Total pages in book: 185
Estimated words: 191421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 957(@200wpm)___ 766(@250wpm)___ 638(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 191421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 957(@200wpm)___ 766(@250wpm)___ 638(@300wpm)
"About what?”
His lips tip up but there’s no humor in his smile. “Given how you constantly show up where I go, all dressed up and pretty. Given how desperate you look right now, to talk, to be there for me in my difficult time, there’s only one thing that you could possibly want, isn’t there?” Before I can say anything to that, he goes, “You want me.”
He’s hit the nail on the head and I flinch. “I…”
“Don’t you?”
I blush so hard and my mouth trembles so much that I can’t answer him. “I’m… I just…”
Then he goes ahead and runs a finger down my cheek. “Gotta say, it’s nice to see you doing all the work this time.”
I flinch again. “Lucas, I —”
“Besides,” he keeps going like he doesn’t want to hear what I have to say. “It’s only fair, isn’t it? Seeing how I did all the work the last time around. Chasing you, running after you. While all you did was string me along. All you did was keep me on the leash.”
“I didn’t… I didn’t string you along.”
“We probably have different definitions of stringing along then.”
“I don’t –”
“When I say stringing along, Echo, I mean,” he grinds his jaw, “I didn’t get to fuck you.”
My eyes go wide at his severe, derogatory tone. “What?”
“For all the work I did for you, for all the hoops that I had to jump through, you didn’t even have the decency to open those legs for me.”
“Lucas, you —”
His eyes go harsh. “You didn’t have the decency to give me what belonged to me. By right.” He scoffs. “How selfish do you have to be though, that we went out for two fucking years and not once did you think about me. Not once did you think about what I must be going through.”
My heart’s slamming inside my chest.
Okay, so maybe two things.
There were two things that I ever said no to him on.
His ring on my sixteenth birthday and this.
Taking things further than kissing and making out.
And God, what an awful time to realize that the reason I was such a pliable girlfriend was because I wouldn’t let him take things further. Because I made him wait and so I did everything to please him in other areas.
But this is so not the time for revelations and epiphanies.
I take a step toward him. “Lucas, it wasn’t like that. It wasn’t —”
“Since we’re catching up, let me catch you up to the fact that it was for me though,” he says, his eyes hard. “I could’ve done it, you know. I could’ve taken it from somewhere else. What I wasn’t getting from you, and as naive as you were, you never would’ve been able to figure it out. And God’s honest truth, I was tempted. I was so fucking tempted, so many fucking times.”
“Lucas —”
“But I kept it in my pants. I fucking kept it in.”
I flinch again. “I’m…”
“But you stabbed me in the back instead.”
My mom had said the same thing and that same pain goes through my body when Lucas says it too.
Same pain. Same hurt.
Same shame.
“So things are going to change now,” he continues.
“What?”
He stares at me for a few seconds. “You want me back and I’m willing to work with you. But I need something in return.”
“In r-return?”
“Yes.” He jerks his chin at me. “That thing between your legs.”
“What?”
He smirks. “You open those legs for me and I’m yours.”
I take a step back. “Lucas —”
“It shouldn’t be hard though, right? You fucking kissed my best friend like the back -stabbing bitch you are. Knowing what it would do to our relationship, knowing that you were ruining everything. This should be a piece of cake for a slut like you.”
Tears are streaming down my cheeks. “Lucas, please.”
“You let me fuck you like the slut you are,” he says, his voice low and derogatory. “And I’m all fucking yours, baby.”
A tiny sob escapes me. “I’m so sorry, Lucas. I’m…”
“As pretty as your apology is, I’m not really interested in that,” he says, coldly. “And if all you’re going to do is cry in front of me, then I think we’re done here. Because I’m itching for a fuck and you’re killing my boner.”
And then he’s leaving.
He’s walking away and I don’t know what to do.
I don’t know how to stop him. What to say to him to make him stop hating me.
What to do to fix everything.
And I just…
I just want Reign now.
And it’s as if by magic, by this weird telepathy that we have, he appears in front of me.
Much like he did the other night when I wanted him to be close.
“What the…” he says, taking my tears in. “What the fuck happened?”
I stare up at his blurry face. “He…”
His jaw clenches. “What the fuck did he do? What the fuck did he say to you?”