AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I can tell he’s trying to lighten the mood and pull me out of my funk, but this, on top of the doubts Wilder instilled this morning, are pulling me down deep beneath the surface.
“I shouldn’t be doing any of this,” I mumble to myself. “We shouldn’t be fake dating. We definitely shouldn’t be making out like we did last night, and I absolutely should not be sleeping with Hawk.” My tone lacks emotion, the numbness chilling my bones and distancing me from the horror of my situation. “He’s going to get you too. Both of you. Then it’ll just be Wilder left, and he’ll spend the rest of his life reminding me that your deaths are all my fault.”
I’m yanked upward so quickly that the kitchen spins. I blink, getting my bearings, and I find myself settled in Kai’s lap, encased in his arms with his pissed-off expression inches from my face. “I won’t sit here and listen to you talk like that,” he growls angrily.
His anger surprises me so much that I’m completely taken aback for a second. Kai is always calm and placid. I’ve never seen him so worked up. Didn’t even know he was capable of it.
“I am sorry about Richard, but nothing can be done to change the past now. Stop beating yourself up. If Richard was unhappy with your relationship, he would have said something or he would have left. He definitely would not have bought an engagement ring.”
Kai’s eyes simmer with pent-up rage, turning his irises a dark green.
“You say your heart wasn’t in it. Don’t let that be the case next time. So Richard wasn’t the one. That sucks, but don’t make the same mistake again. Next time you start something with someone, make sure you can give them every part of you. Give everything you have to that relationship and have no regrets.”
He pins me with his intense gaze. “As for you and I…” His hand moves so his thumb rests along my collarbone, his fingers curled around my shoulder. “I’m not doing anything I don’t want to. I know the risks. I know what’s at stake. Iwantto protect you. Iwantto catch this guy. And I definitely want to kiss you again.”
His hand slides up my neck until his thumb brushes the underside of my jaw. His eyelids fall to half-mast as he leans in to close the distance between us.
“But Wilder said—”
“Again, why are you listening to anything Wilder says?” Kai questions in a husky tone, his breath skimming my lips before he seals them with a kiss. It’s tender and cautious, testing the waters. There’s none of the heat or desperate hunger from last night, however, his kiss is no less passionate and far more deadly. It’s the kind of kiss you could fall into. The kind that will stay with you long after it’s over. The kind that speaks of complete and utter self-destruction.
Chapter24
WILDER
The second I hear Hawk’s heavy footfalls as he descends the stairs, I crack open my bedroom door. I watch as he disappears out of view in his workout gear, off for his typical early morning gym session, before I sneak out of my room and up the stairs to Emilia’s. Silently, I turn the door handle and push it open wide enough to slip into her room.
My nose wrinkles, even as my cock hardens, at the pungent smell of sex.There will be no fucking,I remind my dick as he strains against the cotton fabric of my sweatpants, dying to get to the only woman he has any interest in anymore. The one woman I’ve been denying him and will continue to deny him.
My eyes slowly rake over her sleeping frame, lingering on the top of the sheet where it is draped low across her chest. A slight tug and it would slip low enough to expose her nipple. A harder tug and she’d be naked and entirely at my mercy. My hand fists at my side as I hold myself back from doing exactly that.
The problem is, I’m too angry. I don’t trust myself not to fuck her into the mattress in an attempt to remove all traces of Hawk’s touch. To fuck her so damn hard that she forgets exactly what it felt like to havehiminside her.
Why the fuck am I even here?I ask myself, my body vibrating with the effort it’s taking to remain by the door. I heard the noises last night; I didn’t need to fucking see this. To subject myself to this. To see Hawk’s betrayal. His stupidity.
Emilia shifts in her sleep, rolling so I can see her face. My breath hitches and I’m suddenly reminded of why I started calling her Angel all those years ago. She’s the epitome of everything I never knew I needed. The balm that soothes my jagged edges. The calm to the storm raging inside me.
At least, she was.
Until she chose some boy band over the thing brewing between us.
Didn’t she feel what I did? Didn’t she understand how special that was? How rare it is to find something as pure as what we had?
Obviously not. That, or she didn’t care, because she tossed it away like it meant nothing. LikeImeant nothing.
There was once a time when I would have taken on the world for her, but now all I want is to destroyherworld. I need her to feel what I feel. This raw pain that, no matter what you do, continues to feast on your insides until there’s nothing but an aching emptiness. A giant gaping hole where your heart used to be.
I hadn’t even known I had a heart until Emilia pried it open. But every second I spent around her, I felt it more keenly. I felt it beating… for her.
Until the second she ripped it out and stomped all over it, crushing it like petals beneath her feet as she strode off into the sun with her fuckboy musicians.
Why the hell didn’t she turn to them for help if they were so close?
I bet she was treated like their number one groupie all summer, and the second their tour was over, she was kicked off their bus and sent on her way without so much as a goodbye.
It would be the least that she deserved. I hope, in that moment, she understood what she’d thrown away. That she realized the huge mistake that she’d made.
Bitterness coats my tongue as Emilia begins to stir. A satisfied smile spreads across her face, causing my scowl to deepen with every second it grows wider.
