Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 89012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Eton is staring at me like he wants to rip my head off. What the hell? Why is he here? How the hell did he find me?
Panic bubbles in my stomach as I reach for my phone. Eton won’t hurt me, but that doesn’t mean I want to be here alone with him either.
I glance toward the bathrooms, but I don’t see either of my friends.
“You aren’t an easy woman to track down,” Eton says, his voice bone-chillingly cool.
“Apparently, I’m easy enough. You found me. Find my friends? I’ll be blocking you. Now, if you’ll excuse me …”
I start to scoot out of the booth when Eton’s oversized friend, Jason, blocks me in.
My gaze whips to my ex-fiancé. “What the hell is this?”
“We need to talk.”
“No, Eton, we don’t.” My blood boils. “Who do you think you are?”
He laughs. The sound is like nails on a chalkboard.
How did I ever find him attractive? How did I ever consider spending my life with him? Was he always this rude? Arrogant? Despicable?
“Get your goon out of my way,” I say, leveling my gaze on his.
“Please don’t speak about my friends with that kind of language. What’s gotten into you, anyway? Just because you came back to the gutter doesn’t mean you have to act like gutter trash.”
My eyes nearly fall out of my head. “Do you want to know what boggles my mind?”
He hums.
“That I ever, ever, gave you the time of day,” I say.
He laughs as if I’m kidding. “If you be nice and show me you remember how to behave, I might consider letting you come back to civilization with me.”
“I wouldn’t go with you if the world was on fire and you had the only boat to safety.”
He rolls his eyes. “Speaking of boats, I saw you went on your embarrassing, paltry little trip. How pathetic to have to go on your own. Did you learn something from this, Little Miss Thinks She’s Independent?”
“Yes.” I smirk. “I did go on my little trip, and it was the best trip I’ve ever had. Must’ve been the company. Quite … orgasmic if you will.”
His face darkens. This man is such a coward. Total fizzle-fuck.
I grin.
“It was unforgettable in so many ways,” I say, taunting him. “I made so many memories, did so many things for the first time. Want to hear about them?”
“Don’t.”
“Then leave,” I say, narrowing my eyes.
“Not until we have a discussion.”
Fuck this guy. “Guess how many times I got off, Eton. Guess.”
“Ashley—”
“In four days, it was probably … ten? Fifteen?” I tap my chin. “Oh, I forgot when I rode his face at the pool.”
His fist pounds on the table. “Enough!”
“Fuck you.”
“Don’t talk to me like that, you little tramp.”
I laugh. It’s louder than I expect, but damn, it feels good. “Oh, it irritates you that I’m screwing someone else now? But it was okay for you to screw around on me when we were engaged?” I lift a brow. “Is that what you’re getting at? What did you expect, Eton? Did you think I would come back to Kismet Beach and miss you? I’ve not thought about you once.”
The rage spilling out of my mouth is cathartic. Even when we broke things off, we were on his turf. I stayed in my lane. But now? The lanes are gone.
“How do you expect me to want you back when you’re talking such filth?” His breathing becomes ragged, his nostrils flaring. “You’re better than this.”
“I am. I’m better than you. Get out of my world, Eton, and never come back. Got it? We are so done—ah!”
My eyes water as soon as his palm connects to my cheek. My skin stings, burns, flames in a way I’ve never felt before.
I touch the side of my face gingerly as shock mutes my anger. Did he do that? Did he hit me?
“Don’t ever touch me again,” I yelp.
Our eyes lock, hatred pouring from one to the other as I steel myself against him.
I grip the table and start to get up, to stand on the booth’s table if I must and get someone’s attention, when my gaze connects with someone else’s.
Maddox.
“What the fuck is happening here?” he says, eyes darting from mine to Eton to Jason, then back to me. “Are you okay?”
I nod, tears streaming in relief.
“Step back,” Jason says. He towers over Maddox, broader than him too. “Move it.”
“I want to get out, Jason,” I say.
“Sit down,” Eton says to me, seething. “I’m not done with you yet.”
Maddox extends a hand to me. “Come on.”
I reach for him when Jason’s fist swings at Maddox.
“Ah!” I yell. This is not happening.
Maddox rolls easily under the shot. Jason doesn’t see Banks’s punch coming at him from the other side. Banks connects to Jason’s cheek. The sound of fist to bone cracking pops through the bar.