Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
She looked up at him, eyes sincere. “Thank you for being so smart.”
He felt his face heat. “I just put the puzzle together. You tell a good story. Thank you for talking so much.”
She smiled. “Thank you for coming for me.”
“It was never a question.”
“I’m sorry Gloria tried to blackmail you into staying quiet.”
He waved this off. “It’s fine. I was already at Chris’s house by the time my father called to yell at me.” He closed his eyes, searching for the sinking feeling in his stomach, the anxiety that he’d ruined his future, but it didn’t come. “I didn’t want Gloria to have any power over us, though….” He swallowed. “I called Audran from the airport and told him that I’d doctored my scores. I explained a bit why—Judge Iman told me just before I got out that if I finished at the top of my class, she would give me a recommendation to any law school in the country. It doesn’t make what I did okay, but he was actually pretty cool. He agreed to give me a zero but shut down the academic dishonesty inquiry. I’m not sure I deserve that, but I’m not going to argue. I still need to iron the details out with the dean, but it looks like I’ll be taking an extended leave.”
“You’re not going back to school next week?”
“I think I need time to figure it all out. School feels like another planet right now.”
“Everything feels like another planet.” Her smile was limp. “I can barely focus on anything.”
“Pretty sure there’s not a soul in the world who would blame you.”
She adjusted her pillow under her head. “Are you still planning on going to law school?”
He thought about how relentless he’d been, how his need for misguided revenge had driven him toward money and success, and away from depending on or trusting anyone. He felt lighter without it, unaware how heavy a burden he’d been carrying until it was gone.
“I don’t know. The whole point of law school was to become powerful enough that I could take everything from men like my father.” He laughed, because it sounded sad and empty, even to his own ears. “I was still holding on to what had happened to Mary, had happened to me. I wanted to destroy him and everything men like him had.”
“You don’t want to do that anymore?”
“I still want to take care of Mary, that hasn’t changed, but with everything that’s happened, the rest of it sounds kind of dumb.”
Ren laughed and found his hand, squeezing it. “It’s not dumb. It’s very noble that you want to help her.”
“Noble to live my life like the most pathetic Bond villain?”
She laughed again. “Even I get that reference.”
“Maybe I don’t even want to be a lawyer. I pursued that as a means to an end, but not because I’m all that passionate about it.” In the darkness, his smile faded. “It seems kind of pathetic to be mad forever. Exhausting. I have meeting you to thank for that.”
“Meeting me?”
“Yeah. You changed me. The way you approach the world with such optimism. Such an open heart. I want to be more like you.”
Quietly, she scoffed. “An open heart feels like a curse right now.”
He reached across the darkness to carefully pass a hand down her arm. “Look, I know everything is…I mean, there aren’t words. What you’re dealing with is beyond comprehension. But your fundamental goodness is why I’m so lost for you, Ren. You made me a better person, and that’s why I’ll be here as long as you want me.”
There was shifting of the blankets, and then she scooted closer until she was carefully pressed up against him.
Tentatively, he wrapped an arm around her, urging her closer. “Are we still doing this?”
“Doing what?” she asked, but there was a teasing lean to her voice.
“Things people do when they share a king-sized bed.”
She snorted quietly into his neck. “What else are we going to do? We can’t leave the hotel.”
“Look at you, making jokes already,” he murmured, kissing her forehead.
She pulled back enough to look up at him, and in the dim light filtering in from the bathroom, he saw a tender gleam in her eyes. “I hope we’re still doing this,” she said. “I like you a lot.”
“Trust me, I’m absolutely crazy for you. But I’ll be crazy for you tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that. Even if we don’t do anything tonight.”
Ren sent a hand up his neck to his jaw, tracing his lower lip with her thumb. “I want this one normal thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Having a crush on a guy and using it to ignore all my other problems.”
With a laugh, he bent, pressing his lips to hers.
They kissed a lot that night—deep and claiming and fevered—and it meant they were exhausted the next morning when the alarm on Edward’s phone went off. But he laughed as Ren jumped out of bed anyway, and an hour later, they were walking hand in hand downstairs to meet Mary, who had arrived on an early flight.