Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 72308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
He returned moments later. “Sir, she insists.”
“Well, I insist on her getting the fuck out of my house.” My voice rose immediately, going from zero to sixty in a fraction of a second.
Even my butler gave a flinch at my anger.
Camille appeared behind him, following the voices like a trail of breadcrumbs.
My butler looked at her then looked at me.
I gave her a furious stare before I looked out the window again.
My butler left the room, closing the door behind him.
Camille stared at me for a few seconds before she sat in one of the chairs facing my desk.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Talk about what?”
My face slowly turned back to hers, seeing the genuine surprise on her face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Why are you so angry?”
Maybe she didn’t know. “I just said I didn’t want to talk about it, didn’t I? What do you want?”
She watched me for a few seconds, her eyes shifting back and forth between mine. “Did something happen with—”
“Goddammit.” I slammed my fist down hard, and she jumped. “What do you want?”
Now she was quiet. She just examined me from across the desk. Her breaths were quicker, like my sudden outburst still made her uneasy. It’d been a long time since she’d seen me like this. Probably brought back a lot of memories. “Um…I don’t know what to do about Cauldron. But you seem to be having a rough day, so I’ll just go…”
“Why are you asking me?”
“Because I know you’ll tell me the truth. You can be impartial since you know us separately.”
“What did he say to you?”
“He’ll marry me and have kids with me. Wants me to give him another chance…” She looked out the window for a while. “Told me he loved me…first time I’ve ever heard him say that.”
I studied her face, seeing all the uneasiness around her mouth. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“I’m just afraid that a couple months down the road, he’ll change his mind.” She fidgeted with her hands. “I can’t get my heart broken again. I’ve done it so many times… I don’t think I’d survive it.”
“You don’t owe him anything, Camille. If the answer is no, the answer is no.”
“I want the answer to be yes,” she said. “I want all those things. Do you think…he means it?” She looked to me for guidance. Sometimes it was hard to believe that our relationship had transformed into this. A friendship.
“I’ve never heard Cauldron say those things to a woman, so I assume it’s how he really feels.”
“So you think I should give our relationship another chance?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Well, now I’m asking you.”
Fuck, that was a loaded question. “I don’t believe my brother would say those things if he didn’t mean them. He has faults, but lying isn’t one of them. You should have seen him when I told him you’d been taken. He didn’t scream or cry, but he had this look on his face…a look I’d never seen before. It was raw anguish.”
Her eyes dropped.
“When you guys were separated, he looked miserable. He sat on my couch and passed out from all the booze he drank. To put that into perspective, my brother drinks all the time, so his tolerance is insane. For him to be knocked out like that, he probably had alcohol poisoning. I think my brother’s love for you is real, and he’s been struggling with those feelings this entire time, since the beginning. When he told you he loved you, that wasn’t the first time he realized it. He’s known for a long time but refused to say it.”
“Last time I talked to you, you said he wouldn’t change.”
“And that was before he changed. That was before he grew some balls and said this shit to you.”
“So…it sounds like I should give him another chance?”
I gave a shrug. “It’s your decision, Camille. Only you know what’s right.”
“He told me I didn’t have a choice…because I’ll never love anyone the way I love him.”
“Based on what I’ve seen, that’s probably true.”
She gave a slight nod.
“Go for it, Camille. If he fucks up again, then you can move on without looking back.”
“God…that would kill me.”
“I think walking away without trying would kill you more.”
Her gaze dropped, like that alternate reality flashed before her eyes in mere seconds. She remained silent, lost in thought, deep in contemplation. It was like I wasn’t there anymore. “Thank you for talking with me.”
“Yeah.” We’d never talked this much when we were together. She never opened up to me the way she did now, even when we were sleeping together. I guess being paid always made her withdrawn, always made her treat it as a job rather than a life. Elise had never been like that with me. That shit felt real.
She looked at me once again, and I knew what was coming. “What do you not want to talk about?”