the full-length window that leads onto the balcony and after walking all the way to the side where a narrow ledge runs from the Imperial suite to their own suite’s balcony and he offers his hand to Sloane.
Sloane
“Baby, we need to leave now! VDB and Alicia are back.” I follow Kaden outside onto the wide balcony of the Imperial suite, sliding the window shut behind me. I don’t even notice the hot tub and the patio furniture we pass as Kaden runs to the side of the balcony swinging a long, muscled leg over the wrought iron railing and extending a hand to me as he’s perched on the concrete ledge.
The ledge is barely wide enough for his feet and granted this isn’t a skyscraper, we’re on the fifth or sixth floor, but it’s still fucking high. It’s still high enough that if we fall, we’ll plummet to our deaths. Or get really, really hurt. Like totally fucked up. I take two hesitant steps toward him, swallowing the huge lump of fear that is suddenly gripping my throat. Maybe I should go back into that room and take my chances with Alicia and VDB. It’s surely preferable to this.
“Come on baby, we need to go. Take my hand.” The fuck I’m gonna take his hand! I mean yeah ok, I admit it, I’m terrified of heights.
Heights and spiders, these are my biggest fears and you know how they say that we need to face our fears to conquer them and become stronger? Yeah, that’s absolute bullshit, I’m more than comfortable with my fears, I actually like them quite a lot, thank you very much. After all, those very fears have been keeping me alive for over twenty-two years, so …
“Sloane, what are you waiting for? Let’s go. If they look outside, we’re fucked.” I look at Kaden’s dark blue eyes, the determined expression on his handsome face, the tightness of his perfect square jaw is the only thing that betrays his tension right now. His voice, while laced with a sense of urgency, is still pretty calm.
“I … I can’t.” I shake my head to convey the message that there’s no fucking way I’m walking on that ledge.
“Baby, we need to go. Take my hand, I got you.”
My heart is hammering wildly against my rib cage and a bead of sweat is running all the way down my spine, my breathing is labored and as my mouth opens to say something, no sound comes out.
I really can’t do this.
I turn to look at the window we just came from, and I see two shadows behind the cream colored curtains in the living room, just a few meters away from me. Alicia and River are standing by the full-length window and I see Blaine’s mother touch River’s shoulder while they’re engaged in some kind of conversation. Normally, I’d be pissed off that the woman won’t leave my man alone, especially now that she thinks he’s gay but I have no time to dwell on it. Kaden’s right, if Alicia looks outside, we’re fucked. But I’m still hesitant, my feet feel as heavy as concrete, rooted to the ground by my fear of heights.
“Sloane, baby, I got you. Please, trust me.” Kaden’s words snap me out of it and I don’t even have to think about it. I take his hand and let him help me over the railing and onto the ledge next to him.
If you’d told me a week ago that if asked to trust Kaden, I would’ve literally jumped into the unknown, I would’ve laughed or called you crazy. Last week, after he saved my ass in that boathouse by handcuffing me and placing me under arrest, I wouldn’t have trusted Kaden with shit. But we talked, we angry fucked, we fucked again and he opened his heart to me. Both by telling me that he loves me and by promising me that he has a plan to make sure that regardless of how this ends, we’ll be together. The five of us. And when he said that, I looked into the blue depths of his eyes and I knew he meant every word. I know that he’s committed to me and to the others. He’d do anything for ‘Us.’
So yeah, I trust Kaden but man, this is some bullshit. Face your fears, they say. You’ll come out stronger, they say. Who the fuck says this shit, seriously?
Let me set it straight for you, this is what happens when