Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 111400 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 446(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111400 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 446(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
“I understand.” She hugged me. “You’re amazing, and I love you, and someday we’re going to do this all over again for your wedding.”
I swallowed hard. “I hope so.”
“Get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Okay.” I let her go and headed immediately for the stairs before anyone could stop me.
In my room, I breathed a sigh of relief as the door shut behind me. Going over to the bed, I sank down and slipped off my shoes. From inside my evening bag, my phone buzzed, and reluctantly I took it out and looked at the screen.
Griffin: Get your ass down here.
Me: I love you but I’m too tired. Goodnight.
Griffin: Unacceptable.
Rather than fight him, I simply put my phone on Do Not Disturb and set it aside. There was no way I was going down to that bar. Griffin would get over it.
Flopping onto my back, I flung an arm across my eyes, blocking out the light from the bedside lamp. Waiting for tears. Surprised when they didn’t come.
Was I simply too exhausted to let out all the feelings I’d held in all day? Was that possible? And what was I going to do about the future? I couldn’t go on like this. Living next door to him was a special kind of torture. And even after he moved, he’d still be right there in town, at all family functions. We’d still bump into each other all the time.
Maybe it was time to think about moving away from Bellamy Creek. Applying for a teaching job somewhere else. Making a fresh start.
While I was pondering it, someone knocked on my door—three hard, staccato beats.
I groaned in annoyance. “Go away, Griffin. I’m not coming down.”
Three more knocks.
Exasperated, I hauled my ass off the bed and shuffled to the door in my bare feet, my velvet gown dragging behind me. “Stop it, Griffin! You’re going to wake the entire inn. And I’m not coming—” I opened the door.
Then I stopped talking.
It wasn’t my brother.
Fifteen
Cole
Pushing inside her room without being invited, I held the door open with my hand. “You don’t have to come down, but goddammit, you need to listen to me.”
She looked taken aback for a moment, then shook her head. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because we don’t want the same thing, Cole. I mean, yes, tonight we probably want the same thing,” she said, her eyes traveling over my shoulders and chest and down to my crotch before she quickly flicked them up again. “And there was a time in my life when I’d have done it in a heartbeat, just to be with you like that. But I’m—”
“Stop talking,” I said, putting a finger over her perfect lips. The door slammed shut behind me. “Stop talking and listen. All night I’ve been trying to tell you you’re wrong, and I can’t fucking get the words out, because you keep cutting me off.”
Her eyes flashed with fire as she pushed my hand away. “I’m protecting myself, Cole.”
“You don’t need protecting, Cheyenne. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.” I took her head in my hands and looked her in the eye. “You’re safe with me.”
“But last night you said—”
“Last night, I was still confused. I couldn’t think straight. I haven’t been able to think straight for months where you’re concerned. And then when you told me how you’d felt all that time, it was like being hit by a train. There were all these things I wanted to say to you but couldn’t.”
“Sorry,” she said. “I know that was a lot—what I told you.”
I shook my head. “Don’t be sorry. I needed to hear it. I needed to be pushed into facing the truth.”
“What’s the truth?” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“That I have feelings for you. And they’re not going to go away just because I ignore them.”
Cheyenne’s mouth had fallen open, and I traced her bottom lip with my thumb.
“Believe me, I’ve tried to ignore them. I’ve tried to talk myself out of them. I’ve denied them to anyone who asked.”
She blinked. “People have asked?”
“Yes. Apparently I am not an expert at hiding the way I feel about you.”
“You hid it from me.”
“Well, I don’t want to hide it anymore,” I told her, loving the way it made her expression melt from surprise into bliss. “Not from you, not from myself, not from anyone. That’s why today was tough—because I realized that even though I have no fucking idea what I’m doing, I don’t want to lose you.”
“You don’t?”
“No.” I kissed her lips, then whispered against them. “When you have something precious in your hands, you need to hold on tight.”
She slid her hands up my chest and looped them around my neck, pulling me toward her. Slanting my mouth over hers, I moved my hands into her soft, thick hair the way I’d been dying to all night long. It fell in loose waves over her shoulders, pouring like champagne down her back. My fingers found the zipper at the back of her dress and pulled it down, the erotic sound sending a jolt of desire straight to my cock.