Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 65429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 262(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 262(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
“You need to stop.”
“I’m just kissing my best friend.”
Her chest lifted with every movement of my lips getting closer to her mouth. I grabbed the side of her face, beckoning her mouth to mine, and she let me. Her eyes were tightly closed, and she smelled like the honey that haunted my dreams every night.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” I groaned, desperately craving to feel her again.
Her mouth parted as I brought her over to me. The smell and feel of her were making me dizzy, and all I wanted was to kiss her. It was such an innocent gesture, such a simple desire. I wanted to capture this moment and hold on to it for as long as I could. I wanted to remember her just this way.
For me.
Mine.
“I know a part of me will always wait for you, Livvy,” I murmured, getting closer to her mouth.
She shook her head, unable to find the words.
“You’ve ruined me for every other woman. You know that, don’t you? It’s always going to be you.”
She immediately opened her eyes and looked right into mine. “Ethan…”
I didn’t falter. “I’ll always be in lov—”
The sound of the front door opening was as if a bucket of ice-cold water was abruptly poured on my head. She jumped back and away from me after the sudden interruption.
The mistakes I couldn’t change were still there.
Especially our regrets.
I stood at the same time as the person I least expected walked into her bedroom.
“There’s my girl,” Beau announced, grabbing the swell of her back. He pulled her into a deep kiss.
This motherfucker.
It was only then he turned around to look at me. “Hey, man. I must have got the days confused. I thought you were arriving tomorrow.”
Liar.
He knew exactly what he was doing.
“That makes two of us. I thought she finally got rid of you.”
“Ethan,” Livvy stressed in that tone I hated when it came to him.
He scoffed out a snide chuckle. “Oh, so she didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
I should have seen this coming, but then again it wouldn’t have mattered. Nothing ever did when it came to her and I.
In four words, he put an end to what could have been our beginning by revealing…
“We’re moving in together.”
Chapter
Nineteen
Ethan
Twenty-Eight Years Old
“I need you, Ethan.”
I immediately asked, “What’s with all the cryptic? Are you alright?”
“I’ve never been better.” She paused for a moment, and I could sense her hesitation.
“You think you can take time off from work for the next week?”
“Not until you tell me why?” I cautiously waited for I don’t know what.
“I just need my best friend.”
I abruptly sat up, about to respond, but she would have knocked me on my ass if I wasn’t already sitting down. It all happened so fast, yet it still seemed as if it played out in slow motion.
She unexpectedly revealed, “I’m getting married.”
“What—”
She cut me off, bluntly adding…
“And I need you to be my man of honor.”
The memory of that phone call with Livvy played on repeat in my mind for the past four days since she told me. There I was on my private plane to fucking France. The ten-hour flight was painful, to say the least, and the last hour was almost crippling.
Livvy and Beau were getting married in Château d'Esclimont Castle, and their weeklong extravagant wedding celebration began this evening with their engagement/welcome party. They had some festivity planned daily, ending with their ceremony and wedding on the last day.
Not only did I have to endure my best friend getting married to the wrong man, but I had to be fucking part of everything since I was Livvy’s man of honor. She emailed me the itinerary. From the bridal party to the bridal shower to the bridal luncheon and farewell. Including the bridal and bachelor nights that were a day apart.
It was a week of pure and utter torture, and I had no clue how I would survive it. The only thing I had in mind was wanting to stop it. There was no way in hell I would let her marry that pretentious prick. Not if I could help it.
I didn’t know how I would stop this fiasco of a marriage. All I knew was that I had to play nice until I could figure out what to do. I already had my entire team running background checks on the son of a bitch. There had to be something there I could use as ammo.
The more I thought of them tying the knot, the sicker I felt in the pit of my stomach. I never actually thought it would get to this point, and I couldn’t for the life of me begin to understand what the fuck was happening.
For the past two years, I’d been so busy building my empire that I let her slip through my fingers. I’d only seen her once, and it was for a moment. We both had busy and intense schedules that never lined up. We still talked a couple of times a week, but even those calls were short because we were between meetings and whatever else took priority in our lives.