Series: Willow Winters
Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 50025 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 167(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50025 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 167(@300wpm)
“I’ll be staying with her tonight.”
“Zander, no. I—”
With my shoulder to him, I go around Kamden toward her bedroom. It’s a good five feet away and I eat up the distance with him trailing behind me.
I half expect Kam to argue with me. He could try to drag me away from Ella’s room, and I wouldn’t put it past him. If I were in his shoes, I’d be doing the same. Both of us are trying to beat the other one to be the first to the door.
It doesn’t really matter who’s first. I’m going to go in. She’s mine. This problem is mine to fix.
As we take the final steps to reach Ella, the fear comes back. I’ll never be able to get those images of her out of my mind. The way she seemed to get more and more distant as the night went on. The panic I felt when she fell from that ledge. Leaving me in the middle of the night in a strange motel.
Something I did triggered her and led to her spiral. I saw it happening and I hung back thinking I could catch her at any moment. I failed her.
A cold sweat lingers on the back of my neck as I grip the glass doorknob.
I’m genuinely afraid to lose her, yet we’ve been reckless. I regret that. I should have been more careful with her. I also should have made a few things much clearer. I’ll be rectifying that immediately.
That’s the danger of falling in love. You break rules. Find excuses to justify your actions. She has clouded my judgment from the first moment I saw her. I knew better from the very beginning with Ella, but I couldn’t stop myself. I felt too much for her.
In my own weakness, I risked losing her because I didn’t have the strength to tear myself away. Now it’s too late for that, even if Kam made a real attempt to stop me. There is nothing that will keep me from her ever again.
Kam grabs my shoulder and turns me to face him. His expression is dead serious, the anger in his pale blue eyes cold and menacing.
“Listen,” he says in a low voice, nearly a hiss, his hand still gripping my shoulder. “If you don’t take control of this situation, then I will.” His eyes search mine, his lips pressed in a grim line.
This isn’t like him, but Kam’s been pushed to the limit tonight. I see my own fear reflected in his eyes. He grits his teeth and continues. “Nothing that happened tonight can ever happen again. If you fail her, I’ll destroy you.”
The strength of conviction in his tone only makes me like the man more.
I can respect the protectiveness Kam feels right now, even if I think it should be solely my responsibility to care for her.
He could never take me from her, though. Not unless he killed me.
My first priority is Ella. It will be for as long as I’m alive. “Understood,” I tell Kam. My tone isn’t as even as I wanted. The tension in the air thickens. My muscles are ready for violence. It would at least take the edge off if we came to blows. Muffled sounds of Ella moving around inside her bedroom can be heard. She must be finished with her bath.
If we’re going to fight, it’ll have to be later. Kam seems to realize that at the same time I do. “Good.”
He releases me and I release the knob, opting to knock on the door first. “Ella?”
There’s no answer from the other side. I do a set of four-count breaths to calm the fuck down and focus, followed by another one. Then I open the door.
My heart races again the moment I cross the threshold. All of the terror that had been dampened from going toe to toe with Kam comes back full force.
Ella’s sadness hangs in the air inside her bedroom. The space is clean, containing muted tones and decorated with expensive furniture. The mood isn’t a neat and tidy one, though. It’s heavy. Pervasive. Almost as if it’s hard to breathe.
Ella leans against her dresser; the mirror is still one made of polished metal rather than glass. It’s a reminder of what happened to her before.
With damp hair clinging to her back, she turns her head to look over her shoulder at me. Those beautiful chestnut eyes reach mine and there’s longing there but something else too.
The sight of her makes my breath hitch. Wrapped only in a towel, her face is flushed from crying. Her cheeks are tearstained and her eyes rimmed in red. She’s the epitome of sadness, and appearing so small in the expansive room, it only emphasizes how alone she must feel. Ella’s home is beautiful, but it doesn’t change the heartbreak in the woman standing in front of me.