Page 65 of Falling For My Best Friend's Brother

It hurt so badly. Everything hurt—my head, my heart, my fucking legs, which eventually gave up because I fell to the hardground in a heap. Pain shot up my body and I yelped, bursting into tears.

“Why?” I whispered to myself, clenching my fists and pressing them to my chest as though that might hold the pieces of my breaking heart together. “Why did I let myself believe in him?”

It wasn’t like I hadn’t known better. The doubts had been there, lurking, waiting to sink their teeth in. I should’ve trusted myself, but I hadn’t. I’d let hope take over, and now? Now I was left with this unbearable emptiness, hollow and raw. Just like last time.

At least Michael had used me for material things. That, I was familiar with. And when he was done with me, he’d broken up in the most childish way possible. Knox, on the other hand, had played with every part of me. He’d brutally taken everything I could give, my heart, my body, my fucking womb… and left me with nothing.

They say love doesn’t cost a thing? Bullshit. It cost me everything, and then some. I was back at square one—lost, alone and fucking terrified of not being good enough.

Chapter twenty-four

Knox

I’d have to let go of some things in my life. Some of them had been wants that were expendable, while the rest were needs that slowly became negligible.

At some point, Claire was a want. I’d wanted to be with her, to love and care for her. But that didn’t work out, no matter how much I’d wanted it to. The thread was too thin to hang onto. It was a hard pill to swallow, the fact that we were incompatible, but it was what it was.

Even after the breakup, I would sometimes wonder if there was a chance that we could make it work. I’d contemplated if maybe I’d been too forward by breaking things off.

But I stared at her now, my eyes trailing over the slope of her nose and up the ridge between her brows. I wasn’t seeing her—I didn’t see her anymore. She was talking—about what, I had noclue. Something about her job, maybe? It was all noise, a hum in the background I couldn’t bother tuning into.

My mind was miles away, tangled up in my princess; the last time I saw her smile, the way her eyes lit up when she got excited, the look of awe that took over her face just before she reached climax. The forlorn look in her eyes when I told her I was leaving.

It broke me. I’d heard her crying that evening. I stood outside her door for a long time with my fist suspended in the air, debating whether I should knock and comfort her, or leave her alone.

In the end, I told myself that Nina would be fine. These past few weeks between us had been heavenly, but she would eventually get over it and move on with her life. And then I’d forced myself to walk away, my heart in my fucking stomach, because I knew if I touched her one last time, I’d never have been able to leave.

“Come on, Knox,” Claire cooed, grinding her heat against my thighs. I could hear the frustration building in her voice. “You owe me. I still haven’t forgiven you for walking out on me.”

I had no idea what she was doing here. Actually, I did—somehow the news of our collaboration with Cornerstone Corp had spread like wildfire in the public relations world. Everyone that mattered had heard that we were handling the biggest project the industry had seen in years. In the past week since the contract was signed, many companies have shown their interest in working with us. It was crazy.

No doubt Claire had heard too, given as how she’d shown up tonight out of the blue, trying to seduce me. Just like I’d expected, she’d sent me a text after that night at the bar using every expletive known to man to curse me out. I’d half-expected her to delete my number after that.

“That’s not what happened,” I replied in a bored tone.

“That’s how I remember it.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and brought her face dangerously close to mine.

“What do you want, Claire?”

She gave me a sultry smile, holding my gaze. “You.”

“We’re over, or did you forget that?”

“Let’s just say I have selective amnesia,” she said, and I chuckled a little. “So, you're saying you don’t want me anymore?”

I actually took a quick second to think about her question. A second was all I needed, anyway. There was only one woman on my mind, and she didn’t have brown hair or blue eyes.

I shook my head, registering the look of disappointment that flashed across Claire’s face. Everything happened quickly after that.

Before I could stop her, she leaned forward and pressed her lips against mine. I was about to push her away when I heard agasp, my head snapping to the side to see Nina standing at the doorway, gaping at us—at me—with her eyes wide open and her lips parted slightly.

How the hell did she know where I lived? I don’t remember telling her. Was it my sister? Were they talking again?

I couldn’t focus on any of that just then. The pain in Nina’s gaze was raw and piercing, and it reached deep into my chest, wrapped around my heart, and squeezed painfully. I wanted to say something to explain the situation and let her know that there was nothing going on between Claire and me. It was the truth, and I wanted her to know it. But something stopped me.

What was the point? What did it matter if she knew all that? There might have been nothing between Claire and me, but there couldn’t be anything between Nina and me now. We were too different, like oil and water. We lived in different realities, and if there was one thing I’d learned in life, it was that it was better to let sleeping dogs lie.

And then Nina was gone, taking with her the remains of whatever fire had burned between us.

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