He began to thrust fast, his sexy face contorted with pleasure. “Fuck. Lexie. Love you.”
He came with a long, hard groan, and she wrapped her arms around him, holding on for all she was worth as he trembled and thrust, riding out and prolonging his pleasure.
He collapsed on top of her, causing her breathing to hitch. She didn’t care. She wanted to absorb him into her skin, to take everything she could from this one last time.
He finally rolled off her and rose, quickly disposing of the condom before rejoining her in bed.
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her sated body against his, his words echoing in her mind. Lexie. Love you. Love you. The words circled, everything she’d ever wanted to hear. Everything she needed. Nothing she could accept.
Her breathing fell into a synced rhythm with his, and she couldn’t help when her eyes grew heavy and she fell asleep in his arms.
When she woke up, he was gone.
Chapter Thirteen
A few days after Kade had made love to Lexie for both the first and last time, he gave an interview to a print magazine, laying out the details of his past, the secrets he was hiding, and his decision to walk away from Blink.
A week later, he adjusted the tie he wasn’t used to wearing and paced the Green Room of one of the big national morning shows. Apparently the world thought he was on the level of Facebook’s Zuckerberg or Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel. Kade thought it was bullshit, but they were interested in his story. The lawyers and PR people thought it would make for good publicity.
Kade wasn’t a guy who wore his heart on his sleeve. He’d gone back to being a complete and utter ass, more because he was upset he’d lost Lexie than for any other reason. That and without Blink to go into every day, he was bored and overly focused on things that were doing him no good.
Like counting tiles on the ceiling as he sat in his doctor’s office for a final set of X-rays on his hand and again here, while waiting to go live on air. And obsessively searching for a watch to replace the Patek he’d lost to Julian because nothing else he found felt quite the same. He’d hired Evan Mann to hunt around local pawn shops to find his watch, and the man had come through. He’d had to pay to get his beloved timepiece back, but he had it on his wrist, and that was all that mattered.
“Mr. Barnes, we need to get you mic’ed up.”
He blew out a long breath, rose, and followed the intern to the studio. He settled into the chair across from the morning show host and prepared to speak the truth. It wasn’t the same as talking to a tech reporter who spoke his language.
This was going to be harder.
More complicated.
More emotional.
And he only hoped he didn’t make an ass of himself on national television.
* * *
Lexie sat in the waiting room while the attendants at Maple Hill checked her sister into the residential treatment center three hours from home. She and Kendall had driven up yesterday and stayed in a hotel last night. They’d rented a movie and munched on junk food like when they were little. Lexie was happy to have had a good night with her sister before leaving her alone in this place for God knew how long. Treatment plans took a while to formulate, and the center prided itself on a multipronged approach. In other words, her twin would be here awhile.
Lexie was waiting to see Kendall’s room and say good-bye. She paced the floor, a morning show droning on in the background. She didn’t pay attention to the screen hanging on the wall until a familiar voice sounded in her ear.
“Thank you for having me,” Kade said to the pretty blonde morning show host.
He was clean-shaven and wore an expensive-looking suit that defined his well-cut body, and his green eyes were focused on the woman he spoke to. But Lexie’s gaze was drawn to his hand. He’d pushed up his sleeve, and he ran his hand over the face of a watch.
His watch. He’d somehow gotten it back. And this interview was causing him stress if he’d chosen to wear it there. Her heart twisted, even as she wondered what he was doing on television.
“Thank you for doing this exclusive interview, a follow-up to the article written about you in Wired Magazine,” the woman said.
“You’re welcome,” he said stiffly.
“This is your first live interview since you revealed the fact that you were accused of date rape when you were in college.”
Lexie flinched, shocked at the public conversation.
A muscle twitched in his jaw. “Falsely accused.”
“Yes. And we’ll get to that in a moment.” The woman leaned in closer. “I wanted to ask you first, why did you make the accusations public now and step away from any association with Blink, the company and app you helped put on the map?”