Page 31 of Defying Ella
“Stop running and talk to me for once in your bloody life.”
For a second, he stared at me, his eyes unyielding. Then his jaw shifted and he glanced away. “Just leave it alone, Ella. It won’t happen again.”
His gaze bored into mine, urging one of us to believe those words. I’m just not sure he meant it for me.
He’d gotten what he wanted: we fucked, broke the tension, and the insane awareness would fade. We should be capable of playing nice now and maintaining the truce.
“I don’t get attached, Ella. I’m enough of a disaster without adding someone else to the mix.” He chewed his lip, watching me intently. “It’s better for us both that we let this go. It shouldn’t have happened, and no one needs to know it ever did.”
CHAPTER NINE
Sleep was understandably hard to come by after Jared’s odd behaviour. I went back and forth on whether I believed him for hours, dissecting every interaction as if any of it would help. It didn’t. When I did finally pass out, I was still confused, only with my conscious mind giving up on figuring him out, my subconscious went to town, throwing every tiny detail of our encounter in the jacuzzi back at me.
I woke far too early, far too turned on, and exhausted. And my confusion hadn’t lessened any. Men.
With no expectations of seeing the drummer before noon, I settled in with some toast and tea to skim through social media and messages. I might have hoped that the normalcy would help me shake off the lingering effects of last night.
The girls had made it back to Cardiff without issue. Our group chat overflowed with a stream of unread messages the second I opened it.Did they never sleep?
It still shocked me that we’d been lucky enough to not get fully disconnected from the outside world. I might have been trapped with my enemy, but I consoled myself daily with the fact it could have been much worse.
My phone buzzed in my hand. A green banner flashed across the top and I fumbled for it, too startled to stop and think.
“Ella!” Daphne shouted, her coifed jet-black hair and sparkling eyes filling the screen. “Have you freed yourself of our ridiculous manwhore yet?”
I smiled, enjoying Daphne’s exuberance for a moment. “No, still pretty locked-in unfortunately.”
A chorus of laughter followed, and my sister’s face flicked across the screen before being replaced with Nia.
“You know that’s not what she meant, Els.” Nia shook her head, amusement shining in her blue gaze.
“But seriously,” Mel’s face reclaimed the screen giving me whiplash, “has he gotten his act together at least?”
“Guys, how many of you are on this call?” I rubbed my forehead. “It’s kind of hard to keep track when you’re flicking in and out like this.”
Another chorus of laughter followed.
“Turn the tile view on,” Alys said.
So, four at least. I hadn’t had enough caffeine. Without so much as a grumble, I did as instructed. It might be early, but I’d take friendly faces at any hour.
My screen split in five. Mel sat in her car, concern and intrigue barely masked while my deviant of a niece danced in her car seat in the back. Nia had propped up her phone, her kitchen cast in bright morning sunlight behind her while she unloaded something. Alys leaned against a pillow, her red hair unashamedly matted with bedhead. Sophie sat at her desk, pink headphones poking through her blonde hair while Daphne seemed to be in the back of a fast-moving car.
“Daphne, where are you going?”
She tutted, scowling. “Don’t ask. Bloody rock stars and their inability to make sensible choices.” Her eyes narrowed. “But enough of me, your situation is far more interesting.”
“I wouldn’t—”
“She hasn’t murdered him evidently,” Sophie said, whispering the m-word. Her head tilted to the side as she considered me. “She does look far too relaxed though.”
Every single one of them froze, their eyes fixed on their screens, on me. If it wasn’t for Phoebe’s low-level singing, silence would have engulfed us.
I glanced away, my face burning with misplaced embarrassment.
“Oh my god.” Mel gasped. “You slept with him.”
They leaned in, their eyes narrowing while my voice took a holiday.
