Forbidden Fate (Crowne Point 3)

I froze. Bile and acid rising up my throat. “What are you saying?”

“Just that if you hang out with West, not my problem what happens.”

“I’m asking for it, right? I didn’t say no, either, Gray. I liked him a lot. I wanted him to call me back after it happened.” I stared at him, willing all my hate, my anger, my fear to bleed into his soul.

His jaw clenched and he looked away, looked at the floor.

“You think I need you to save me, Grayson? All you’ve ever done is hurt me.”

That wasn’t true.

It wasn’t true at all.

But I was so, so hurt now.

“Fuck off. Fuck you. Did I ask you to punch him? That wasn’t for me. That was for you.” I opened the door with so much fury it slammed against the cement wall at my back. “Get out, Grayson Crowne.”

I walked by him, not bothering to watch him leave, because I didn’t want him to see my tears. Suddenly, I was slammed to my bed. The wind left me as all the time without contact vanished in a second, Grayson caging me on the mattress.

I stared into his icy blue eyes, veiled by wild rose gold hair. I could smell the sugar on his lips. He’d been chewing lollipops, and I could smell the whiskey he’d tried to mask it with.

“Do you know why I gave the dress to you? Why I married her in our wedding?”

Our wedding. Our wedding. Our wedding.

“I don

’t care.” So why did my heart beat?

“Even if that day couldn’t be ours, I wanted you to know it should have been.”

“Stop,” I begged him as tears leaked from the corners of my eyes.

“That I was picturing you.”

His lips skated mine, a breath away from destruction.

My voice wavered, and when I spoke, I’d lost all strength. “Please.”

“And it would always belong to you.”

When I decide to let you come again. Know it wasn’t for you; it was for her.

This scene was eerily familiar. Though his words were sweeter now, he still wouldn’t kiss me, still wouldn’t touch me. And when he inevitably left me…it would be for her.

“Belong to me?” I clawed at the anger taking root like a sapling in my gut. “For me? Which part? The part where you only touched me, only…only…” Came inside me. Told me you loved me. “Because your wife gave you permission?”

His eyes flickered with surprise, and I used that to push him off. Grayson moved with me until I was sitting up and he was on his knees, and we were eye to eye.

“Am I finally out of your system, Grayson Crowne?” My voice was shredded.

A cruel, barbed silence stretched between us. Grayson spoke with his eyes, but I was back to being unable to decipher it.

He stood up abruptly.

“Lottie told me about the postnup,” I said, standing with him. “She said if you so much as put a finger inside me…” I swallowed, moving on. “That night doesn’t belong to me. None of this ever did. When my uncle dies, I’ll leave. We can finally write The End.”

“Story—”