Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 88(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 105(@250wpm)___ 88(@300wpm)
A noise at the door makes me almost fall over with fright.
Chance. It has to be him. He’s back.
With a squeal of delight that takes even me by surprise, I break into a run.
I don’t care that I’m only dressed in one of his shirts. He’s seen me in less than this, and there’s nobody for miles around. I could go running naked down to the water, and it would only be between me and the birds squawking in the trees.
It doesn’t even occur to me how weird it is that he hasn’t just come inside, until I pull the door open and nearly fall over on my ass.
“Sis?”
My eyes are wide, my head shaking back and forth as I try to form a coherent thought. “What are you two doing here?”
Tor and Cyrus look angrier than the storm the other night. Tor starts to feel my shoulders as if I’m injured. I shrug away from his touch, starting to glare now, and move to block their path.
“I’m fine. When did you get here?”
“He here?” Cyrus asks on a sniff, glancing around behind me.
“Oh, what are you? My dad?”
Tor glares. “Don’t bullshit me. Some guy kidnaps you out of a hotel, and we’re not supposed to be concerned? Get real, Sophia.”
“Nobody kidnapped me,” I protest with a huff, although my back straightens at the word. What would I call what Chance did, if not kidnapping? He didn’t exactly give me a choice when he carried me out of there, did he?
Although, if he had given me a choice, would I have said no?
“Like I said, I’m fine. There was no need for you two to come all the way out—” I pause, and their eyes narrow as I feel my brain go into overdrive. It doesn’t make sense, but that would mean… No, I can’t, I won’t believe that Chance would do that. “Wait, how did you two get here?”
Cyrus snorts. “How do you think? Booked a flight as soon as your friend Ruby called us up in a panic when she hadn’t heard from you. Threatened people at the hotel, made a few enemies, and found out where this scumbag lives.”
Cyrus has always been the darker sibling. He rolls with some less than savory crowds, but always manages to keep his own head above water. But, I know, if I ever needed someone to take care of something or someone, Cyrus would be my choice.
I grit my teeth. “Chance isn’t a scumbag, asshole. But that’s not what I meant. I mean, how did you get here. The road is washed out. It’s impassable.”
Tor shakes his head. “The guy at the hotel gave us directions.”
“Yeah, after we threatened to break his fingers,” Cyrus says with a grin.
My brother is such an asshole.
“He said to keep on the paved road until we got to a huge red rock, then turn up the hill,” Tor says. “It’s a long route up some windy fucking dirt path, but it’s fine. No difficulties.”
Suddenly there’s no air.
Tor’s voice fades away as I try to breathe, backing away down the corridor. I don’t care that there’s another way out. I don’t care that he was trying to keep me here. I wanted to be here. But he lied to me.
And there I was, thinking he was different. That I’d found the one honest man in this damned world.
It’s not the lie, it’s what it means. That I’ve been taken for a fool. How can I ever trust a man that would lie to me about something like this?
He saw how worried I was, how I wanted to contact my friends and tell them that I was okay. And instead of telling me that we could get out of here and back to the hotel, he kept it from me. Truth is, that’s not even what’s breaking my heart right now.
The dream is over. The fantasy washing away.
I have a huge life back home. He lives like a hermit crab in this island paradise. Vacation flings feel great until the vacation is over.
He asked about birth control…he regrets it too. It went so fast. He probably was glad to get away from me…
This is the crash. The hangover. The morning after where you realize all the dumb shit you did and how you could have thought otherwise.
All the color drains away leaving me in my black and white world again.
I can’t live with lies. Irrational, maybe. But come on, is any of this rational?
No. No, girl, it’s not.
I got lost in vacation lust, that’s all. I’m glad he got the first lie out before I was in any deeper. Now, I just have to pray, I’m not…
I don’t even realize I’m crying until Tor is holding me up, staring into my face.
“Sis? What is it? What did that fucker do to you?” Cyrus growls. “I’ll fucking kill him.”