Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 94546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
The way he snarls ‘you’ is more painful than anything I’ve ever experienced, but it won’t stop me from forcing him to see the truth. “I am nothing like my grandfather.” When he scoffs before pulling away from me to snatch up another bottle of whiskey from a bar in his room, I stand on a wobbly pair of legs and follow after him. “My grandfather’s hair was brown, mine is blonde. He had green eyes, mine are blue. He hated you, but I love you, Jack. We are nothing alike. Not at all.”
When I place my hand on his shoulder, slightly pleading for him to put down the bottle of whiskey and look at me, he shrugs me off him. None of my words reached his ears, so there’s no chance in hell they’ll make it to his heart.
“You need to leave.”
Tears trickle down my cheeks when I shake my head. “Jack, please—”
“You need to fucking leave!” Acting as if he isn’t butt naked, he grips the top of my arm, marches me to the elevator, then dumps me inside as if there isn’t a blinking black contraption in the corner of the space.
My breaths come out ragged when he leans into me for the quickest second to sniff my hair before he mutters, “I never want to see you again.”
I try to take off after him when he exits the elevator as fast as he forced me into it, not willing to give up on us just yet, but the cruel, maiming scars on most of his back and the top half of his ass freeze me in place. I never understood why the photographic evidence of his assault had random letters scattered across the welts until now. My grandfather didn’t use any old thurible to hurt him. He picked the custom one my grandmother had made for him. The one that had our family name carved out of the ancient copper material.
Although I am aware it will take a lot for Jack and me to overcome this, desperation for the chance has me speaking words I shouldn’t. “You said you wouldn’t run, that nothing I could say would change how you feel about me.”
When Jack spins around to face me, a trickle of hope drips through my veins. He isn’t as hard as he was the first time I saw him naked, standing at the foot of my bed, smiling like he had the world at his feet, but his cock is most certainly erect. It is responding to the zap that surged through my body when he touched me and to the smell of my unwashed hair. It is reacting to the crazy connection that will never fully wane between us.
He is responding to me because, despite everything, he knows what we have is greater than what my grandfather tried to take away from him. It is true, raw, and honest.
It is love.
I beg for Jack to make true on his promise that we could overcome anything, to give me the chance to prove I don’t deserve his anger, but my silent pleas are left unanswered when he mutters, “Those words were spoken to someone I thought I knew. You are not her, Octavia, and the man you think you love is not me.” He turns his eyes to the camera recording us before he growls in an angry sneer, “If she comes back here, you are both fired.”
With that, the elevator doors close with me on one side and Jack on the other.
CHAPTER 28
OCTAVIA
ONE MONTH LATER…
“Thank you, Tivy. It is perfect.” Merrick’s wet eyes glisten in the early morning sun when he lifts them to me from the Tourist Must Visit Spots Guidebook I purchased for him. “I can see Adeline marking out each spot she wants to visit with her bright pink highlighter.”
Although Jack withdrew every other promise he made in Seattle, including the cash purchase of the penthouse and keeping Seattle Socialites afloat, I’m pleased to say he didn’t renege on his offer to send Merrick and Adeline on an all-expense-paid trip to Italy. They don’t leave for another three months, but since Caleb and I are returning to New Jersey this afternoon, I gifted it to him early.
“I know you have most of your itinerary already worked out, but there are a handful of places you must see.” After carefully removing the book from his hand, I flip to the pages I bookmarked. “Especially this one. My mother said their pastries and coffee are to die for.”
“Excellent.” Merrick loves sweet treats almost as much as he does his wife. “Talking about sugary gifts, Adeline asked me to give you these.” My heart melts when he digs out a batch of freshly baked cookies from his backpack. “And…” I watch him in suspense when he unzips the front pouch of his bag to dig out a tiny ornament.