Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 162003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 810(@200wpm)___ 648(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 810(@200wpm)___ 648(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
I nuzzled into his shoulder and then bit down. He hissed in a breath of air, followed by a long, pained groan as he flooded my belly with warmth.
“Fuck, Brighton.” He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. “What are you doing to me?”
***
When I woke up, I was still splayed across Ryland’s chest. He hadn’t even moved me. His hand was stroking my lower back, his eyes fixed on the ceiling.
We were cuddling.
It was surreal. It was completely insane. And yet, I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to.
“What are you thinking?” he asked in a sleepy voice.
There was a beat of silence before complete nonsense burst from my mouth. “I want to know more about you.”
I didn’t know where it had come from. And it had the immediate effect of making him stiffen beneath me, so I hurried to explain.
“Anything you want to share,” I amended.
He relaxed a little and started to stroke me again. “Like what?”
“Like… how did you come to be Ryland Bennett, CEO?”
It was good a place as any to start.
Ryland was quiet for a moment, and he didn’t take his eyes off the ceiling.
“My father was a businessman,” he explained. “I always admired him for it, for how hard he worked. But the truth was, he was too soft. He didn’t have the heart to do business. You have to be able to dissociate on some level, and he couldn’t do that. So his business failed.”
“But you can do that,” I whispered.
It wasn’t a question.
“As much as I admired him, his choices ended up costing him everything. It motivated me to take a different path.”
“Well, it worked.” I tangled my legs up in his and nuzzled against his chest, comforted by the vibrations as he spoke. I liked that he was opening up to me if only a little.
“Are you happy?”
“What do you mean?” he looked down at me.
“I mean with your life. Are you happy with the way things turned out?”
Something strange passed over his features, and he tightened his grip on me but tore his gaze away.
“Happiness is an illusion, Brighton. It’s only something people think they can have. It’s fleeting. It can be taken away at any moment.”
My grip on him tightened too, and I wasn’t sure why.
“If that’s true,” I whispered. “Then what’s the point?”
He didn’t answer. I didn’t expect him to.
I changed the subject.
“Why did you pretend like you didn’t remember me?” I asked. “The first day I saw you again.”
This time, he didn’t hesitate to answer. “I thought it would be easier for you.”
“How?”
His eyes found mine again, and I had to remind myself to breathe. It was so easy to get lost in those blue depths. To feel like this was where I belonged, wrapped in his arms.
“I didn’t want you to expect things from me that weren’t possible. Things a girl like you probably wants from a man. Things I can’t give you.”
I fluttered my eyes closed and focused on the beating of his heart.
It did exist. I knew he had one. So why was he making it sound like he didn’t?
Chapter Seventeen
Summer faded into fall, and before I knew it, it had been two and a half months. That was how long Ryland and I had been playing his game.
It was strange how things had evolved between us. We had a routine now. My weekends belonged to him, and they were spent at his home on Belvedere Island. We still had our hotel visits too, usually twice a week. He was a busy man, and it didn’t leave him a lot of free time. What little he did have, he spent with me.
I didn’t have any illusions. It was still a game to him. But I was finding it increasingly difficult to keep my heart out of it.
I never knew what to expect from him. The sex could be anything from sweet and gentle to downright insane. Ryland had dark days. Days when he needed to exorcise his demons, and he would use me to do it. I accepted the pain he doled out with open arms. I was long past being ashamed of it. When he was in one of those moods, he could fuck me for hours and never stop.
For some reason, those times were the most intimate between us. Those sessions were crazy and addicting, and I got high even thinking about them. But they scared me too. Ryland’s darkness was a double edged sword. The very thing that held us together was also the thing threatening to tear us apart.
He spoke of it as though it were an entity that lived inside of him. And if that were true, then like all unwelcomed house guests, I thought surely it could be banished. But when I looked into his tormented eyes, I didn’t want him to change. I wanted him to find happiness. Even if it was only fleeting.