Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 223(@200wpm)___ 178(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 223(@200wpm)___ 178(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
A tiny smile curves Lucy's lips upward. "You're kinda hot when you're being all savage. Defense teams are going to hate you."
"They should." I smile sweetly. "I intend to make their lives hell."
Chapter Three
Ridley
"We need to talk," I growl at my cousin, Haven, stomping into the winery with my heart in my throat. My fucking head is pounding. I'm so pissed, I want to put my fist through a wall, but I don't even know who I'm pissed at right now.
Nah, that's a lie. I'm pissed at myself for making Paisley cry. That wasn't my intention. I don't know what the fuck I intended. I've been running on instinct since I saw her BMW parked outside two days ago. I tell myself to stay the fuck away from her, but I just can't seem to do it.
When she reminded me that who she fucks isn't my business, I saw red. Before her, I was never a jealous man. Never wanted anything badly enough to feel it. But the thought of her sleeping with someone who isn't me? Yeah, that shit is eating me up, the same goddamn way it has for the last three years.
Did Haven really tell her that I left for Italy that morning?
I can't even wrap my head around that shit. Leaving was the last fucking thing on my mind with her in my bed. I wanted my ring on her finger. I wanted my last name to replace hers. I wanted my kid in her belly. Fuck Italy. I was moving heaven and earth to make sure I didn't have to leave her.
"Hey." Haven looks up at me from the front desk, seeming frazzled. "We can talk, but you're going to have to do it fast. We have a tour group scheduled to arrive in five minutes, and the stupid printer isn't working."
I grunt, sliding around the desk to look at the printer for her. The damn thing never works right. It jams up every time she tries to print out a new batch of materials for tour groups.
I pop open the tray to find the paper jam, trying to organize my thoughts.
"You remember the morning after Oliver's wedding?" I finally ask.
"Vaguely. Why? It says it's jammed somewhere between that tray and the other one." Haven points out the general area.
I spot the stuck paper and start working it out. "Do you remember Paisley coming to see you that morning?"
"Yeah," Haven says, her voice full of irritation. "I'm still mad at you for that, by the way."
"Mad at me? What'd I do?"
"Do you have any idea how awkward it was to tell her that you left the freaking country, Ridley?" my cousin growls, kicking me in the back of the knee from her chair. "I felt like such a jerk!"
"What the fuck?" I rip the rest of the paper out before spinning to face her. "Why the fuck did you tell her that I left the country?"
"Because you did!" she cries, scowling up at me like I'm the one in the wrong here.
"No, I didn't."
"Uh, yeah, you did. You've been in Italy for three years. Hello?" She narrows her eyes at me. "Are you drunk or something?"
"I didn't leave the fucking country that morning, Haven," I growl.
"Bastian took you to the airport. You didn't come home for six months," she says slowly, like she's talking to a toddler.
Jesus Christ.
I pinch the bridge of my nose, striving for calm. It doesn't really come. "He took me to the airport to change my tickets to his name."
"What?" Her brows furrow.
"He was going to go to Italy in my place to get shit rolling. The airline wouldn't let us do the ticket transfer over the phone. We had to go to the airport to do it. I ended up flying out the next day instead, after Paisley left me."
"Oh." Her eyes widen. "Oh." She slaps a hand over her mouth. "Oh my god, Ridley. I told Paisley that you were flying out!"
I turn back to the printer, trying to give myself a minute to think. Part of me wants to ask what the fuck Haven was thinking, but this shit isn't her fault. She didn't know.
Christ, I fucked everything up, didn't I?
"Jesus," I rasp, grasping the sides of the printer as the last three years reorder themselves into a grim reality I didn't expect. One where I may have destroyed everything.
Paisley didn't walk away. She fled, thinking I did. She ran into the arms of some other motherfucker because she thought I took her virginity and then walked out without so much as a goodbye. No note, no explanation, just…gone while she slept.
No wonder she hates me.
"She was devastated, Ridley," Haven whispers behind me, guilt heavy in her voice. "Jax said she was crying when she ran out of here. And I was so mad at you for not telling her that you were leaving. I thought you were a big jerk for that."