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“It was both,” she admitted. “You can’t tell me there aren’t things you’ve done for me that didn’t have a benefit for you as well.”Reeve. I’d gotten involved with him because of her, but also because of me. “No, I can’t.” It wasn’t enough of an apology. I just didn’t know what exactly to apologize for.I tried to imagine what it must have been like for her, to feel like I’d always been between her and the various men she loved. “You should have gotten rid of me earlier.”“Emily,” the word was thick. “I never wanted to get rid of you at all. You were my touchstone. I kept hoping that somehow, someday it would work out, and we’d both find whatever happy ending we were looking for. But then Bridge… not only was I not enough for him – not good enough for that fucking useless asshole – but he also ended up hurting my best friend. So bad.” Her voice cracked, and my gaze followed a tear dropping down her nose.“You pushing me away hurt almost just as bad.” My eyes were dry, but my chest ach
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We were quiet as I walked her down the hall, past the room that I now knew was Reeve’s, to the courtyard.“Good evening, ladies,” said Tabor, one of the security guards. “Headed to your room, Ms. Pries? I’ll escort you.”“I’ll watch you from here,” I said, even though it wasn’t necessary with Tabor there. “I’ll stay until your light goes on so I know you’re okay.”Amber turned to me, her expression soft and grateful. “Thank you, Em. For everything.” She leaned in and pressed her lips to my cheek.And I smiled tightly and tried not to compare it to the kiss Judas had given Jesus that night in the Garden of Gethsemane, a kiss of betrayal. Tried not to focus on the sacrifice that she had forced upon me. Tried to pretend that this last kiss of hers was not one that brought quite so much pain.Then she and Tabor were walking away, and her light went on, and the guard took his post in the courtyard, and I wondered if instead it were I who was Judas and she the betrayed. Because, as soon as
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I bent my legs, widening until I was completely displayed for him. My breathing grew heavier, and I curled my fingers into the sheets, anticipating his next move. He’d strip. He’d brace himself over me. He’d jut into me and I’d be destroyed.But the devil teased me. He taunted. Leaving his clothing on, he bent over me and flicked his tongue across one nipple. Then, he moved to the other, closing his teeth around the sensitive area and jerking his mouth up until I yelped in ecstasy.“Where should I touch you next?” He bit down over the curve of my breast down my belly, hard enough to leave a trail of teeth marks as he lowered himself down my body. “Here?” He thrust his tongue into my navel, and I writhed as intense shock waves rolled through me.He slid to kneel on the floor, wrapped his hands around my calves, and pulled me to the edge of the bed. “Or how about I touch you here?” He brushed across my clit with the tip of his nose, and my thighs clenched.“Don’t worry, Blue Eyes. I’ll
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“I love you,” he whispered harshly at my ear, and my breath caught. He’d said it in so many ways, but never directly. Never so forcefully. Never in such a way that I had to take it as a gift rather than a fact, where I had to accept it and languish in it. Every thrust of his cock painted the words inside me. Every rock of his pelvis against mine.“I love you,” he said again, like a creed. “I love you so thoroughly it feels like you’re in my DNA. Like you must be part of my genetic code because there’s no part of me that isn’t linked to you. My love for you is so consuming on the inside that there’s barely room.”He moved a hand to my throat and pressed it against my windpipe ever so slightly, slowing the oxygen just enough to make me heady and weak.Or maybe that was from the sweetness of his talk.“My love for you is so ferocious, so dominating that I’m possessed by it. It changes who I am. It makes me someone different and yet I’m more who I’ve always believed I am than I ever have
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CHAPTER 24I slipped out of Reeve’s room early the next morning, without a message, without good-bye. He’d assume I didn’t want Amber to see me in his room, which was true. It didn’t need to be discussed. More importantly, I’d already said good-bye to him in the way I’d wanted to say good-bye.The sun was still low on the horizon when I’d finished packing my bags. I didn’t want to see her, but Amber hadn’t given me any details about my flight. Waking her early would at least feel satisfying.But when I got to her room, it was empty.What’s more, her bed, though rumpled, didn’t look really slept in. Like, maybe she’d gotten in, but hadn’t stayed there. And when I looked around the room more closely, I saw that the vanity was clear, and her makeup and toiletries were in disarray on the floor nearby.The hair on the back of my neck stood up. It was too soon to panic, but I had an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.Then I remembered Tabor. He’d been on guard all night, and I hadn’t
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“It could have been her.” She’d been angry when she’d gone to find me. Neither Reeve nor I had any way of knowing if she’d been to her room after he’d left her at the pool. She could have gone in and made the mess herself.“It could have not been her, too,” he said, and my stomach knotted so tightly that it nearly caused me to double over. He eyed me sympathetically, like he wished he could hold me, and I wished he could hold me too. Wished that was all it would take to make this anxiety ease.But both of us knew that whatever would erase this dread, it wouldn’t be found in each other’s arms.Reeve rose from the floor. “Tabor,” he said, pointing at the guard cowering outside the door.The bodyguard once assigned to protect me, stepped into the room. He didn’t say anything, his expression conveying his distress and remorse.Reeve seemed apathetic to Tabor’s anguish. He strode up to the young man, murder in his eyes. “How long were you asleep? Tell the truth and the only thing you’ll lo
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So I spit out the idea that had tossed around inside my head all day. “He told me last night that he’d… well, he said he wouldn’t let anything come between us. He said he’d handle anything or anyone who did. Amber wanted me to go home and that was going to come between us.”Again, he asked, “What’s your gut telling you, Em?”“My gut says that something fucking happened to her. I’m scared out of my goddamn mind.”“About Reeve. Do you trust him?”I rubbed my fingers across my forehead, remembering that he’d been dressed when I’d come to him that morning, remembering how he’d dismissed me when I’d asked about it.Remembering the night I’d spent with him and the things he’d said and the things I’d felt.I’d been in this quandary once before – torn between loving him and the things Reeve was capable of. I didn’t need to examine the conclusions I’d come to again.“I do trust him,” I admitted honestly. “But that doesn’t mean he didn’t do something to her.”I didn’t eat or sleep all day. Fili
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But now she was really gone, and her voice was silent and I’d never felt so lost or alone.It was a sign of what needed to happen next in my life. It was finally time to move on.Footsteps sounded behind me, and when I heard someone sit two chairs down, I didn’t need to look up to know it was Reeve.I let out a long slow breath. “It’s over.”“Yes. It’s over.” He sounded as tired as I felt. “We just have the scattering of the ashes, if you still want to do that, but when you’re ready. No rush.”I looked at him, really looked at him, for the first time in weeks. Maybe the first time ever. When I first saw him, I’d thought of him as mysterious and dangerous, a playboy who cared only about himself and his own wants and needs.That wasn’t the man sitting with me now, a man who cared for me in ways that I’d never imagined a man would. Ways that weren’t sexual or materialistic.“I mean us, Reeve. I mean it’s over between us.”If he were the type, I imagined that he would have rolled his eyes
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