oblivion as aftershocks ripple through my entire body. I feel it all the way down to my toes. It’s unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced. A roller coaster. The rumble of a jet engine. Nothing else can compare to the way Landon Blackwood makes me feel.
Because I’m in love with him.
My eyes snap open, and I’m praying I didn’t say the words out loud. But when I see him arched above me, eyes shut and mouth parted, I know he wouldn’t have heard me anyway. His hands are beneath my ass, squeezing as he thrusts into me one last time. He’s unraveling, body shuddering, chest heaving as his cock jerks inside me. He empties himself with a grunt and collapses onto his forearms, dipping his forehead against mine.
His heart beats heavy against my chest, and I know what he said was true. I’m the only one. I can feel it in the way he finally looks at me. Our walls are down, and for a few blissful moments, nothing else exists. I drag my fingers through his hair and pull his beautiful face back to mine. He kisses me until our lips are raw, and we’re forced to come up for air. When he finally rolls onto his side, it feels like a loss. But I can’t anticipate how real that loss is until my eyes drift to the condom still wrapped around him. My stomach twists when I see the blood there, and I can’t understand it.
“What the fuck—” He follows my gaze, and in an instant, the heat in his eyes is snuffed out by an arctic chill.
I don’t know what to say. What to think. But he’s already thinking it for both of us.
“You’re a virgin?” His voice is tinged with disbelief. “All this time, you were acting like I… what the fuck, Kail?”
“I… I don’t know what’s happening,” I answer. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“The money,” he murmurs so low I can hardly hear it. “It was always about the money.”
Abruptly, he gets up and turns away.
“Landon.” I sit up, frantically searching for something to cover myself with. “We have to talk about this. I don’t know what you think, but—”
“I can’t believe you would actually do this.” He tosses the condom into the rubbish and yanks his jeans back on. “You made me believe…” He shakes his head and lowers his voice. “You’re just like everyone else. I can’t trust a word you say.”
“That’s not true!” I cry out, but he can’t even hear me right now. The only thing I know for sure is what I saw when I woke up at that party. We were all practically naked, and the condoms… none of it makes any sense.
“Landon, please don’t go!”
He freezes in the doorframe. The muscles in his back are so rigid I know this is the end. He’ll never believe me. He’ll never let me in again, regardless of what I say. We got too close, and Landon doesn’t let anyone get close. Everyone hurts him, and now I have too. I can already hear the door slamming in his heart. If there was a key, he just threw it away.
“You win, Kail. Sell your story to whoever you want. Tell it to anyone who will listen this time. Because this is the last chance you’ll ever get. You and I are done.”
20
Kailani
He’s turned me into an obsessive stalker. A heartsick fool who stares out the window all night, waiting for him to come home. I text him so many times I lose count. Until the status icon changes, and I realize my messages are no longer being delivered.
He blocked me.
I want to puke. My stomach is in knots, and all I can think about are his last words to me. You and I are done.
If we could just talk this out, I’m sure we could find some sort of understanding. There has to be something that makes sense. I feel so desperate with the need to see him that I find myself standing on his lawn in the middle of the night.
I’m not this girl, am I? What happened to being strong? What happened to hating him until the day I die? Truthfully, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing anymore.
I scrub my hands over my face and groan. He never even came back here. I know because I heard the rumble of his Porsche a minute after he left me in the pool house. So, why am I here?