Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 75408 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75408 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
The second I felt a tear slip free, I inwardly cursed. I quickly wiped it away. “How can you simply walk away from what just happened between us? I know you felt what I felt, Brody. I saw it on your face. Felt it in the way you kissed me and moved inside of me. I may not have ever had sex before, but I’m positive that was something beyond amazing.”
“I’m not good for you, Sutton. You deserve someone who’ll love you and give you everything you’ve ever wanted. Someone who deserves to hear those words from you.”
A quiet sob slipped free before I covered my mouth with my hand. Brody hadn’t felt anything. Had I been the only one to feel the love between us?
I was suddenly embarrassed—and I needed to get as far away from Brody Wilson as I could. I pushed past him and started for the door.
He reached out a hand to stop me. “Sutton, don’t do this. Don’t make this more than what it was and ruin what we shared.”
Spinning around, I glared at him. “Me? I’m the one who’s ruining it? I gave myself to you, thinking you wanted me as much as I wanted you.”
“I did!”
“Was that it? All you wanted was to fuck me?”
He flinched. “That’s not what happened between us, Sutton, and you know it.”
“Then how can you brush me aside like this?”
“Because I can’t be with you! I can’t give you the things you want, and maybe it was selfish of me not to tell you that first. To not tell you that I want you, but I can’t give you anything more than me right now.”
My tears fell freely now. “That’s the problem, Brody, you didn’t give me you. You gave me your body.” I stared up at him, knowing I had a pleading look on my face. “Why can’t you be with me? Why won’t this work?”
He closed his eyes, a pained look on his face before he opened them again. A chill ran through my body when I saw his blank expression and the void in his hazel eyes. The next words out of his mouth broke me into a million pieces.
“Because I don’t love you.”
Sutton
Present Day – April
I hit the light switch and sighed when nothing turned on. “What in the hell, Jack. Did you purposely break everything in the whole damn house?”
“Checked everything upstairs. Looks like you’ve got a few issues, but it shouldn’t be anything too bad,” Harlee said as she approached and followed my gaze. “It doesn’t work?”
With a shake of my head, I let out a breath. “Nope. Getting Jack to fix anything was always an issue, but I swear he did all of this on purpose. There weren’t this many things wrong with the house when we lived here together.”
It had been eight months since I’d left my husband. We’d been married for six years, almost seven. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how I’d managed to stay married to him for that long. It had been a mistake to even get married in the first place, but there was no use crying over spilled milk. Still, if I could have one do-over in my life, it would be Jack Larson.
I’d left for the University of Maine with a broken heart. Not caused by Jack, but by Brody. After an amazing evening in his family’s fishing hut, he’d rejected me. I’d felt lost and confused…and who had showed up at my dorm only a week after school started? Jack.
He’d begged me to forgive him. Told me things would be different, that he wanted to be with me forever. Realizing I’d never have a future with the man I really wanted, I gave in and went out to dinner with Jack. From that point on, we dated throughout college. He’d asked me to marry him right before we’d both graduated. My heart had begged me to say no, but my head had convinced me that Jack would make a good husband. He was reliable, had a steady job waiting, and he wouldn’t stand in the way of me opening up my own business in Seaside. He’d checked almost every box on paper.
The fact that I knew deep in my heart I didn’t love him should have been the first clue that I was making a mistake. The fact that no one in my family cared for Jack should have been clue number two.
I was hell bent though, and looking back, I knew it was because I’d still been angry with Brody—even though it had been four years. I had given myself to him. Was prepared to wait for however long he’d needed. But then he’d said those four words.
“I don’t love you.”
Everything had changed after that. Love was for fools, and I no longer believed in the ridiculous idea of soul mates. There was no happily ever after; at least, there never would be for me. So, I had married a man I’d loved, but wasn’t in love with. I’d stayed with him for over six years and had ignored the fact that there was a serious problem in our marriage. Jack had never laid a finger on me, but his emotional abuse had finally gotten so bad, I knew I had to leave.