Chapter 25

CHAPTER

TWENTY-FIVE

HARPER

The sun peeking through the window curtains wakes me. Rolling over, I find the bed empty, Eddie having slipped out at some point while I was asleep. He stayed with me in Vegas—not that he had anywhere else to go—but since then, he has repeatedly disappeared in the middle of the night.

I try not to let it bother me, but it stands as a steady reminder of what this is.

A fling.

Nothing more than a dark, dirty fling.

Too bad I know I’m fucking kidding myself. You don’t fall for men like him. A man you’ve hardly known a week. A man you know you barely know anything about. A man who never takes you to his place. A walking red flag who always slinks out before sunrise.

There are always fucking feelings.

Being with him is like watching two trains on a collision course. It’s going to end violently and messy, and someone is going to get hurt.

I’m going to get hurt.

I know it.

I can see it coming.

The opportunity to hop off this ride is there. I can take it at any time.

But fuck…this ride is fun.

Rolling over to grab my phone from the nightstand, I can’t stifle my groan. Every fucking muscle in my body is sore. Muscles I didn’t even know I had.

You could really give a girl a complex…

Sneaking out before sunrise every time.

EDDIE

I had somewhere to be this morning, little rose.

I can barely move this morning.

You really did a number on me.

You needed it.

Heading into a meeting.

I’ll text you later.

K.

Sliding from bed, I pause to try to stretch my burning limbs. It does nothing for me except cause every inch of me to ache. Heading into the bathroom to pee, I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

“This can’t be healthy,” I mutter to myself.

While Eddie might have left in the night, he’s left several lasting reminders that he was here. Hickeys on my shoulders, scabbing bite marks on my breasts, and a permanently hard, very bruised nipple. Turning, I find my ass still red from the repeated, punishing strikes of his palm.

It’s been hours since Eddie’s text, and I haven’t heard a thing from him. With my phone in my hand, I feel like I’m about to put myself into the needy girlfriend category, but I send the text anyway.

Am I going to see you tonight?

EDDIE

At this rate, you might never sit again, little rose.

But not tonight. I have a party to attend.

What kind of party?

A very private one.

With the text equivalent of word vomiting, the letters spill from my fingers, and I hit send before I can stop myself.

The kind I met you at?

Yes.

Jealousy pangs through me. My face heats with anger yet tears well in my eyes.

Are you planning to fuck anyone there?

That is kind of the point of the party.

Seriously?

So my cunt belongs to you, but you can do whatever the fuck you want with your cock?

Don’t feign innocence like you didn’t suck someone else’s cock yesterday?

Or have your face buried in your roommate’s pussy.

That’s not the same.

And you fucking know it.

I don’t have time for this childishness right now, Harper.

Unable to hold them back, tears stream down my face as I continue to text him.

Apparently, the train was colliding sooner than I thought…

My apologies.

I wouldn’t want to keep you from fucking someone else.

I’m not doing this with you.

It’s just fucking sex.

It doesn’t fucking matter.

It does.

It matters.

I’ll call you in the morning.

When you’ve calmed down and are ready to have an adult conversation about this.

I’m sorry I’m such a child.

Maybe you shouldn’t bother.

I don’t mean the words as I send them. Not even close. They couldn’t be further from my truth. Staring at the phone through my sobs, I wait desperately for a response from him.

One that doesn’t come.