Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 49907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
She knew how crazily in love with Wilder I was. She’d encouraged me to give him a chance and the rest was history. That’s exactly why I had to block him now, because if I didn’t, at the first sign of “later,” I’d be right back in his arms. I could still feel him all over me, his touch lingering like a brand I couldn’t escape. It wasn’t just on my skin, it was everywhere. It burned, cruel and unrelenting, a reminder of everything I’d lost in the span of a single night.
Cherish gave me a small, knowing smile, the kind that spoke louder than words, her way of saying she was there, and that I didn’t have to shoulder this alone. I rose and headed for the stairs. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”
In my room, I tossed my phone and keys onto the bedspread, pointedly ignoring the urge to check for messages. I knew there wouldn’t be any, not after what I’d done. I grabbed what I needed and headed for the bathroom, each step heavier than the last.
The second the hot water hit my skin; all the tears I’d been holding back broke free.
CHAPTER THREE
The front door slammed, reverberating through the entire penthouse.
“Fuck.”
My chest tightened; frustration flared beneath the surface. I hadn’t expected her to leave like that. I was surprised she didn’t go off like a damn bomb. It would have been better if she had. I looked around the room, briefly lingering on my bed where I’d had her pinned beneath me, whispering my name like a chant what felt like only moments ago. I fucking loved that sound. It paled in comparison to how much I needed her.
She’d seen too much.
Misunderstood even more.
She actually thought I’d been fucking other women as if I could touch someone else when every inch of me was hers. Not to mention I fucked her so often that even if I could stomach another’s proximity, I had nothing left to give.
I craved Autumn in a way that bordered on madness—three times a day, minimum, and it still wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. I could drown in her and still want more. Her scent, her taste, the way she looked at me. When she smiled. The sound of her laugh. I was addicted, bound to her in ways I couldn’t even put into words.
I knew what kind of image those texts painted, but this was so far beyond infidelity. If she had any idea what was really happening, she would’ve run screaming and never looked back. Then she would have realized I was right behind her.
How many times had I played through this scenario in my head, preparing for the moment she might find out too much? I had rehearsed every excuse, every line, but when it actually happened—when I saw the hurt in her eyes—not a single one of those words came out. All I could focus on was the pain etched on her beautiful face and chose not to lie to her.
I picked up my phone and unlocked the screen. The group chat was still there, the messages glaring back at me like a mirror to everything I’d screwed up tonight. I always let Autumn have free reign with my phone, never thinking twice about it. She could scroll through playlists, change my background, and send herself photos she liked. 98% of them were of her, the rest were of us. I let her in because I never thought she’d stumble onto the one thing she was never supposed to see.
I should have double-checked everything before she came over. If I had, the phantom program that ran on our phones like a ghost in the system would have scrubbed every trace of those texts well beyond a simple deletion. It made it so they never fucking existed. It was a seamless, flawless system.
Until tonight.
This wasn’t just a mistake; it was a catastrophic fuck-up.
To Autumn, it was proof of betrayal, a confirmation of her worst fears.
I failed somewhere along the way because no fucking way she should have believed I would do that to her. Like an asshole, I told her it was nothing but work. That hadn’t been a lie but there was some major context missing from that revelation.
I’d planned to tell her everything. Eventually. The second she knew the truth; she’d have to be mine in every way. She would be locked in my world, unable to turn back and unable to leave. Timing was crucial, and tonight wasn’t it. I was not telling her shit until there were fail-safes in place that ensured she’d never be able to escape me once everything was laid out for her.
The mentors who oversaw our unit had always drilled into us: “The shadows keep us safe. You don’t pull someone into the dark unless you know they’ll never leave.”