Page 58 of Princess and Country

With his finger, he traced a heart on my naked flesh with his cream, branding me. A glint flashed in his eyes.

“I changed my mind. I’ll go on tour with you. I need you,” he said in a rough voice.

I shook my head and sighed. “No. You’re not coming. We need some time apart. To heal.”

His face reddened, and a cloud of pain filled his eyes.

“Are you breaking up with me?”

“No. But we can’t do this anymore. We fight all the time, and then we fuck like animals as if it could fix everything.”

“We’re good at this,” Jeff said, motioning his hand between our naked bodies.

“Yes. But it’s not enough. We need to be good again at being together outside the bedroom. Sex doesn’t solve anything. You’ll join me when you deal with whatever shit you need to deal with.”

My boyfriend’s body stiffened. The gleam in his eyes vanished.

My heart ached.

My throat clenched, and air barely made it to my brain, leaving me dizzy.

Jeff’s chest rose. His throat bobbed. With a deep inhale, he closed his eyes.

“Is that an ultimatum?”

He exhaled and stared at me with so much intensity that my body quaked.

“It’s for you to figure out.” I rolled my lips over my teeth, forcing myself to shut up before saying everything that was on my mind.

Jeff looked away and breathed in before rising to his feet. “Fine. We’ll do as you say. Don’t bother driving me to Carter’s, I’ll walk.”

He got dressed and left without another glance my way, slamming the door behind him. Leaving a hole, the size of Texas, in my soul.

Did I just destroy what was left of our relationship?

My heart fractured.

Pieces fell to the ground.

I was too tired to pick them up.

Instead, I buried my face in my hands and cried.

All the tears I had locked deep inside me for the last year.

I emptied the whole freaking well.

And then I emptied a second one.