Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 135517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
“Here goes nothing.” I climbed out of the backseat and scaled the wall surrounding her house the way they’d told me to, looking around once I landed, even though I knew there was no one else there but her.
I heard the car pull off slowly from the other side of the wall and inhaled deeply as if that was going to give me the strength I so badly needed. I pulled the map they’d made of the layout of her house from my pocket and studied it once again.
I’d been here so often, and yet I had no idea that there were an old servant’s quarters with a separate entrance. There was some kind of patio outside with French doors that opened onto a garden, and from there, I should be able to find my way through the rest of the house.
I reached the door just as I heard soft music coming from inside, and through the dim light, I saw her lying on a lounge with her eyes closed and a sad look on her face. I raised my hand to knock just as her eyes opened, and she stared right at me.
We both stared back at each other wordlessly until I watched her mouth my name, then she shook her head as if she thought she was dreaming or I was a figment of her imagination. Then her face changed once she realized that I was really standing there, and I knew I was in for a fight.
***
*Elena*
For a minute, I thought I had conjured him with my mind. I’d been lying here in the almost dark room thinking about him and the wasted night I’d had. I’d accepted the date out of fury, knowing on some deep level that going out with this particular guy would get under Ryder’s skin the way no one else could.
That song had pissed me off, and I was growing tired of all of the back and forth online. Tired of everyone acting as if I had no life without him by my side. Maybe I’d given them that idea because it had taken me so long to move on. I know I can’t blame my fans for wanting what they want; shoot, even I wish things between us had worked out differently, even to this day. But they hadn’t, and he was married to someone else, and it was high time I got my ass in gear.
But the truth is, I still find it hard to move on. That hurt that I’d buried for so long because it was the only way I could function as a living being was somehow reawakened, and I was living in hell again. But that song, the way he seemed to think that he still owned me or had any rights to me, made me want to commit murder.
When Raj called out of the blue, I had no interest in going out with him because though we had become great friends in the past, there was a lot of history there that wasn’t all good. But then I got the brilliant idea that this was just the answer I needed. The one thing I knew would hurt Ryder to the core.
Is this why I’d done it? Did I somehow expect him to lose his mind and show up here? How did he even get in? He never knew about this place when we were together. It was still out of use back then, and only lately had I turned it into a workroom where I worked on the designs for my new clothing brand.
No one else had ever been back here; it was my safe space, the only place other than my studio where I was sure to be left alone. I felt too many things at once to hold onto any one of them. I must’ve imagined this happening a million times, the two of us coming face to face, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what I was supposed to say or do.
I couldn’t believe, even as I walked towards the door where he stood on the other side, that this was really happening. And I hated like hell the feeling of excitement that coursed through me. And the smile that began in my heart. Is love really like this? So forgiving? Love might be, but I’m not; fuck that.
“What are you doing here, Ryder?” Too late, I remembered that I wore nothing but an old pair of shorts and an oversized tee shirt with my hair all over the place in what Sydney would call a sexy mess. I was reminded when his eyes went over every inch of me as if he were recording it to memory. I refused to let that mean anything to me, though I could feel a stupid blush starting on my cheeks.