Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 142214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 711(@200wpm)___ 569(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 711(@200wpm)___ 569(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
He went perfectly still. “I was protecting you.”
“Well, I don’t need your protection. I only want your love.”
The room fell into suffocating silence.
“Say something!”
His glare sharpened. “I warned you. You know what kind of man I am. Maybe I was protecting you for myself all those years. At least I can admit that. What about you, Wren?”
“What about me?”
He laughed without humor. “The least you could do is admit—on some level—you liked it. You liked having my claim on you, knowing I’d go ape-shit if anyone so much as looked at you wrong. You can’t hate me for the same reasons you’re attracted to me.”
“That was high school. Things are different now.”
He scoffed. “No, they’re not. I’ll never stop protecting what’s rightfully mine.”
She looked up at the rafters of the studio. “Well, this place belongs to me. Until you can respect everything that means, I don’t think you should come here anymore.”
“You’re kicking me out?”
“You spent the last hour disrupting a one-on-one session with a high paying client—”
“Fuck this. Fine. I’m out of here.”
She thought she could get through to him. She thought she might get him to address his emotions like an emotionally mature man. But, in typical Greyson fashion, he ran away.
CHAPTER 27
“Merry Christmas, All I want is Forgiveness”
Greyson slammed his truck door hard enough to rattle the windows. Breathing heavily, he glared out the windshield and cursed under his breath, then punched the steering wheel. “Fuck!”
He needed space. Away from Wren. He knew his intensity would suffocate what they’d built together.
Jamming his keys in the ignition, he hesitated, his gaze narrowing on the shoveled path to the guest cabins. He knew which was Drummond’s.
“This is exactly the shit you have to stop,” he grumbled, fighting the urge to further mark his territory, and starting the truck.
“Grey, you there?” His brother’s voice crackled from the radio.
Great. He was in no mood. Snatching up the radio, he snapped, “What’s up?”
“We’re heading to the hospital,” Logan said in a rush. “It’s Dad.”
His hand tightened on the receiver. “What happened?”
“I’m not sure. They had to resuscitate him.”
“What?”
“Grey...” The radio crackled, cutting out. “…doesn’t sound good. You should ...”
“Fuck!” He punched the radio. “Logan?”
There was a long silence and then the static cut out as his brother said, “Don’t bail on this one.”
Grief weighed like a boot on his chest. He gripped the wheel, his vision blurring down to a keyhole as he tried to breath. Hospital. He needed to get to the hospital.
“Greyson!”
Lost in unwanted thoughts, he barely noticed the truck door fling open.
“Soren called. You need to get to the hospital right away!” She grabbed his arm. “Grey?”
He recognized the look of terror on her face from years before. She needed him to be better, but right now, he needed her. For this.
“Grey, did you hear me? You have to leave. Now.”
He nodded but didn’t move. “Wren.” His mouth filled with the bitter taste of loss. The fear of losing her choked the words right out of him.
“Greyson, you have to drive!”
He looked at her. Realizing he might lose her and his father in the same day. “I can’t go through this again.”
Understanding dawned, and she lunged across the seat, hugging him tightly. “It’s okay.”
He grabbed onto her, refusing to let her go. “I’m sorry. For everything.” He’d never be less, but he could try to say more. He’d say anything if it made her stay. “Please, don’t leave me, Wren.”
“I’m not going anywhere. But you have to drive. Your brothers are waiting.”
His throat constricted. He couldn’t move.
She understood and shoved the truck into park. “Switch.” Climbing over the console, she shoved him out the door. He rushed to the passenger side as she threw it into drive before he was even seated.
“I never meant to ruin anything for you.”
“You didn’t. None of that matters now.”
He looked down, confused how he ended up in the passenger seat. “I love you, Wren. You’re it for me. I can’t do this without you.”
She glanced at him, face tense and tears glistening in her eyes. “I know, Grey. I know. I love you, too.”
Not the way he loved her. She didn’t realize how many times he’d wanted to give up and disappear. She gave him a reason to keep coming back, to keep breathing. She gave him something to hope for. He just kept thinking, if he did better, made something of himself…Maybe she could love him.
The truck whipped into the hospital parking lot before he was ready to face the next step. “We’re here.”
“I don’t know the room number—“
“Four-twenty-six.” He frowned and she shrugged. “What? I visited.”
She’d visited? When?
They rushed inside. The elevator was cramped and muffled in a way that made his brain itch. His clothes turned heavy and tight. He tugged at his collar, having a hard time swallowing.
Wren’s hand curled around his, and warmth spread up his arm. He looked down at her, his grip tightening around her dainty fingers.