Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 167671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 838(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 838(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
He balls his hand into a fist. “I want her. Badly. But I fucking wanted you first.”
CHAPTER 44
Max
What?
My lips part, but the oxygen refuses to exit my lungs.
He wants me?
He points at my chest. “That heart of yours should’ve been mine.”
Oh God.
“But you only wanted girls,” he says, the suffering on his face clear as day. “And it fucking killed me.” He shakes his head and snorts. “All these fucking years, I never once thought of any of them as more than a distraction, a way to fill the void, while I yearned for someone who wouldn’t even look at me that way. What a joke.”
He fishes the bottle of pills from his pants and pops it open.
Ketamine.
The pills he’s been downing every time he looked depressed.
And I could never figure out why until today.
All this time.
He wasn’t jealous of me because I had her.
He was jealous of her … because she had me.
I march over to him and slap the pills from his hand, the bottle flying halfway across the room. I grab his face with both hands and smash my lips onto his, kissing him the way I’ve dreamed about more than a million times. And God, they taste like blissful sin.
But his lips immediately rip away from mine, the confused look in his eyes anything but comforting.
“I don’t want a pity kiss,” he growls.
“You kissed me first,” I retort. “And then you walked away.”
“Because I was terrified!” he yells, tears staining his eyes.
My eyes hover over his face as I mutter, “Of ruining us before we even happened.”
His top lip curls. “But you ignored me.”
“Because I was terrified …” I parrot. “Terrified that it was only a mistake and would never happen again.”
His eyes flicker with shock.
I grab his face with both hands to try to stop us from overthinking all of this. “Kiss me.”
He searches my face for the answers he’s been looking for all this damn time, but I am right here, and I will wait. Forever if I have to.
But within a single second, he’s already smashed his lips onto mine.
Heath
God, the moment those lips touch mine, I lose every bit of self-control I have, and I claim them like no one ever has before. I don’t care anymore what anyone thinks. I’m fucking taking what I want, and what I want is him, right here, right now.
I grip his throat and push him back through the room until his back hits the bar, never taking my lips off his.
He wants me to kiss him? Fine, I’ll fucking devour him and leave nothing left.
With my fingers digging into his neck, I pry open his lips and force my tongue inside, rolling around in his mouth like I goddamn own the place and made it my fucking home.
All this fucking time, he’s been flaunting his love for her in my face, and I’m tired of not having a slice.
So I take and take, kissing him until he nearly passes out, then finally release my grip on his throat to allow him a single breath.
But the moan that follows … God, it riles me up almost as much as listening to her moans.
“You …want this?” I mutter, still hot and heady.
He nods, out of breath.
“Since when? The kiss?”
He shakes his head, and it makes even my breath falter.
“Years,” he murmurs, his cheeks flushing with heat.
“But you were always looking at girls,” I growl, cornering him against the bar. “You like girls, or you like boys, which is it?”
“Both. I just didn’t understand what I felt … until you kissed me,” he says, looking up at me with those puppy-dog eyes that make me want to raw-dog him against this goddamn fucking bar.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I thought you’d hate me and laugh at me.”
My nostrils flare. “Why the fuck would I?”
“I don’t know … I was confused, and I just thought you weren’t into guys at all.”
“I wasn’t into anyone but you for a long goddamn time,” I growl, inching closer and closer. “And you didn’t even fucking notice when it was right. In. Your. Face.”
He averts his eyes. “I’m sorry. I just thought … I was imagining things. I honest to God thought it’d be better if I didn’t tell anyone what I felt and just did what was expected of me. I didn’t want to get hurt.”
Fuck.
All this time he kept his true feelings hidden just so he wouldn’t get hurt?
I grip his chin and force him to look at me. “Don’t ever fucking lie to me again.”
He gulps.
“Do you understand?”
He blushes intensely, then nods.
“Use your fucking words.”
“Yes, Sir.”
My dick throbs from his groveling voice.
“Good boy.” I move my fingers down from his chin to his throat. “But you’ve been such a fucking sore to my heart, clinging to the girl we both share. You couldn’t help but flaunt your love for her right in front of me…” I squeeze tighter and tighter. “You wanted me to be jealous of what you two had.” I grab his package, and his eyes flash with surprise. “I am fucking jealous. Of both you and her.”