Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 125213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
I was supposed to hold her in my lap, get wasted, kiss up her neck and let her stick her tongue down my throat. I was supposed to slide a hand under her dress just in eyeshot of the locals with their phones at the ready. I was supposed to throw it all away, smirk, and soak it up like the playboy they wanted to paint me as.
The playboy I used to be.
But I couldn’t. I just… couldn’t.
Renee wore her confusion on her face when I stood, leaving her on the couch where I’d been. I didn’t answer her questions as I shrugged on my light jacket and made my way toward the door.
The whiskey I’d ordered was completely untouched.
Phone cameras followed me as I weaved through the crowded bar. I found it hard to believe how this place was my solace just five months ago, the one place I wanted to go to escape and feel something, or sometimes, just to go numb but not be alone.
Now, it was hell on Earth.
I didn’t want to drink. I didn’t want to dance. I didn’t want to touch or be touched by anyone.
No one but Mia.
“Aleks, who was that girl you were with?” I heard someone ask my back as I shrugged past. “Does Mia know about her?”
I wondered if it was the girl they’d tipped off. What was her name… Stella? I was supposed to confirm her suspicions. I was supposed to give her content to put me on blast and hammer the last nail into my coffin.
Instead, I ignored her, along with every other fan who said my name, told me they loved me, asked for a picture or an autograph or a kiss. I kept my eyes down, hands in my pockets, pushing through the crowd.
I could walk home. It was only about two miles and I needed the fresh air. Maybe I’d walk down by the river.
Maybe I’d throw myself into it.
When I pushed through the door that led into a perfectly pleasant November night in Florida, I paused.
People were waiting in line to get in, the bouncers checking IDs at the door and letting in only as many people as they saw come out. There was a bustle of noise when I emerged, and then screams from the women, hollers from the men, all of them calling my name or a question or a love confession or a combination of the three.
I should go back inside.
Now that I was out here, guilt crept through me like thick sludge. I was ruining everything. I was putting Mia in an even worse position all because… what? Because I had feelings for her? Because I always had?
I knew that when I agreed to this.
I knew what it was and what it wasn’t.
How fucking selfish could I be, to throw away the whole thing in the final act just because I suddenly decided I couldn’t deal?
I pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a long exhale, cursing under that breath as my shoulders fell.
I looked up to the sky next, hoping for strength to come from a god I didn’t believe in, and then I turned, ready to make my way back inside and do what I had to do.
But my eyes caught on a figure down the block.
It was just a glimpse, one I almost ignored as the bouncer nodded at me and opened the door I’d just come out of. But then I did a double take.
And there she was.
Oversized sweatshirt and biker shorts. Messy hair piled on her head. Glasses.
Mia.
My Mia.
A black SUV lurked just behind her. James stood only a few feet from her back, one hand clasping the opposite wrist in front of him. He was stoic and still, but I saw him subtly cataloging everything, ready to act if needed.
Mia.
She’s here.
She didn’t go.
I blinked, once, just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.
And then I ran to her.
Mine
Mia
He ran to me.
The first step was slow, hesitant, unsure.
The second was solid, steady, determined.
And then his strides were long, each one making my breaths come harder, the tears in my eyes welling too fast to stop before they spilled over my cheeks.
I couldn’t move. I stood rooted to the spot by the SUV, James at my back and a thousand phone camera flashes going off from the line of people outside the bar while Aleks ran to me.
His eyes never wavered.
His steps never slowed.
And I choked on a sob the second he wrapped me in his arms.
“Please don’t make me do this.”
He crushed me to him, his arms hard and hot around me as he kissed my hair and mumbled the words again in my ear.
“Please, Mia. Please don’t make me do this.”
“I thought this was what you wanted,” I croaked, clinging to him, hands fisting in his dress shirt as fresh tears dampened the fabric on his chest.