Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 84700 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84700 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
“Yes…awkward.” Like this conversation was.
“Get over it,” she said when she picked up on my tone. “I’m a grown woman with needs.”
I cringed and grabbed the menu. “This is why I don’t check in more often.”
“Because your grown-ass sister has the same lifestyle you do? Sexist.”
“No. I just don’t want to hear about my sister’s conquests. So, let’s just order and leave.”
She stuck out her tongue at me again. “Whatever…”
28
Annabella
Go home, Anna.
But the cab stopped at the curb, and the driver waited for me to get out.
I could just tell the driver to go back, but I didn’t want to leave.
I finally got out of the car and moved to the front door. My finger dug into the cushioned doorbell, and I waited for someone to answer.
Patricia opened the door, visibly surprised to see me standing there. “Annabella? How are you? I haven’t seen you in a while.”
I shouldn’t have expected her to know anything. I didn’t see why Damien would explain himself to his maid. “I was wondering if I could see him.”
“Sure.” She invited me inside then grabbed her phone. “I’ll tell him you’re on your way up.”
There was no going back now.
I entered the room with the grand staircase and started my ascent to the top floor. It was a spiral stairway, the kind that went round and round until it reached the chandelier at the top. The crystals were bright with the light, and the white banister was smooth under my fingertips as I glided up.
My heart was in my throat.
My pulse was heavy in my ears, thudding like a war drum.
I kept moving, my heart in the driver’s seat.
I reached the top and the hallway that led to his bedroom. My long coat was unbuttoned, and my fingertips were sensitive from the heavy pulse throbbing in every single vein in my hand.
Insanity had driven me here. Desperation. Longing…deep longing. Maybe he didn’t need more to say goodbye…but I did. Moving on from him was harder than moving on from Liam, even though that made absolutely no sense.
When I reached his door, he opened it.
In black sweatpants without a t-shirt, he stood there, his eyes impossible to read. They were intense, just the way they used to be when he looked at me, but they were also disturbed, like he was afraid.
I stopped in front of him…and just stood there.
I couldn’t believe I was looking at him.
He was as handsome as he was the last time I saw him. It’d been a month, but it felt like a second. A shadow was on his jawline from his scruff, and his lips looked like they hadn’t been kissed since me. His green eyes were those of an old soul, a man who had lived many lifetimes in very few years. He was better than I remembered him, so strong and beautiful.
He said nothing, probably in utter shock to see me standing there.
I’d prepared a speech, but now that our eyes were connected like this, every word left my brain as if it’d never been there in the first place. I couldn’t tell him I loved him, not when I knew he didn’t feel the same way. I couldn’t beg him to come back to me, not without hating myself. All I really wanted was a night…even if it was the last.
I moved into him, seeing the way he didn’t step back. I gained more courage with our proximity, knowing he wouldn’t turn away. When my lips were almost on his, my fingers finally reached out and cupped his cheeks.
My hands burned.
I tilted his chin to mine and kissed him.
The touch ignited my senses, reminded me that I hadn’t been crazy, that it was as good as I remembered. My fingers moved farther, sliding into his hair as I took a deep breath at our connection. My chest pressed against his, and I backed him up into the bedroom, returning to the place where I’d fallen in love with him.
He kissed me back, his hand brushing through my hair like old times.
It was better than I remembered. I kissed him harder, felt the fire from our raging passion. It pulled me under and burned me alive, brought me to a higher plane of existence that I hadn’t touched since he’d left.
I wanted this…so much.
His arm circled my waist, and he tugged me into his body as he kissed me, as he felt my cheek with his hard fingertips. His lips were seductive and soft but full of the masculine aggression that made me feel so desirable.
I pushed my jacket off my shoulders and let it fall to the ground without skipping a beat.
But that action made him pull away.
He ended our kiss, took away the fire that had finally thawed my frozen soul. He stared at me with incredulous eyes, as if he couldn’t believe what just happened. His hands slid from my body, and he stepped back. He inhaled a deep breath then dragged his hand down his face, persecuting himself when he wasn’t guilty in the first place. “Annabella—”