Morning Return (Alexis PoV)

I stood out in front of the apartment, key in hand. I knew what waited for me inside. Emptiness. Natalie would still be out until sometime later this evening. My eyes went to the apartment next door. Jake. My throat tightened as I felt the discomfort settle in my gut. I couldn’t face him today. Not after…

Not after I just enjoyed three guys working me over. The soreness was still there. A constant reminder to what I’d been doing only hours ago. Something I should have been content and satisfied with, yet now only felt conflicted and confused.

Mumbling, I **** myself to unlock the door. Stepping inside, I kicked off my shoes and headed for the kitchen. I was about to hit the fridge when my eyes caught sight of the clothing trail leading to the bathroom. Walking over, I nudged the panties with my foot. They were hard and crusty. That was odd. Had she come back early?

“Damn, girl. You certainly had fun,” I said to myself as I followed the trail of clothes. Sneaking over to the bedroom, I pushed the door open and peeked inside. My stomach fell and it felt like my chest caved in.

There on the bed was Natalie and Jake.

He was holding her against him.

She was naked.

I stumbled backward, mind spinning. Jealousy and anger ripped through me. How could she? How could he? This—How? How did this happen? Why her? Why her?

“Alexis.”

I spun around to find him standing there. He was as unreadable as ever. Didn’t matter. I’d seen it. The evidence was all around.

“It’s not what you think,” he said softly as he closed the door behind him.

“And what am I thinking, Jake? I thought you said you couldn’t read minds.”

He held a finger to his lips. “Please, let me explain.”

“So you’ll fuck her but not me?”

For the first time since I’d known him, he looked angry. I knew it was ****, but that he was making the effort to show it immediately doused the flames and anger burning through me. Once the tunnel vision that came from anger faded, I realized the hypocrisy. Me getting angry over him and Natalie when I had spent the night bouncing between the cocks of three strangers. Yet without the anger, all that was left was the pain and jealousy and guilt.

I preferred the anger.

Besides, Jake was fully dressed minus his shoes. Should have noticed that first.

“Despite appearances, nothing happened between us,” he explained seeing I had calmed down a little. “Natalie called me last night. I didn’t press on what happened, but it is clear that her and Thomas are no longer together.”

I sucked in air. That made no sense. The two were in love. I experienced that love between them. The way she felt when she was with Thomas. How he looked at her…

The revelation was slow to reveal itself. The way she felt. Of course. It was her memory. All the bias she held, what she believed she saw, how she wanted to remember it. Was it really the truth, or what she believed it to be?

Felling horrible at my initial reaction, I couldn’t meet his eye. “How is she?”

“Sleeping now. I am not much help on matters like this.”

I managed a small smile. “You sell yourself short. I’m sure you did great.” He was silent, his gaze distant. I took a deep breath. “Really sorry about how I reacted. Seeing you two like that—”

“It’s fine.”

“No, it’s really not. You aren’t the type of guy to do that and I know better. I should have known there was a reason. I let my emotions get the better of me and... Sorry.” I glanced past him toward the door. “You should get back in there.”

He paused long enough to look over his shoulder. When he looked back my way, he was shaking his head. “It’s not me she needs, but you.” I frowned. That didn’t sound right. All I did was piss her off and make things worse. I was the last person she needed right now. He smiled. It was that damn smile of his where you had to look real hard to know he was forcing himself. The kind of smile that made my heart beat faster and my stomach flutter like a damn schoolgirl making eye contact with her crush. “You have a gift. One I am deeply envious of. You can connect with people in a way I never can.”

“I mean, my Gift is literally connecting—”

“Not what I’m talking about. You don’t need your Gift to do that. I see it every time you and Natalie are together. When you and Chloe are together. You have a way of pulling the best out of people. Making them relax. Have fun. Be themselves. The person Natalie needs most right now isn’t an emotionless wall. It’s you. You are the one who is going to help her through this. I know you will, because you love her.”

Before I could respond, he went back into the bedroom and returned with his coat. “I’ll be next door if you need me.”

“Wait!” I said as I grabbed at his arm. “Stay. Together we can—”

“I’m only a hindrance here.”

“That—”

“Ah,” he said, interrupting me. “She never took her morning-after pill last night. Can you make sure she does that when she wakes up?” I nodded as my mind reeled from the sudden shift in conversation. “Thank you.”

I walked him to the door. “Really wish you would stay,” I mumbled.

He rested a hand on my shoulder. “You’ll be fine. Trust me.”

With those words, he left. I wish I had half the confidence he seemed to have in me. Things were weird. Jake seemed…different? He always had that annoyingly persistent quality about him that was part of his charm. Once he had it in his mind to help, he didn’t let anything stop him. So him leaving Natalie to me was odd.

But I couldn’t afford to think about that right now. My attention needed to be on Natalie.

I checked in the bedroom and found her still sleeping. Jake had covered her up so it looked like any other night. Taking advantage of the time I was afforded, I spent it cleaning up. I tossed her panties. Sure, I could have tossed them in the laundry but I figured it would be best to get rid of any memories that might be tied to them.

Once that was taken care of, I went back into the bedroom. Natalie was still in bed. My eyes narrowed slightly and I extended my Gift towards her. As expected, it failed to connect as she rebuffed it.

“I know you’re awake,” I said as I sat on the edge of her bed. She sighed, eyes opening. “Not like you to play hooky.”

“Well, I saw you were cleaning for once and didn’t want to interrupt.” She paused as she pulled the covers up to her chin. “Is he gone?”

“Jake? Yeah.” Closing her eyes, she muttered a few curses.

“I was only wearing a towel.”

“You mean this one?” I asked with a **** grin, holding up the towel that she had been wearing. “Found it on the floor.”

She peeked under the covers. When I saw her face again, it was beet red. “You think he—”

“Oh, he saw. You were hanging out when I came in. He was the one who covered you up.”

The covers went over her head as a groan came from under them. “Never leaving bed again.”

No idea why Jake thought I was any good at this. I didn’t know how to do this. How was I supposed to comfort her when I didn’t even know how to ask in the first place?

Fuck it. Subtlety was never my thing.

“What happened?”

“Nothing,” she said from under the covers.

“I’m not an idiot. I saw your panties out there and I know from experience that one guy doesn’t have enough in the tank for that. Not to mention Jake telling me to make sure you took your morning-after pill.” I softened my voice and scooted closer to her. “What happened?”

“I would say that Tommy and I broke up, but last night I found out that only I thought we were actually dating. I guess it should have been obvious. He never was the same person once he moved in with those assholes. Our time together amounted to little more than extended booty calls.”

“He’s a fucking moron.”

The covers fell to reveal her face. “I appreciate the sentiment, but can we please not talk about this right now?”

“We don’t have to talk about it…”

“No. As much as appreciate and respect your Gift, that isn’t something I’m comfortable with. At least not for this. Not now.” She let out a breath. “I don’t even know how I feel about everything. You know, beyond the general shittiness of my life falling apart.”

Well, fuck. What the fuck was I supposed to do with that?

“Okay, but I’m only willing to put this off if you promise you aren’t going to bottle it up and bury it deep with hope of forgetting about it.”

Her gaze lingered a few moments before she nodded. “Fine.”

I grinned. “Coffee then?”

“That would be nice.”

“And at the risk of my own sanity… I’ll let you pick out something to watch today.”

She was smiling, so that was a plus. “Someone is brave today.”

“Please don’t make me regret it,” I said with a teasing smile.

Getting off the bed, I went to the kitchen to put on some coffee.

I was angry. Livid. How fucking dare that asshole? I wanted to **** him. Painfully.

Letting the anger go was hard. I wanted to hate him for hurting my sister. For his part in…whatever the fuck had happened to her. But my anger didn’t help Natalie right now. So I breathed in deep, forcing the anger out with each exhale.

A part of me wished Jake was still here. I felt like I was fumbling around in the dark. Was not talking about it the right thing? Maybe she needed time to process things. It was like Chloe spilling her guts out about her past. I wasn’t as great at this as he believed I was. I was terrible then and equally terrible now. All I brought to the situation was a flippant attitude that made light of the heaviness the situation required. Made sense. I was used to running away from my problems and ignoring them—until I couldn’t. Why wouldn’t I do the same to other people’s problems as well?

Pouring coffee into two mugs, I dumped a metric ton of creamer into Natalie’s coffee—just like she liked it.

With a deep breath, I held the mugs tightly as I stared back at the bedroom where she waited. Natalie needed me.

This time, I would be there for her.