Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 148238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
“You don’t look ruined. Want to know what I see when I look at you?”
“No. Shut up.”
“I see a man who’s so intelligent I can imagine it’s exhausting living inside your brain. You’re wealthy, respected by both peers and government and media. You have it all.”
A vein throbbed dangerously in his neck as he shook his head, laughing under his breath. It sounded manic—like the tip of a volcano that was about to explode from the depths and rain molten lava. “Have it all?” I have it all?” He hunched over the wheel. “You have it wrong, Sarah. I have nothing. Fucking nothing because they took it all.”
“I know you’re hurting. And I won’t try and understand what you’re dealing with, but you can’t live your life blocked from feeling. You’ll snap.”
He’s already done that.
I feared for his sanity. I hadn’t meant to push him. But this would be my last opportunity. My farewell attempt to make him crack and listen.
He laughed coldly. “Snap? Sweetheart, I snapped years ago and don’t need any woman trying to make me fucking soft. I’m done and I’m gonna make sure I never have to lay eyes on you or hear your lies ever again.”
My shoulders slumped as standoffish silence filled the car. How could I make him see? He meant to sell me—get rid of me. What sort of man did that?
A broken one.
I just wanted to be freed. I would leave—I would give him my word he would never see me again. He didn’t need to ruin my life just like his was. “For a genius, you don’t seem to understand,” I whispered.
He gritted his jaw, refusing to reply.
My mind raced with ways to get him to pay attention—something had to trigger inside him. I just had to keep pushing. “What happened in the changing room that day? Explain to me the connection. That kiss, Killian… It was more than two strangers lusting after each other. It had layers… history.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“No.”
His jaw tightened, the vein in his neck still throbbing crazily. “You’re only making this worse.”
“For you or for me? Tell me what you felt. Tell me what you were thinking when you kissed me.”
He growled under his breath. “What happened is none of your—”
“Goddamn business,” I finished for him. Throwing my hands up, I snarled, “I already know, genius. It’s because of her. Me! You’re so damn in love with a dead girl that you can’t—just for a single moment—allow yourself to enjoy another woman. Even if that other woman is her!”
He attacked the steering wheel. Whirling it to the right, he shot from traffic and slammed to a stop in a turning lane. Spinning in his seat, he brought the wrath of hell upon me. His arm shot forward, smacking my thigh so hard my muscle smarted through the bronze dress. My skin pricked with heat from the reprimand—of being hit like a disobedient child.
“You aren’t her. Why the fuck won’t you get that?”
“I agree I can’t remember the right name, but explain the rest. Please, I’m begging you—explain the rest, so it makes sense, because right now the only conclusion I can see is that I’m the girl you think you killed.”
His face went white. Holding up a shaking finger, he hissed, “You mention her again or speak to me like that and we’ll have a serious fucking problem.”
Tears burned my eyes; my lip wobbled. “What happened to you?”
What happened to the genius boy who stole my heart and gave me his? What happened to us?
“Life happened, sweetheart. Just like it’s happening to you.”
I couldn’t stop shaking. “You need to let someone in. You have to stop hurting!”
“There’s no space for anyone but me.”
“No. There’s no space for anyone but her!”
He pushed me—such a juvenile thing to do but the rage in his eyes glittered dangerously.
I slid on the leather, rubbing my knee where his large fingers had touched me. “What do you feel when you look at me? Do you see the girl you loved or do you see the girl you’re about to sell? Is that why you can’t stand me? Because I remind you so much of a girl that you let down in your past?”
He exploded.
Tearing off his seat belt, he wrenched open the door and flew from the car. In cyclonic rage, he punched a street sign, then whirled around and kicked the SUV tire. He glowered at me through the open door. “Shut up! One more word about things you don’t understand, and I’ll knock you out so cold, you’ll wake up belonging to someone you’ve never seen and I’ll be long gone.”
Shaking out the pain in his knuckles, he snarled, “Understand?”
“Understand, Buttercup? I expect to see you there. I don’t want to be the only one telling our parents that we want to be together.”