Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 67432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
But I did. “I don’t think that having an adult conversation about the things you did to hurt me is ruining what we’ve got going now.”
Eric’s eyebrows jerked up his forehead as if I’d said something that surprised him. “I—you left that night, cursing me out. And I explained why I felt like we couldn’t keep doing what we were doing. I didn’t realize—”
“That you completely crushed my heart and made it hard for me to open up to anyone for a pretty long time? Yeah, well, you did.” Now I was beginning to feel spicy. I had let this man inside me, sharing one of the most intimate parts of me with him, and I wanted every fucking second of it, every inch of him. But now, annoyance was mixing with frustration, a concoction of emotions that pushed away the residual bliss I was feeling from my orgasm.
All he had to do was say sorry, and for a split second, those were the exact words I expected to hear from him.
“I’m… I’m just really surprised. I thought you understood my reasoning.”
My jaw dropped. That was not where I saw this conversation headed. I felt like I’d been slapped. Was I dumb? Should I have never even invited him over to my house in the first place?
“I understood you were deep in the closet, and yes, that sucks, but that doesn’t take away from the pain I experienced, Eric. The pain you caused.”
He shook his head, his gaze lowering to the floor, where our underwear still lay in a bundle. I got off the couch and reached down, grabbing his and tossing it onto his chest.
“Here, get dressed and go,” I said, already over it. I knew this was a mistake. Just like he had called me all those nights ago, lightning crashing outside with the same intensity as the fracturing inside my chest. “It’s already twelve thirty. The rules we talked about are in full effect. We’ll get through this trip and go our separate ways when it’s over, hopefully with answers about my mom’s death. I don’t think we should see each other before we get to the villa.”
I pulled on my black briefs, the fabric still stained from the precum Eric had made me ooze.
Fucking damn it. Why did he have to be like this? Why did he have to have the emotional maturity of a dusty rock? If only he could apologize, if only he could tell me he was sorry, then maybe I’d consider tossing these boundaries and rules out the window.
But he didn’t, and neither did I. He got dressed in silence and walked himself to the door as I poured a glass of water.
“Colton, I’m—”
“Just go, Eric. I’ll see you in France.”
I closed the door, locked it, and went to my bed, where I got in and under the covers, going to sleep with the scent of Eric still on my lips and the ghost of his pain still on my heart.
15
ERIC RUIZ
An Imagine Dragons song played through my headphones as the car drove me through the scenic French countryside, down winding roads that wrapped around large fields of olive groves framed by a couple of rolling hills covered in pine trees. We were staying in a town called Provence, which was only a stone’s throw away from the more well-known towns of Nice and Cannes. I had absolutely no time to brush up on my French, but thankfully, the driver spoke enough English to get by, telling me a couple of interesting facts about Provence before we lapsed into silence, and I put my headphones back in.
I had to clear my head. The next couple of weeks were crucial in figuring out what had happened to Amelia, and that meant I had to be at the top of my game. So the drama between Colton and me had to be put on ice. At least for now.
He had arrived a day earlier, telling his family that I’d had something to wrap up at work. They were under the impression that I was a high-powered attorney working criminal defense cases in New York. I had worked with plenty of attorneys in my career as a PI, so it wasn’t that far of a leap from the truth; I just hoped I picked up enough legalese to pull off any surface questions I might be asked.
I was also hoping Colton was in better spirits than when I’d last left him. That night had somehow gone from one of the best to one of the worst in a matter of minutes. I’d been ready to go for round two, three, and four. Instead, I was practically pushed out of his home with my underwear on backward and my head in my hands.
Shit sucked. And I wasn’t entirely sure what I could have done to remedy it. Did Colton expect me to go back in time and change my choices? I regretted them, there was no doubt about that, but I also couldn’t do anything about them. All I could do was prove that I had changed, but it was looking like I wouldn’t even get the chance.