Completely confused, Tobias rose up on his elbows as she sank onto the bed. “What’s happened?”

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she turned the front of her phone so that he could see her call record.

It took him a moment to realize what she was showing him, but then it became obvious. She’d just ended a call to Axel.

Feeling some of the horror she obviously felt, Tobias’s chest constricted. “Don’t tell me we somehow pocket-dialed Axel when we took off your pants…”

She cringed as though she couldn’t bear to hear the words spoken aloud but nodded.

Tobias sat up. “Do you think he… Do you think he actually picked up?”

“Let’s hope the whole thing isn’t on his voice mail!” she cried.

A recording would be worse. “How long was the call?”

She held the phone out again, so that Tobias could check for himself. His heart sank when he saw it had lasted nearly fifteen minutes. “Oh shit. Maybe he didn’t realize what was happening.”

“I said it was the best orgasm I’ve ever had!”

Pressing a palm to his forehead, he fell back onto the pillows. “I’m sorry. Especially if I was the one who accidentally hit the call button.”

“I took off my own pants. It was probably me.” She dashed a hand across her cheeks. “I was a fool to think… Never mind. Will you take me home? Please?”

Tobias felt as though he’d just been kicked in the stomach. And if he felt that bad, she had to feel worse. He didn’t want such a fabulous encounter to end this way. He was tempted to try to talk her out of leaving, to console her somehow, but he didn’t feel it was fair to push her into staying any longer than she wanted to—especially because she didn’t really know who he was.

“Of course,” he said softly and got out of bed to dress.

9

Harper couldn’t even look at Tobias. What she’d done was just more proof of how badly she was unraveling. She should’ve told her sister what she was up to when they talked on the phone. Karoline would’ve put a quick stop to it. Karoline didn’t make mistakes, not like this.

While they were driving, Harper could feel Tobias glance over at her every few minutes. Although he didn’t say anything, he had to be wondering if she’d lost her mind. This morning, she’d been so aggressive—and now she was so cold.

But she didn’t know what she wanted. She was just looking for some way to anesthetize herself, to escape the crushing heartbreak Axel’s defection had caused. He’d thrown her for such a loop she couldn’t seem to recover. But now she’d involved someone else in her misery, and that wasn’t fair.