AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Elliot
Fury, hot and wild, storms through me as I stalk out of the damn bar and toward Prince Street.
I shove past people, vision blurred as something bitter rises in my throat, threatening to choke me.
He’s a coward, pure and simple. I don’t know what game the man’s playing, but I don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve him. I deserve better than a man who sees me and then deliberately flirts with someone else.
“Elliot.”
His voice wraps around me, the urgent note going for my heart, but I harden that stupid, stupid part and keep going.
“Elliot. Wait, damn it.”
I don’t stop. I’m at my building, and inside so fast I almost sob with relief.
But I don’t because my skin starts to prickle as the door slams shut a moment or two too late.
“I said wait.”
I whirl around, hating his beautiful face in that moment. Hating all the things he made me feel, all the things he enticed me to believe, all the hope he stirred, only to smash it all to pieces with one cowardly act with a side serve of careless words.
A few people are still in the building and I turn away from him and head to the stairs, Ryder hot on my heels.
If I can’t shake him, I still have a job to do, so I’d rather we fight away from everyone else.
I’d rather not see the bastard at all.
He’s there, behind me, swearing, and I just race up the steps. It’s not until I’m on the second floor landing in the stairwell he grabs me. I snatch my arm back. “Go away, Ryder. I’m sure there are some women in the world left for you to fuck.”
“I deserved that.”
The bitterness bubbles over like acid. “Oh, you do, do you? Would you like a medal?”
“No. Damn it, please, I’m sorry.”
But I back away from him as he reaches for me again and I shake my head. “All these women? All these beautiful, gorgeous women who keep throwing themselves at you, and you sleep with me.”
“I didn’t want her, Elliot. I was…” He doesn’t finish it, but heat flares high in his lean cheeks. On his throat is a mark from my mouth last night.
It punches me hard in the stomach. And the memories roll through me, hard and fast and unwanted.
I’ll never be able to get rid of them, I realize. No matter how much I want to. They’re all lasered deep in my brain. In my heart. And I…
I don’t just have a crush on him.
This involves my blood, my bones, my heart.
I hate him.
I want to cry.
Instead, I nod. “Was what? You can’t finish that, can you? Because it dawned on you, all these women and you’ve been sleeping with me. And it hit you, didn’t it? What it would mean if we kept doing that.”
He closes his eyes and my heart somehow hurts even more. “Because you’re the only one.”
Ryder doesn’t explain what that means. And all kinds of thoughts jumble through my head. From hopeful to desperate to full of despair.
