Total pages in book: 19
Estimated words: 19570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 98(@200wpm)___ 78(@250wpm)___ 65(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 98(@200wpm)___ 78(@250wpm)___ 65(@300wpm)
“Autumn…”
When I rise to meet him again, his hands move fast. He pulls me into him, kisses me with a hunger that’s all teeth and heat, then flips us without breaking rhythm.
He lowers me to the mattress, settling between my thighs like he’s done it a hundred times and never forgotten a single detail. His body presses against mine, hard and hot and deliberate, and when he enters me, I lose my breath all at once.
It’s not frenzied.
It’s deep. Slow. Intentional.
Like he needs this to last.
He moves inside me with a rhythm that feels like memory and promise woven together, like everything we tried to bury is still here—alive and burning between us.
“I missed you,” he says, voice raw. “I missed you so fucking much.”
My hands slip into his hair, pulling him closer, holding him to me like I can’t bear the space between us.
“I missed you, too.”
And I do.
With every part of me.
When I fall apart beneath him, it feels like a release and a return all at once. He holds me through it—hands firm, mouth soft—and kisses me with a reverence that makes my chest ache.
“I love you,” he whispers, his voice a rough echo against my skin.
I look up at him. Heart wide open. Guard down.
“I love you, too.”
And I mean it.
All of it.
He stays with me at my house for a few days, creating a bubble that I know will eventually have to burst. He makes love to me in the mornings, I lay against his chest and ask questions in the afternoons, and in the evenings, he threads his fingers through my hair and listens to my worries about going back with him to Seattle.
He only picks up his phone to speak to Adele.
He doesn’t look at it for anything else.
When our time is over—when the fourth day hits—he brushes my cheek and says, “There are some things I need to finish back in Seattle… I’d like you to come with me, but I understand if you’d rather stay.”
“Do you really understand?”
“I’ll pretend to.”
I smile. “I would like to go.”
“How long would it take you to get everything you need?”
“Not long.” I hesitate. Then I blurt, “I need to get Kylie back for fucking me over.”
“Why?” He studies me. “She was doing her job.”
“No. She was playing mind games once she knew who I was dating.”
He tilts his head to the side, looking slightly unconvinced.
“Her rush to meet me all of a sudden—from one phone call—didn’t make sense.”
“Even if she was your best friend?”
“Estranged best friend… And no. It didn’t make sense, and all her warnings might have been warranted, but the manner in which she went out of her way to deliver them wasn’t.”
“Trust me.” My chest aches. “The overdrawn stories, the way she mentioned things, the binder she gave me—”
“What binder?”
I hold back a sigh and unzip my suitcase, freeing it from a stack of jeans before handing it to him.
He flips it open, slowly scanning through the pages, stopping when he reaches the ones that feature the photos of his family.
He clenches his jaw, his fingers tightening around its edge.
“I was feet away when they were murdered. At our dinner table,” he says, his voice a shadow of itself. “By my biggest enemy. The same man who tried to kill you.”
His eyes are suddenly distant, and for a moment, it’s like something has shifted.
Briefly shutting his eyes, he sighs and tells me the story like a novelist. The parmesan shells. The kitchen. The hiding. The four days he listened to their killers joke about what they’d done.
“That’s why I have to leave for Seattle now, Autumn,” he says, pulling me into his arms. “I have to get him back, and I won’t rest until I do. Are you coming with me or do I have to come back to get you later?”
I answer his question with a kiss.
End of Episode 10
Temporary Delay
EPISODE 10.1
Autumn
The soft chime of the seatbelt sign dings overhead as I settle into one of the leather chairs aboard Ryder’s plane. The world outside is quiet, the tarmac glowing gold under fading sunlight.
Ryder is a few feet away, phone pressed to his ear, pacing slowly near the drink cart.
“Yes, Miss Jane is coming back with me,” he says.
There’s a pause, then a soft laugh.
“No, I won’t let her braid your hair before bedtime. Yes, you can tell her about the math competition once we land.”
He ends the call and sits across from me, elbows on his knees, eyes locked on mine.
“Are you going to ask me anything else?” he says.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, while I’m in a must-answer-all-your-questions mode…” He leans back. “Do I need to explain how I know your ex-husband?”
The question hangs in the air between us.
I stare at the safety card in the seat pocket, running my finger along its edge. I think about all the pain Nate put me through, all the manipulation, the erasure. And yet… he hasn’t crossed my mind much lately. Not in the way that matters.