AllFreeNovel
Share Us
However, I also knew I couldn’t face the world looking like a strung-out dope fiend. I had to start looking for apartments or rooms to rent today, and if I showed up to an interview looking like this, they’d definitely turn me away. And since I didn’t have the money to stay in a motel indefinitely, I needed to make some quick moves. A week was the max I could afford, and I wasn’t going to call my parents unless I had to. However, I’d rather suspend my senior year at HU and regroup than ask my parents for more money.
I got in the shower, but this time, I took my time. Last night, I had done my best to scrub myself clean, but I’d been running on fumes, and sleep had been the priority.
With my body washed and my teeth brushed, I was able to find a complimentary hair dyer, and I used it to dry my hair. Looking at my reflection, I opted for leaving my hair down, hoping it would distract people from the mess of my face. I wasn’t a big makeup guru, so I didn’t know the tricks to get rid of under eye circles or puffy eyelids, and my eyes were still bloodshot.
I tightened the robe around my body and realized I was going to have to go out to my car and get some clean clothes. Luckily, my car was parked right outside my motel room door, so I wouldn’t be prancing around naked underneath the robe too far, but the thought still made me a bit uncomfortable. However, there was no way I was putting my outfit from last night back on. As a matter of fact, I was going to toss the entire thing in the trash as soon as I could. The bra and panties included.
Eventhough I knew it was pointless because I could never forget what’s happened, I wanted no reminders of Stone Lexington, and that included the outfit I let him screw me in last night. That was also another thing I needed to do today, besides look for a place to stay. I needed to block him and everyone else connected to that damn organization from all my social media sites.
I needed to erase them all.
Guilt was quick to make anappearance when I thought about Kincaid, though. She had done so much for me last night that it didn’t feel right to just pretend like she didn’t exist. However, I didn’t know if I could be friends with her and still maintain complete distance from the others. And since she and Saxton were obviously close, there’d be no avoiding him if I chose to still associate with Kincaid. And if I couldn’t avoid him, was it plausible that I could avoid the others?
I didn’t have those answers, and quite frankly, they weren’t what was important right now. I needed to find a place to stay. That was what I needed to focus on.
Heading to the door, hoping there weren’t too many people around to see me in my robe, I opened the door, only to be brought up short by a sight I was hoping never to see again.
Stone Lexington was standing at my motel room, his fist poised to knock on the door.
And while I looked likeI’ve just had the worst night of my life, he looked quite the opposite. His dark brown hair was styled, per usual. His face wasn’t pale. There were no circles under those piercing brown eyes of his. There were no red veins spidering around those chocolate orbs, and he was dressed in clean clothes; a black Fendi t-shirt, dark navy jeans, and a pair of tan Timberlands. No light jacket to distract from what I, now, knew was beneath those t-shirts of his. The image of Stone Lexington in a pair of jeans only, bare chested and bare-footed, will forever be etched in the back of my mind.
Stone’s perfect looks were just another reason to hate him.
I quickly snapped out of my astonishment at Stone standing before me. “What are you doing here?” I asked, my voice cold, not bothering to ask him how he found me. I had used my real name with my real credit card, so it wouldn’t have been that hard to find me with all the resources this asshole had. So, my surprise was in that he had bothered looking for me. Why would he do that?
His face gave nothing away as he simply asked, “Can we talk?”
Wow.
My surprise turned into shock at the amount ofaudacity that money, power, and status could instill in someone. How entitled did you feel that you could treat someone like trash, then show up a few hours later, and face them as if you hadn’t just treated them as if they were subhuman?
I thought nothingcould make me feel lower than Stone fucking me, believing I was a slut, then throwing me out with extra strips of condoms. I thought nothing could humiliate me more than showing up at Kincaid’s and spilling my shame in front of her and Saxton, two virtual strangers. I thought nothing could hurt me more than the desolate feeling of loneliness that had me crying for my family until I had fallen asleep.
But this?
Stone showing up, casually asking to talk while I was at my worst, put all those earlier feelings to shame. I couldn’t even articulate what I was feeling, looking at him now.
Still,no matter what I was feeling, weakness wasn’t one of them. And even if it were, I’d slit my own wrists before I’d let him see what he’d done to me. I’d already given him too much when I let chemistry overrule common sense and let him take me without demanding answers first. There was no fucking way I’d give him any more pieces of me.
“No,” I replied. “We can’t.”
“Rylee-”
“What is wrong with you?” I asked, still in disbeliefat this nerve. “Why would you show up here?”
“Rylee,I-”
“You need to leave,” I told him, cutting him off. “I don’t know what you’re doing here or why, but I can assure you that I don’t give a fuck.”
“Even if it’s to remind you that the contract is stillvalid?” he replied coolly, and I knew I never hated someone as much as I hated Stone Lexington in this moment. “Now let me in, so we can talk.”
“You’reout of your mind if you think I’m letting you insi-”
“Let’s get something clear, Rylee,” he said, his voice going dark. “If I have to break down this fucking door, I’m getting in there, so we can talk. It’s up to you.”
As much as I wanted to tell him to gofuck himself, it wasmycredit card on file, and the room was rented undermyname. I couldn’t afford to pay for any damages or go to jail for destruction of property because, let’s face it, it wouldn’t be a Lexington getting in trouble for it.
Against mybetter judgement, and to the horror of my rage and humiliation, I stepped back and let Stone inside the room. Plus, there was also the fact that, if he was telling the truth, I had to find a way out of the contract between us.
