Gold, стр. 42

She paused and decided it might not be a bad idea to take a shot first. Then, she could have a head start. Eric would understand. Unscrewing the top, Bryna placed her mouth to the bottle and let the bourbon burn down her throat.

“Holy shit!”

She replaced the top on the bottle, clinked the two glasses between her fingers, and tiptoed up the stairs. The door was closed to his room, but she could see a sliver of light through the crack at the bottom. Maker’s was going to make studying really interesting.

She jiggled the door handle, trying to force it open with her hands full. Frustration creasing her temple, she leaned into the door with her shoulder and shoved it open as the handle clicked. Unceremoniously, she stumbled forward into the room, keeping a tight grip on the precious cargo in her hands.

Her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, and the scene before her came into focus. A dirty brunette was bent over at the waist. Her mangled mess of hair was tossed forward across the bed, obscuring her face where it was trapped against the wad of comforter she was holding on to for dear life. Her red tank was hanging off the end of the bed. Perfect smooth hands had a grip on her waist.

Her eyes followed those hands she knew all too well, going up his arms to his bare chest and into that gorgeous face. His forehead was lined from exertion, and sweat beaded his brow. She couldn’t break her eyes away as he thrust over and over into the girl crushed up against his bed.

The world tilted, and she felt the bottle drop out of her fingers. The glasses crashed to the floor, shattering as they hit the ground. The bottle collided with the floor seconds later, and amber bourbon splashed up onto her legs and soaked into the carpet.

How long have I been standing there, watching Eric fuck some other girl? Why is he fucking a girl? Why do I feel like I’m going to throw up?

At the noise, Eric stilled his movements and looked up. His eyes locked with Bryna’s across the room. “Fuck!”

The girl’s head popped up. Bryna’s mouth dropped open.

Audrey!

“WHAT THE FUCK is she doing here?” Audrey yelled.

Bryna stood there, shell-shocked. She had no idea what to say. There wasn’t anything to say. Yet she couldn’t move. Her feet were glued to the floor.

Everything was happening in slow motion. Eric was moving away from Audrey. Audrey looked up at him in shock because he’d stopped.

Still, Bryna said nothing.

“Bri,” he whispered desperately into the silence.

“I,” she croaked. Her vision shifted, and all the emotions from the day crashed together as one. “I didn’t know.”

She wanted to run from the carnage of her life, and she had never been a runner. She had always faced life head-on and catapulted forward through adversity. But this…she couldn’t face. She didn’t even know why, but she needed to get out of there.

“Sorry,” she muttered absentmindedly. The word tumbled from her lips, unbidden. Then, she bolted through the door.

She couldn’t handle this right now. Not with everything else. Her stomach was roiling. It didn’t make sense. This was Eric.

Gay Eric.

Fucking his ex-girlfriend like he was most definitely Not Gay Eric.

She took the stairs, two at a time. Her heart rate skyrocketed as she nearly tripped over the final stair in an effort to escape the reality of what she had witnessed in Eric’s bedroom. She retrieved her high heels and purse from where she had left them and made a dash for the exit.

“Bri,” Eric called out to her.

That was followed by a high-pitched, “Are you fucking kidding me right now, Eric?”

Bryna couldn’t even think about this. Couldn’t think about the fact that Audrey was in Eric’s bed. Couldn’t think about what this meant for her friendship with Eric. Couldn’t think about why she felt like her heart was shattering into a million tiny pieces.

Pushing the door open, she stared in anger as the drought that had pervaded Vegas for so long finally cracked. The curtains opened in the heavens, and water rained from the sky, threatening to flood her desert home. But it didn’t matter that she had blown her hair out or that she had on fresh makeup or that the rain might ruin her designer clothes. All that mattered was getting away.

She located her keys, punched the unlock button, and watched the lights flash at her. Bryna dove into the downpour and rushed for her parked Aston Martin. She was soaked within seconds. The water ripped at her body with a ferocity that matched her own temper. She yanked the door open to her car and tossed her purse and high heels into the passenger seat.

Eric called her name again from the front door, and she made the mistake of looking back. He stood there, silhouetted in the doorframe, in nothing but a pair of dark jeans. He hadn’t bothered with putting on a shirt in his haste to get to her.

She gulped. She couldn’t do this. She shook her head. Her wet hair smacked against her face. He didn’t appear to care as he barreled out of his house and into the rain. He cleared the distance before she even remembered she was supposed to get into the car.

“Where are you going?” he yelled over the beating of the rain on the pavement.

“Home.”

He slammed his hand against the door to her car. “Goddamn it, Bri. What are you even doing here tonight?”

She jumped as her door closed. She was at a loss for words. He had followed her.

“You said you were exhausted,” she said.

“You said you were going to be at Posse all night.”

“Yeah, well, Stacia decided to ambush me and tell me she’s dating Pace, so I thought coming to get drunk with you was a better alternative.”

“Stacia and Pace?” he demanded.

“At least I’m not the only one shocked by the information.” She closed her eyes against the rain. “I guess I should have known there was a real reason for you being exhausted tonight. I didn’t know you had plans.” She gestured to his house.

His eyes stormed over. “Bryna—”

“I should go,” she cut him off.

“No! Why didn’t you run to your millionaire, Hugh?”

“Are you joking? Why were you fucking her?” she screamed, unable to hold back the rage boiling inside of her. Her hands were trembling. “You said you were gay!”

“What?” he yelled. “I never fucking said that!”

“Yes, you did! At the national championship game after you kissed me!”

He had said it…well, all but said it.

“No fucking way!”

“When you and I first met, Gates said that you’d told him you were gay!” she shrieked.

“I never fucking said that to him. He said you were trouble and a hot mess. That it would be smart for me not to be interested in you. I thought he meant you were a slut and a bad person. That’s why I treated you like shit all last semester. Then, I got to know you, and I realized that wasn’t the person you really were. It was the person you showed everyone else.”

Bryna’s jaw locked. She couldn’t believe Gates had said that, that he had told her Eric was gay, so they would stay apart.

“Then, what the fuck were you talking about at the national championship game?”

“Audrey!” He threw his arm out at the house. “I’ve kept her a secret from everyone. I thought you knew we were still sleeping together.”

Bryna’s mouth dropped open. She stepped away from him. “You’ve been sleeping together this whole fucking time?”

She didn’t know why it shocked her. It wasn’t like she hadn’t slept with Andrew and then Hugh, but still, it did. She had been so sure that Eric was gay that she couldn’t even reconcile this information with reality.