Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22674 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22674 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
My heart is racing as I press my ear to the door, and I almost have a stroke when I hear Kyle’s voice from inside.
“Oh, yeah, you like that, don’t you?”
My jaw drops. More giggles.
“You know just what I like, big boy,” the woman replies.
Okay, so Kyle, my fiancé, is fooling around with another girl. What do I care? He doesn’t like me, and I don’t like him. I should just turn around, get some more tea, and go back upstairs to hang out with Deena.
But I just can’t help myself…
Even though neither of us likes each other, I still can’t shake that feeling of betrayal that sinks deep through my flesh and down into my bones. It’s bad enough that I’m marrying this guy, but he can’t even respect me enough not to cheat on me while I’m upstairs planning the wedding?
A rush of adrenaline hits me, and without thinking, I grab the handle and yank the door open. What I see inside almost knocks me over.
Kyle’s standing right there. I was expecting that. That’s not what shocks me.
What causes my breath to catch is who he’s with.
“Katie!” Clarice’s eyes go wide, and she scrambles to hide her half-naked body behind Kyle, whose pants are around his ankles.
Clarice isn’t just some girl; she’s Kyle’s dad’s new girlfriend.
I know this, because Kyle himself told me…
“No…way,” I manage to utter. Kyle scrambles for his pants, and Clarice snatches a towel from the rack to cover herself.
“It’s not what it looks like!” Clarice blurts out.
My cheeks flame hot from secondhand embarrassment. “Oh, sure it isn’t.”
Kyle struggles with his belt buckle. I’ve never seen him so uncomfortable before. He looks like a kid who just got caught taking extra candy at Halloween.
I shouldn’t care. This guy means nothing to me.
But still. Something about walking in on him cheating on me this brazenly really stings. He’s so arrogant he thinks the world belongs to him—along with his father’s girlfriend.
“Is nothing in this world sacred to you?” I blurt out before grabbing a roll of toilet paper and hurling it at him. He ducks, and it hits Clarice right in the nose. I hear her shouting at me as I stride for the front door.
A hand tightens around my arm, and I’m tugged around to find myself staring into Kyle’s face. He looks pissed, as if I’m the one who did something wrong here.
“This is your fault!” His voice grates my bones like nails on a chalkboard.
That does it. An anger I never even knew I had in me comes shooting out like a cannonball.
“My fault!?” I snap back. “How is you having sex with your dad’s girlfriend my fault?”
“Well, if you would have actually put out, then I wouldn’t have had to fuck Clarice!”
His words actually stun me. It’s like I’ve been hit by a taser. My jaw drops, and I stare at him for at least ten seconds, unmoving. When I finally come around, my voice sounds like an angry alien from a Marvel movie.
“No way you just said that…”
Kyle scoffs with some newfound confidence. “You’re damn right I did.”
Clarice steps up behind him, now wearing some sweatpants and a T-shirt, and hangs off his shoulder. She whispers something I can’t hear, and he smiles.
“I am leaving.” I start to turn away but quickly turn back. “Oh, and the wedding? It’s off.”
Kyle grabs my arm again and pulls me back, only this time, his grip is so tight it feels like his fingers are piercing my flesh. I cry out as he yanks me roughly back to him. I raise my arms to slap him, but before I can, a voice cracks like thunder behind me.
“Get your hands off her!”
The whole world freezes, especially Kyle and Clarice, who look past me like they’ve just seen God.
Slowly, I turn and find myself staring at a man so stunningly handsome I’m having a hard time believing he’s real. I’ve never seen him before—not in person at least—but I know who he is.
Robert Reed… Kyle’s father.
His eyes are dripping with fierce anger and disappointment as he stares at his son. But when they move to me, a softness appears, and a sense of protection sweeps over me.
“Dad, I—” Kyle starts to speak, but Robert cuts him off.
“Just when I think you couldn’t sink any lower.” Shaking his head, he turns his eyes to Clarice. “And you. Don’t even think about calling me again.”
His hand finds mine, and a warm, melting sensation spreads through my middle. Tiny pin pricks spread over my arms as he leads me out the front door.
What is this sensation? I’ve never felt anything like it before.
Is this what…lusting after someone feels like?
This is the first time I’ve set eyes on this man, the first time we’ve touched or even been in the same vicinity as each other. Yet I already feel so comfortable. Like I know him already. It’s like a gravitational force is pulling us together.