Page 69 of First Touch

“No,” he snapped. “You don’t get to ask any of the questions here.”

“If you don’t want questions, you better start talking.” Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to pick a fight with a member of the Vilanakis family, but I had a feeling we’d fight eventually whether I did or not. His anger was palpable, and if he was going to be mad at me, I at least deserved to know which of my transgressions had set him off.

His expression was ice cold, his eyes sharp-pointed swords. “Chris Blakely.”

My stomach dropped with the weight of a boulder, but somehow I managed to keep my composure. “What about him?”

Except, he wouldn’t have asked about Chris if he didn’t already know about him, so I might as well give Reeve what he wanted. “I spent the afternoon with him, is that what you’re after?”

He rushed back toward me and pounded his fist against the wall by my head. “Yes, that’s what I’m fucking after. What the hell did you think you were doing?”

He’d been calm before, in control despite his mood. Now he was raving and rabid. His hands shook. His voice rumbled.

He’s jealous, I thought. At least I hoped that’s what this was. I could defend myself easily enough for that, since I hadn’t actually committed any crime that warranted jealousy.

I forced sugar into my voice. “I was just helping him go over his audition, Reeve. He’s a friend and he’s trying to get a spot on NextGen. I gave him some pointers.”

“At his house? Alone? Wearing that?”

I looked down at the jean shorts and long-sleeve V-neck T underneath my duster. It was casual wear and not particularly sexy. “What do you want me to be wearing?”

“Something that doesn’t have your breasts falling out on display.” He was pacing now, seemingly more agitated with each thing I said.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “I have big tits, Reeve. There’s very little I can wear that doesn’t put them on display. And if you’re suggesting that something happened —”

He cut me off. “I’m suggesting that it wasn’t appropriate for you to be at his house, alone in the middle of the day, regardless of what happened.”

I’d definitely been with men who were controlling, but my circumstances had changed so much since then that I was out of my realm now. Reeve gave me presents, yes, but he didn’t keep me, and with several years of independence under my belt, I wasn’t prepared to have someone telling me what I could and couldn’t do.

It pissed me off.

“Jesus, don’t you trust me?” I threw my purse and duster on the couch so I could do some pacing and pointing fingers of my own. “You go lots of places with gorgeous women surrounding you and I can’t spend a day helping a friend? I didn’t fuck him.”

“That isn’t the point.”

“Then what is the point? That you just want a say in what I do? That wasn’t something you ever spelled out as part of our relationship.” It was strange that he wasn’t that concerned with whether I’d messed around with Chris, just that… Unless…

I spun toward him, hands in fists. “Is that why you were sniffing me? You were trying to see if I smelled like sex?” The idea made my blood boil hotter even though it was also admittedly provocative. “You could have just asked me.”

Reeve shrugged dismissively. “My way was faster and more conclusive.” He picked up the purse I’d dropped, and opened it.

I gaped. “Um, excuse me. That’s mine.”

“Do you have something to hide?” He continued rifling through my belongings, and I said a silent prayer of thanks to whatever God existed for telling me to toss the burner phone.

“It doesn’t matter if I have anything to hide. It’s my purse.”

At least Reeve seemed calmer now, preoccupied as he was with his snooping. After a minute, he pulled out the sides I’d taken for Chris and skimmed them before tossing them and my purse back on the couch.

I smiled smugly, happy to have proof about the reason for my afternoon visit. “That was the script I worked on with Chris. Happy now?”

He ignored my comment and took a menacing step toward me. “The point is that you shouldn’t have been with that guy, no matter what you were working on. So why did you think it was a good idea to go?”

He wasn’t calmer after all, I realized now that I was eye-to-eye with him. In fact, he might have been even angrier, his rage pulled in and controlled, ready to unleash in a concentrated fury.

It would have been wise for me to back down, but I had to know if my crime was because I’d been with a guy or that I’d been with that guy. Did Reeve know what Chris knew about Missy? Did he worry Chris would tell me?

“Why shouldn’t I be there?” I asked, not quite as confident as I had been a minute before.