Total pages in book: 17
Estimated words: 15404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 77(@200wpm)___ 62(@250wpm)___ 51(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 15404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 77(@200wpm)___ 62(@250wpm)___ 51(@300wpm)
"Why? Is there something you need to do, or-"
I shake my head. Realization dawns across her face, like it’s finally just hitting her what exactly I am getting at.
"Oh," she mutters, lowering her gaze. "Oh, I – I understand..."
She tugs the covers up over herself, doing her best to hide her body from me. She had been so free and easy with her nakedness last night, and to see her suddenly so reticent, so determined to hide herself away, makes my heart hurt.
I clench my fists at my sides, a part of me aching to go over and pull her into my arms.
"Kim-"
"You don’t need to explain," she replies, cutting me off, her tone a little brighter than it needs to be – as though she is attempting to paper over the cracks of something deep inside her, a pain she can’t put into words.
"I get it," she continues, as she reaches for the dress on the floor, pulling it towards her and pushing her arms through the sleeves. "I – it's not like I haven’t been through this before, I mean, I know that it doesn’t have to mean anything, I..."
She burbles away, almost as though she is just trying to fill the silence between us, but I wish she didn’t feel like she had to. I want to tell her that it’s not what it looks like, that it’s not that she means so little to me that I am already done with her and uninterested in so much as laying eyes on her again.
Her face has drained of color, her body tense as her shoulders squeeze upward, and the pain of something that happened long before she ever met me is clearly playing in her head.
The pain of what that asshole did to her – the one who played around on her and broke her heart. And now, I can tell, that’s exactly how she sees me, too.
I think of making a case for myself, but it would only be an excuse to stay here with her a little longer. No, the kindest thing I can do for her right now is put as much distance between us as possible, and hope to God that she doesn’t let this get too far under her skin.
"I have to go," I tell her, voice low, and she smiles. It doesn’t reach her eyes, doesn’t even come close.
"Sure," she chirps out, her voice drawn tight with an artificial optimism. I hesitate, for one more moment, but then force myself to turn to the door, putting this behind me, uprooting the stakes she’s thrust into the earth. She deserves to be free. Not stuck here with me.
And just because a tug in my gut tells me to go back to her right now doesn’t mean I have to listen to it.
CHAPTER 5
Kim
"You don’t have to come with me," Cade mutters, as we take to the trail that leads towards the nearby forest.
"I know I don’t have to," I reply, as I push a hand through my hair, sweeping my hands down my new dress to make sure it’s sitting right. "I want to, though."
I can tell Cade isn’t exactly convinced, but he knows better than to argue with me. I could see the guilt in his eyes when I woke up early to find him sneaking out of the bed before I so much as woke up, even though I did everything I could to convince him he had nothing to be sorry for.
Truth be told, I’m the one who’s sorry. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking, letting myself get drawn into him like that, when I know that I’ll be little more than a passing novelty to a man like him. I only have to think back to his reaction when he saw me on the side of the road, the way Lucy had to make a case for me to come back with them at all, to understand that. I’m not crazy – I can see what’s right in front of me.
And I can see that I mean little more to him that Colton did back in the twenty-first century. Guess that’s just the effect I have on men, drawing them in and then pushing them away. I’m not the kind of girl who can lock someone down, even for a night, without their eye straying.
Better that I put it behind me, put the memory of his hands in my hair to the back of my mind, and figure out what the hell I am going to do here now that I’ve been dumped in another time and place.
He’s been doing his level best to avoid me the last couple of days, and I’m fine with that. I’m happy to let him keep his distance, it’s easier for me that way, too. Lucy seems oblivious to what has happened between us, chatting away with me happily about whatever’s on her mind.