Total pages in book: 200
Estimated words: 189898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 949(@200wpm)___ 760(@250wpm)___ 633(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 189898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 949(@200wpm)___ 760(@250wpm)___ 633(@300wpm)
I was afraid to know the answer.
I wasn’t ready to accept the truth if it meant being without them.
When my phone pinged, I looked at the screen and frowned at the Twitter notification.
@Em_Anon: You’re going to die bitch
I rolled my eyes.
Death threats weren’t new to me anymore. I just wished they were more creative. Maybe describe how you plan to kill me?
I don’t know.
Just make it worth the tweet.
Peering around the crowded room from my spot inside the arched alcove, I searched for a distraction that shouldn’t have been hard to find. Perhaps in the vaulted ceiling painted to depict the history of Louis XIV? Or the chandeliers spanning the two hundred and forty feet length of the hall? There was a lot to marvel at and appreciate inside the famed Hall of Mirrors, the most notable room in the Château de Versailles.
It was kind of annoying. I’d dreamt of seeing this place ever since watching the TV show that had sucked me in only to cancel after three seasons, and now that I was here, my nerves kept me from enjoying it.
It wasn’t a coincidence that he’d chosen this place.
I’d made him watch reruns of the show with me after seeing the rants online a couple of months ago regarding rumors of it ending. Any excuse to close the distance he’d put between us at the time.
And now I knew why.
I just needed to understand the rest.
The crowd parted, and as if he’d heard my silent plea, Jericho appeared.
Unlike me, he wasn’t wearing a disguise, but everyone was too enraptured by the gilded hall to look past the hood of the sweatshirt shielding the drummer’s face and hair from view and the dark shades covering silver eyes. Jericho’s mouth set in a grim line, and the ring piercing his bottom lip drew my attention. I didn’t have to see his eyes to know that they were haunted.
Longer than I’d known him, he’d never been anything else.
My heart wept for him, even as I kept my expression neutral.
“Hey,” he greeted low when he finally reached me. His teeth toyed with his lip ring. Something he only did when he was nervous or deep in thought. At the moment, I was sure it was both. Together, we stood inside the alcove as everyone passed us by. It was a daring move when he removed his shades. I could see his eyes now, and he could stare deeply into mine. “Can we talk now?”
While many emotions assailed me at once, there was only one answer in my mind and heart. It was the one I let fall from my lips. “Sure.”
I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed hard and then looked away to search for words in the garden just outside the window.
“Do you still love her?” I blurted when I couldn’t take the silence any longer. The answer to that burning question plagued me when I was awake and followed me into my sleep. I had to know. But I wondered if it would change anything.
Jericho’s gaze flew to me, and the blatant alarm I saw inside weirdly soothed my aching heart. Slowly, he shook his head, but it wasn’t from hesitation. It was disbelief that I would ever think so. “No, Braxton. I don’t.” He took a tentative step forward, and when his hands found my waist, I let him keep them there. “I love you.”
“Why? Why me and not her? What did your wife do wrong that I did right?”
His eyes narrowed just before his hold on me tightened. It was my only warning before he slammed my back against the wall and trapped me with nothing more than his anger.
Sweet, sad, gentle Jericho was gone.
I was looking at Rich.
The forceful, vengeful reckoning he kept hidden from the world.
One smelled like berries, and the other set me on fire.
“Listen up, and God help you if you make me repeat myself,” he cautioned me. “My feelings for you have nothing to do with her. I won’t compare you because she doesn’t compare. You want to know why I love you? Fine. But don’t think for a second that I gave you my heart as a fuck you to her. Don’t diminish yourself when you set the standard. The girl I fell in love with would know better.”
“Rich—”
He shut me up with a harsh grip on my chin. “Have I made myself clear, Braxton?”
My mouth filled with cherries while my pussy throbbed and my stomach warmed and twisted itself. Yes. I understood him. I heard him loud and clear.
Apparently, admitting it to myself wasn’t enough, though.
The look he gave me warned me that I’d better speak up soon.
“Yes.”
Rich stared down at me for a long while, waiting for even the smallest sign that I was lying. I almost wished that I was when I felt my toes curl at the thought of getting more of what he gave me in Connecticut.