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“Yeah.” Bunny’s lips pulled up to one side in that sexy, cocky smile Bea loved. But something in her eyes pulled Bea’s excitement down and the cynic within her rose.

“Why do I get the feeling there’s something else in there?” Bea asked as she sat, feeling more exposed with the sheet pressed over her chest than she had been sleeping naked and wrapped up around Bunny all evening.

“I think you and Piper will be better suited to sing the song,” Bunny stated simply as though telling Bea it was cold outside, in the middle of winter.

“What?” A twist of nausea in Bea’s stomach caught her off guard. “But our voices work amazingly together.”

“Look.” Bunny sat up, not bothering to cover her own perfect curves with the sheet or blanket. “Your voices will work just as well together, and you’re both better suited to themessageof the song.”

“Themessage?” Bea’s body coiled with an entirely different tension than it had only moments earlier. The way Bunny had spat out that word had carried a weight of disgust with it.

Yep, staying over had definitely been the wrong idea, despite the morning orgasm.

“Piper’s been bugging me to come out for years, but I haven’t wanted to. Now she can get what she wants, and I don’t have to be involved.” Bunny raked her fingers through her hair, snagging on the tangles that she gave a half-hearted attempt to release before giving up.

“No one should ever need permission to come out. Jesus, Bunny. Besides, you’re involved with the entire show, whetherwedo the duet or not.” Bea’s chest heated with frustration and anger.

A hard silence filled the room, no longer awkward but angry.

“What are we doing?” Bea’s voice still carried a hard edge, but she had managed to pull it back from screaming. Just.

“Having fun while we work together on this event.” Bunny shrugged.

“Of course.” Bea scoffed. “I didn’t realize you were such a coward. That you’re so scared that singing with me in front of an audience would somehow out you to the entire fucking world.”

“This isn’t a relationship, Bea. It’s called fucking for a reason.” Bunny’s cheeks reddened as they hollowed in anger. Bea had seen this look on her before, and she knew exactly where they were headed.

“Not all relationships mean marriage, kids, and a house with a dog.” Bea rolled her eyes, trying to keep her disappointment at a tenable level. “If you bothered to see things from anyone’s point of view but your own, you might even notice things like friendship.”

“Look, singing with Piper will get you just as much publicity as singing with me. We’re bandmates, so our name recognition works together. So you don’t need to get all bent out of shape over this.”

“Bent out of shape?” Bea laughed, the sound cold and hard as it bounced around the room.

She looked closer at the room around her. It had seemed so luxurious to her last night. A sign of having made it, a sign of things she could strive for, things she was on the right path to achieve. But now she saw it for what it really was. All the bland colors and the lifelessness seeped into every area.

There were no personal touches, no personality in the white fluffy bed. She even turned to the headboard as though expecting to see all the notches Bunny had carved into it from allof her fuck-’em-and-leave-’em conquests. But of course not. The headboard was smooth and clean, with no hints of the women she hid as neatly as she hid herself.

“I can’t believe I didn’t realize you’re just a closeted coward.” Bea ran her hand through her tangled locks and shook her head. “If you think for one second that I am doing any of this for the publicity of riding on your or Piper’s coat tails, you know me even less than I thought.”

Bea forced herself out of the bed, leaving the sheet, the scent, and the memories behind.

Bunny’s gaze roamed over her body. Bea felt the look graze her with each movement she made. She cringed internally as she searched the floor for her clothes, pulling them roughly over her sensitive skin. With effort, she managed to refrain from hissing aloud when her shirt brushed over her still erect nipples.

“If this is more than worrying about what publicity your little band’s going to get, why’re you getting so upset about it?” Bunny asked from the bed.

For a moment, words she knew she couldn’t say dared to touch her tongue.

Because I’m drawn to you like no one I’ve ever known before.

Because you being a closeted coward is the thing stopping me from letting you in.

Because the last thing I want is to be in love with someone like you.

“Good question, Bunny.” Bea opened the door and took another look around the room. What the hell was she doing? “Why am I so upset?”

She didn’t bother closing the bedroom door behind her. Let Bunny watch her walk away. Let Bunny figure out why she was so ticked off in the moment. While the temptation to slam the front door reared its head, the pounding of her blood in her earswas already too loud for her to handle. Bea shut the door and closed her eyes.

Why did being free from that feel so shitty?