“Of course, you did,” I said bitterly. Then I returned to what I was scared to ask. “And you stayed in one of the other bedrooms? Not in her bedroom?”

“Yes, Blaire. I was only in her bedroom for a couple of minutes while I helped her—” He cut himself off from finishing, which caused that knot of fear to coil in my belly once again.

“Helped her what?” I asked, my voice shaking.

“She said she needed help… changing,” he said in almost a whisper.

“You… what the fuck, Axel?” His head was hanging low over his coffee cup as I stood and stared down at him. “Why would you… you saw her naked?”

“Nothing happened, Blaire. I swear. She just said she needed help.”

“Well, of course, she fucking did. She’s trying to lure you into bed with her! They said there was nothing wrong with her at the hospital, right?” He nodded. “So why the fuck would she need help changing clothes?”

“I don’t know,” he said miserably. “I was just trying to help.” God, men are so fucking gullible sometimes.

I glanced at the clock, realizing it was time for me to leave for work. “I have to go, or I’m going to be late. But this conversation is not over, Broxton. We need to have a discussion about what I expect out of a relationship, and you not getting naked with women in hotel rooms is right at the motherfucking top of that list,” I hissed.

Anger flashed in his eyes, but I didn’t give a good goddamn if he was mad. He had no right to be mad at me for being mad at him. He clenched his jaw and said, “I’ll get Carrie up and take her to school.”

“Okay, fine,” I snapped, grabbing my purse and digging for my keys. “Wait, I thought you were taking her to the Dallas World Aquarium today.”

“I’ll take her this afternoon. I really need to catch some shut-eye this morning.”

I was fucking fuming as I slung open the door to the apartment. Over my shoulder, I threw back, “Yeah, I guess you didn’t get much sleep the past seven hours in Milan’s hotel suite,” before I slammed the door.

Breathe in through your nose. Hold. Blow out through your mouth. Hold.

I did that all the way to the hospital, and when I arrived, I felt a bit calmer and ready to focus on work. I met up with Christopher, who told me I would be handling emergency today, which was fine with me. The hustle and bustle of the ER was just what I needed to keep my mind off things. We usually got a couple of ortho cases due to accidents during rush hour traffic, so maybe I could pick up a surgery today.