Total pages in book: 181
Estimated words: 181613 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 908(@200wpm)___ 726(@250wpm)___ 605(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181613 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 908(@200wpm)___ 726(@250wpm)___ 605(@300wpm)
Apollo points at her face. “Made you laugh, though.”
She shakes her head. “You guys will never quit.”
“Not on you, no,” Apollo says, folding his arms. “But you won’t find me begging for mercy. I know what I did, but I was honest in my blackmail, and I’d do it again.” He tilts up her chin. “Because it finally let me have you.”
She blushes and snorts. “You guys almost have me convinced romance actually exists.”
I chuckle, and Apollo bursts out into laughter. “My version of romance is railing you two nonstop. Whether it’s in my bedroom, on the couch, the back seat of her car, in the yard outside, or maybe the woods. Wherever you want, I’m ready.”
“Oh my God,” she mutters under her breath.
“Yes?” Apollo raises a brow.
“You’re insufferable,” she adds.
Apollo makes a lateral click with his tongue and sticks up both his finger guns. “At your service.”
I clear my throat. “I’m trying to apologize over here.”
“Oh right,” he says. “Whatever you want, pretty boy. Do what you need to do to get our girl.”
I sigh out loud and focus on Aspen. “Can you forgive me? For all those cameras and the lies?”
“I …” She looks away for a second. “I have to think about it.”
She glances at Levi, who remains standing near the front door, as far away from us as possible.
The yearning in his eyes is palpable, even from here.
Apollo places a hand on my shoulder. “You’ve got every day of the rest of your life to make it up to her, don’t you?”
“What?” I mutter.
“But you’re both gonna have to share,” he adds with a wink. “Boyfriend.”
She pulls her hand out of mine, and for a second, it feels like rejection, until she suddenly darts right past me and straight for Levi, who collapses on the floor.
Levi
I thought I could handle the pain, and I wasn’t about to show these two fucks my weakness, but Grey cut into my abdomen so deep that my muscles are beginning to cave in on me.
Goddammit.
Aspen runs up to me and goes to her knees in front of me, picking up my arm to support it with her shoulder. “I’m here.”
Her pretty ocean eyes keep me afloat, keep me present, keep me from wanting to lash out at everything around me.
“C’mon. Let’s get you upstairs,” she says. “Apollo, help me!”
“Oh shit,” Apollo says as he hurries to support my other arm.
“I don’t need help,” I mutter, standing.
I shove them away, but the second I take a few steps into the room, the pain becomes too much, and I crash into Grey.
“What the—” He barely stays put with my weight on top. Sighing, he puts his shoulder underneath my arm. “Fine.”
I grumble with annoyance as he drags me toward the stairs.
“Let. Me. Go,” I growl.
“And let you fall again? I don’t think so,” he replies.
“Now, now, boys, play nice,” Apollo muses as he supports my other arm.
“I can walk,” I insist.
“We can see that,” Apollo says.
Aspen runs up the stairs and immediately raids Apollo’s room, and I can hear her throw stuff around.
“You looking for another mask, Freckles?” Apollo asks.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask.
“Oh, she went through my room once, trying to find her ‘stalker.’” He makes quotation marks with his free hand. “A.k.a. you.”
“Interesting. And you’ve been going behind my back to fuck her while pretending to protect her and Grey from me,” I quip.
“Not behind your back. Right in front of your eyes,” he retorts, grinning. “And I kept everyone alive, didn’t I?”
“Barely,” Grey grumbles, still holding me, despite the hate practically fuming off him, and the feeling is mutual.
When we get to my room, Aspen has already opened the box of supplies she stole from Apollo’s room and is rummaging through it until she finds what she’s looking for. After Grey and Apollo put me down on my bed, she barks, “Out of the way.”
They take a few steps back, watching us from the doorway, but all I can focus on is how she’s kneeling in front of me, and I swallow away the lump in my throat.
She dips a cotton pad into some alcohol and leans in. “This might hurt.”
She wipes my wound clean, but the pain doesn’t faze me as long as she’s here with me, looking at me, touching me. And when she stops, I grasp her wrist and make her stay.
I can’t.
I thought I could do this.
That I could die and she could live on …
But I can’t fucking do this without her.
“I …”
“Does it hurt?” she asks.
I shake my head. “Only the thought of losing you now.”
A blush spreads on her cheeks.
What do I say when words fail to explain the depth of my obsession?
“I’m not going anywhere,” she says.
I release her wrist, only to bring my hand to her face instead. Grey’s body tightens as he clutches the doorframe, but Apollo holds him back with a strong hand.