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“No one ever has, right?”
Another slight shake.
“That’s why. I want to own you like no other man ever has. And”—his head lowered to hers and he murmured, “I wanted you to feel me long after we were done.”
Damn him for stealing her breath again.
Yet she managed to ask, “Are we done?”
Vin dragged a hand down his face. Sighed with exasperation. And a notable amount of irritation.
“I don’t fucking know, Jewel.” Pain flitted across his chiseled face, making her heart hurt. “I take one look at you and I want you like nothing I’ve ever known before. Every single time. I’m held hostage by it, trapped. And I can’t tell whether or not I ever want to escape. But all that comes of it is me getting screwed over.”
“You?” she softly demanded, her own pain swelling in her throat.
“You always go back to Rogen, Jewel. Always.”
“I’m not the one who disappeared,” she reminded him in a sharp voice. “If you’re held hostage, how could you have ever left me? Especially when you swore you never would.”
More tears stung her eyes. Memories of Vin going off the grid with no explanation whatsoever made her stomach coil.
“You walked away so easily,” she accused. “What … did you get bored with me, Vin? Had you fucked me every way you knew how and were just plain finished with me?”
Now the tears fell. The lump in her throat grew, nearly choking her.
“You’d be insane to believe that, Jewel. Even for a second.”
“You broke my heart!” she cried.
Vin’s jaw set. Agony filled his eyes as he said with controlled fury, “You fucking broke mine.”
Then he walked past her and out the door.
Leaving Jewel reeling.
She stared at the door he’d slammed shut behind him. Figuratively as much as literally?
She didn’t know.
Jewel swiped at her tears, but they kept coming. She needed a really good sobfest at the moment. Wanted to weep for all the shit they’d gone through as teens. The disaster that still haunted them, still existed between her, Vin, and Rogen.
But she didn’t have time for that.
Come on, Jewel. Pull it together.
She splashed water on her face. Dabbed at her skin with a hand towel. Inhaled deeply. Exhaled slowly. Over and over. Until the flow of tears stopped. Until she was no longer shaking.
As she gazed at herself in the mirror, she could see she looked wholly off-kilter, yet for contradictory reasons. There was a certain glow to her directly related to two amazing orgasms. But the pain was still visible.
With a sigh, she left the restroom. Only to run smack into Francine Hillman, a high school friend. One of the “murmurers” who thrived on top-secret gossip.
“Oh, my God, Jewel!” she blurted in her exuberant voice. Francine was a perky thing with short, sassy blond hair and big hazel eyes. “So it’s true—you are back in town for the weekend. Why didn’t you call me?”
“Nice to see you, France.” They hugged. Then Jewel said, “I was with Bayli and Scarlet last night before Bay takes off on her big New York adventure.”
“I’m so happy for her. Now … about you. Inner-circle confidants say you’re having cocktails with Vin and Rogen this afternoon. Leslie Stevens saw you on the patio earlier.” Her sculpted brows wagged. “I swear you are the luckiest woman in the world to have those two men so hopelessly devoted to you.”
“I don’t know about that,” she grumbled, her heart compressing.
