I wanted. Goddammit. I had tried not to think about the fact Noah was living with her, but I knew something like this would happen sooner or later. I had just hoped today wasn’t the day.

“Briar, I’m not going to play games with you. Not now, not ever. Open the door.”

Leaning against the counter, she pulled the key out from her cleavage. “You want it?” she whispered sexily. “Come get it.”

I strode over in three steps as her wild green eyes observed me, amused. But I knew what was behind them. Briar hated me. She had her reasons to.

“Give me the key, Bri,” I ordered her. “Don’t play with me. You know you’ll end up losing.”

My words made the smile vanish from her lips.

“I thought I’d never see you again.”

I closed my eyes, trying to still my resentment. “Me neither… And I sure as hell didn’t think you’d be living with my girlfriend… Briar, you can’t tell her anything. Are you listening to me?”

I saw a look of bitterness cross her face, and for a moment, I was speechless.

“You worried I might say something that will open her eyes, Nick?” she asked innocently. Briar could put on a thousand different acts, wear a thousand different faces. But I had seen them all.

If Noah ever found out…just the thought of it terrified me.

She grimaced. “You don’t know how to love anyone. Least of all that girl. You don’t deserve her.”

God knew I didn’t deserve her. I didn’t need this, not now. I didn’t want to dig up old memories, feel the same old guilt from before. I’d left all that behind. I let it go when I went to live with my father, a year before I met Noah, and Briar wasn’t supposed to be here. She’d left, and she’d sworn she’d never return. Why in the hell was she back?

“Maybe you’re right, but I’ll stay with her until she tells me to go.”

Unable to believe what she was hearing, Briar reached up and stroked one of my cheeks with her finger.

“You do love her,” she said, as if that were impossible. “So now you’re supposed to be different?”

Her hand reached my hair, but I grabbed it and forced her to step back.

“I’m not the same person you met three years ago. I’ve changed.”

Her full lips smiled. “Nick, you were born a son of a bitch, and you’ll die a son of a bitch.”

I jerked her toward me, losing control for a second, and with my free hand forced her to drop the key. Once I grabbed it, I tried to relax, taking deep breaths.

“I know it’s pointless to tell you this now, but I’m sorry for what I did to you… I really am sorry for what happened.”

“You feeling bad may do something for you, Nick, but it doesn’t do shit for me. Now get out of here.”

I did so, but just before, I wrote a note and left it on Noah’s pillow. I’d made a decision.