Page 74 of Blitz'd

Fuck.

“Fuck!” I scream it this time and my fist follows the way of my phone, though I’m smart enough to use my off hand at least.

It still sends a jolt of pain up my arm that makes my body spin, makes me smack my shoulders against the wall and slowly sink to the ground beside the broken bits of metal.

My vision is blurry when I look out in front of me, and the sharp sound I make trying to draw a deep enough breath for it to reach the bottom of my lungs fills my ears. That and thundering… my blood rushing… my heart racing.

Thump, thump, thump.

And the echo of Zander sounding so distant anddonewhen he said the wordfine.

Thump, thump, thump.

I can’t breathe. I can’tthink. All I can do is hear that stupid fucking sound.

Thump, thump, thump.

And then my bedroom door opens, and Asher’s face swims into my vision.

“Kerian?” I’m not sure how many times he’s said my name. I force myself to focus on his mouth first before I finally manage to jerk my gaze up to his.

“What?”

“Uh.” Asher’s brows are drawn together in concern and apprehension, but he’s still here. “Are you okay?” He winces, because it’s obviously a stupid question, and amends it before I can call him out on it. “Do you need anything?”

Fuck.

Do I need anything? To clean up my lip. To drag myself to bed? To realize I’m probably going to spend the next few weeks sleeping like shit, and I have to find a way to make sure that it doesn’t fuck up my performance because I’m so close to getting everything I want that I can taste it.

So why does everything I want suddenly taste like blood?

I know why.

Because I don’twant itlike this.

Iknowwhat was different this time—why I suddenly realized I didn’t have to give a shit, that I didn’t have to put up with their abuse anymore.

Iknowwhat’s different.

My eyes flick down Asher’s body, landing on the outline of his phone in his jeans. My brows come together, because I know… I know what I want.

No, I know what I need.

“Give me your phone.”

If this is going to work… and fuck me, Iknewwhen I started in on him that I wanted to make it work…

Well, Zander needs to see me now, at my worst.

He has to understand that the person he wants to be withisn’ta good person—a whole person.

And he’ll just have to find a way to want me despite it.

ChapterTwenty-Three

ZANDER

I should have known.I should have fucking known Kerian wouldn’t have feelings for me like I do for him. I should have known that he was only using me for sex and good orgasms. Maybe company from time to time. But he wasn’t really my boyfriend. I should have known that.

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