Page 267 of Face Off

The fire cracks loudly behind us, filling the silence while nobody moves. Charm’s fingers loosen around mine before slipping away, and I feel the loss of her touch before I can make myself turn toward her.

Temple’s face loses every trace of color. Rider moves toward her immediately, but she remains where she is with the blanket gathered around her shoulders, staring at Lyric as though she can’t understand how a private night from last year became ammunition inside someone else’s relationship.

I turn toward Charm. All the warmth has drained from her face, but she isn’t looking at Temple or Lyric.

She’s looking at me.

I don’t lie and I don’t soften it. “Yeah,” I say.

Charm’s lips part, but no sound follows. Lyric watches the shock settle across her face and releases a small, satisfied laugh. “Oh, that’s right. He dumped you. Oops.”

Bliss moves before any of us can react. Her palm cracks across Lyric’s face hard enough to snap her head to the side and silence the entire garden.

Bliss stares at her own hand. “Holy shit. That hurt.”

Lyric lunges.

Cade catches Bliss around the waist and lifts her completely off the ground before she reaches her again.

“Put me down!” Bliss shouts, kicking both feet.

“You’re getting married tomorrow.”

“I can do both!”

“You only get one assault before the security deposit becomes complicated.”

“She has another cheek!”

“Pip.”

“I arrive with bail money, Cade. It was literally in the toast!”

Despite everything, a strangled laugh escapes Briggs.

Charm doesn’t laugh or jump in like Aura who stood ready if Lyric came back at Bliss. She looked up at me, then at the ground before turning and headed toward the castle.

Every instinct inside me demands that I follow her. My body shifts before anger stops me.

I didn’t betray Charm.

We had been apart for almost a year when Temple and I met in Detroit. She attended the game as a fan, and I was back in Michigan for the first time since leaving Charm, drinking hard enough to silence every memory the state dragged out of me. Temple was single. I was single. We spent the night laughing, drinking, and enjoying each other before ending up in bed.

It happened once.

Neither of us asked for more, and neither pretended the night had been something it wasn’t. We stayed in occasional contact because Temple was funny, uncomplicated, and capable of treating sex like something two adults could enjoy without building a relationship around it.

Months later, Rider brought her around as his friend.

I pulled him aside the first night because my loyalty to him required honesty before Temple’s history with me could become something he learned from someone else. Rider laughed, told me they had never dated or slept together, and assured me their relationship had always been friendship.

Temple and I never touched each other again.

None of that will stop Charm from hurting. She knows Temple now. She has laughed with her, welcomed her into our group, and begun thinking of her as a friend without realizing Temple once occupied my bed.

Charm is entitled to every painful feeling that knowledge creates. But she isn’t entitled to treat it like I betrayed her.

I refuse to abandon Briggs in the middle of discovering another lie so I can chase Charm and apologize for one consensual night between two single adults during a year when she wasn’t mine.