Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 62811 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 314(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62811 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 314(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
She held back the sob just waiting to come out until his footsteps receded and he wouldn’t hear her cry. Then she let her emotions come out. Within minutes, Cassidy rushed in, and Sasha was able to cry on her best friend, which hurt like a bitch given her head injury.
“I’m going to kill him,” Cassidy said. “If I hadn’t been in a rush to get to you, I’d have done it in the waiting room. I’d like to twist his balls until he can’t walk or fuck again,” she said, patting a hiccupping Sasha on the back.
Sasha couldn’t help but smile at her friend’s brutal plan. “What did he say?” she asked, pulling back and laying her head on the pillow again.
Cassidy glanced her way. “That you wanted different things and I should make sure you’re okay.”
“Stupid, macho asshole. He wouldn’t let me speak or explain. He just pronounced judgment. His decision. I shouldn’t turn down a huge role. He wouldn’t stand in my way. What about what I want?” she asked, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Did you tell him you loved him and wanted to make it work?” Cassidy asked.
Sasha sniffed and grabbed for a tissue on the rolling tray beside the bed. “I reminded him that we’d agreed to discuss things when the movie ended. That I hadn’t made any decision to go right back to LA, no matter what he might think.”
She blew her nose, wincing at the pain in her head. “And when I asked him what about us, he said there was no us. So I wasn’t about to shout I love you as he walked out on me in the hospital,” she muttered, getting angry now at how he’d taken her choices away.
And left her again.
* * *
A while later, Sasha had been discharged with instructions to rest, drink lots of fluids, and not to drive a car for at least forty-eight hours. Sounded fine to her. All she wanted was a dark room where she could lay her sore head on a pillow and do her best not to cry over Xander. It helped that the more time that passed, the more furious she became.
Dash took Sasha and Cassidy to the hotel where Cassidy had been staying. Sasha refused to go back to Xander’s apartment to get the clothes and other things she’d left there. Though he’d said he was going to the Hamptons and Dash told her his plan had been to pick up Bella and be gone by the time she arrived, she had no desire to walk into a place that smelled so much like him and contained brief but wonderful memories.
Considering they’d showed up the same day asking, the hotel didn’t have any connecting rooms open or suites available for Sasha. But they did have a room on the same floor as Cassidy. Sasha took it, refusing to stay with her friend. She wanted to be alone and Cassidy understood. She did, however, insist on a second key so she could check in on the patient throughout the night. Sasha couldn’t argue when Cassidy was so worried and the discharging doctor had suggested she be looked in on.
The three of them were in Cassidy’s hotel room, one king size bed in the center, Sasha sat on the edge of the bed, Dash leaned against the wall and Cassidy stood by Sasha, a worried look on her face.
Sasha couldn’t help but notice that Dash was being amazing. He’d stepped up in his brother’s absence. What Sasha hadn’t expected was the sexual tension between Cassidy and Dash. Sure, Sasha had seen him watching her at the club last Saturday. And she’d seen his concern when Cassidy had been injured, and it was obvious he was interested.
But Dash was a man-whore. A playboy. A rock star who went through women, no doubt leaving broken hearts behind him. Xander had confirmed that the press about his brother was true, and Sasha didn’t want her best friend to be among the trail of women he left in his wake. Nobody deserved to feel the hurt Sasha was currently experiencing.
Dash’s phone suddenly emitted a song – one of his own, of course. His ego knew no bounds. He glanced at the screen, frowned, and began typing.
“Everything okay?” Cassidy asked.
Dash ran a hand through his sexily disheveled hair. “Just my asshole brother checking on Sasha.”
She let out a growl. “Tell him if he has questions about me to ask me himself.”
Dash raised an eyebrow. “Would you answer if he did?”
“No,” she muttered. She needed time to process what he’d done to her. To them.
Dash returned to his texting and shoved the phone into his back pocket. “You know, despite the fact that our parents stayed married, we didn’t grow up in a stable environment.”
Sasha and Cassidy exchanged glances, surprised at Dash’s personal revelation, though Sasha realized he was trying to tell her something about Xander.