Page 108 of Nothing Without You

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Wishful thinking, I knew that.

But knowing is different from experiencing and sometimes what we know could change.

I hadhope.

Sometimes we didn't get the closure we wanted, but we needed it to survive in a world filled with people who simply didn't care.

Allowing myself to succumb to Christian was my way of seeking the closure I never got from our breakup.

When I thought I had moved on, the wounds tore open and bled onto the ground. I tried to dry them with the weight of my burdens, but it only made a bigger mess.

Here I stood, in a pool of new and dried blood—standing in front of Christian who held the knife.

Just once.

I wanted to decide on my own.

Starting now.

“Maybe,” I spoke with a voice completely unrecognizable—smoky and veiled behind a fire of unfiltered desire. “Thisisthe other world.”

Then I did what I’d wanted to do for a while.

I pressed my lips against his.

THIRTY-THREE

CHRISTIAN

Sunshine and allmine.

Adelaide’s lips searched for me in a haze of breathless exaggerations and overwhelming compulsions.

Her lips moved with hesitation and creased my jackets with her tight hold.

I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t think.

I couldn’t fuckingbreathe.

Kissing and being kissed was different.

She wanted this. She allowed this.

I would’ve moved away but she pulled me closer.

Me.She wanted me.

She stopped—I stayed frozen like a fucking idiot—and slowly began pulling away. “I’m…” Her neck flushed with red heat. “We probably shouldn’t.”

She stood there, right in front of me, lips twinkling with an invitation that took forever to receive.

Every night for the past month, I questioned whether I could have Adelaide and revenge.

Loving Adelaide was hurting her.

IgnoringEomma’swishes was forgetting her.

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