Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 52864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 264(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 264(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
“I feel the same about you,” he said, “if it’s any consolation.” He sat in the sand next to me and stretched out his long legs.
“I thought you were ditching me.”
“Can’t,” he said. “I still need you.”
“Pfft. You don’t need anyone. This is all you—your story.”
“You really believe that?” he asked.
“I do.” I was just a passenger.
“Did I mention that I had a girlfriend for ten years?”
“How?” He’d been asleep.
“She was part of the dream they placed me in.” He exhaled longingly. “I loved her in a ‘take a bullet for you’ sort of way. We planned to marry and have children. We were going to grow old together. And then I woke up, and she was gone.”
I winced. What a heartbreaking thing to go through.
He continued, “After waking, I crawled out of the basement where they kept me, bleeding from my hands and knees because my skin was like tissue paper. But I kept going. All because I believed that maybe I’d been in some terrible car accident, and she was probably out there, worried sick, looking for me. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that she had never loved me or been my girlfriend and that thirty years of my life had been stolen. I wanted to die.”
How terrible. It almost made my pain over Leo feel trivial. To love someone with everything you had, only to have them snatched away with a life you thought was real.
“I’m so sorry that happened to you,” I said.
He stared out at the crashing waves. “It has not been easy; however, the moment the dream ended, my real life began.” He turned to look at me. “The irony is that it began with a dream of something real.”
We locked eyes, and my stomach clenched. One look from this man had me in knots that could take a lifetime to unravel. Everything inside still told me to run, but I knew I couldn’t leave him. All I saw was the good in this beautiful man. And knowing that optimism was my Achilles’ heel didn’t change it.
“Do not worry, Piper. I understand. Which is why I am trying to keep my distance.”
“You keep saying that, and in the next breath, you talk about our connection. I just don’t see how the two things are possible.” I slid my hand over his in the sand, not even aware I was doing it.
He glanced down at our touching hands. “Are you arguing for us to be more?”
I moved my hand away. I didn’t know why I kept wanting to touch him—like on the plane—but I did. “I’m asking how we can be—”
“Everything and nothing?”
“I guess.” I shrugged.
“I do not have a clue, but I suspect we are about to find out.” He stood and offered me his hand.
I stood up on my own. “Please stop talking like a riddle. I like my words like I live my life. Honest.”
He rubbed his scruffy jaw. “Earlier, you said you believe we each make our own fates. Maybe the outcome of us depends on which path you choose, which fate you follow.”
“Or you.”
“I might not have all the answers, but I am not the one who’s conflicted. I know exactly what I want.” He reached into his pocket and held out a key card. “The suite has two rooms. If you wish to continue this journey, be ready to go at noon. From here on out, it is your choice to be with me. I won’t force you anymore.”
My eyes lingered on his handsome face for a long moment before I took the key. I already knew I wasn’t going to leave him, and if I knew, so did he. “See you at noon.”
He leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Get some rest.”
I watched him walk away with a heaviness inside my chest. This all felt so wrong, so…contrived. At the same time, there was no doubt we had to keep going. It was too important not to. Still, it felt like we were moving through a maze created by forces or people much more powerful, or at least craftier, than us. The question was, what would we find once we got to the end?
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Later that morning, I woke from my quick nap and showered, realizing halfway through that I had no clean clothes, toothpaste, or deodorant. I conditioned my hair with what the hotel supplied, which turned out to be amazing, but I loathed the idea of wearing yesterday’s socks or underwear. I’d have to go commando.
I got out of the shower and found a plastic bag on the counter. “What is this?” I looked inside and found all the toiletries I was missing.
A smile washed across my lips. “Guess there’s a perk to having your head invaded.” Draco must’ve ordered these things from the desk while I was enjoying that conditioner.