Page 12 of Neverland

“Easton.” Those full lips that have lingered in all my dreams part in a perfect O. Her eyes dart all around the coffee shop.

“Eyes on me, Neverland.” All of her attention jerks back to me. I reach over and close her laptop. “I said get up.”

She sits up a bit straighter, a flash of annoyance on her face. I’ve always loved her backbone, but right now, I’m not having it. It takes everything inside of me not to snatch her out of her seat. I don’t want to make a scene. I lean forward and make that clear to her.

She’s so used to the soft version of me. The one who holds back. I held back for years when she was at my fingertips. Then she was yanked from me. Any control I ever had is hanging by a thread.

“We can make a scene or you can do as you’re told.” I reach down and pick up her laptop off the table. Her brows pull together in irritation. All it does is make my cock jerk in my pants. There’s my girl.

She licks her lips but gets up, grabbing her bag and coffee. I put my hand on her back. She doesn’t fight it as I lead her toward my SUV and open the door for her. She slips in without question. I go around and get in on the other side before the driver takes off.

The car falls silent. I want to grab her and pull her to me, but still an anger I can’t explain simmers across my whole body. I need to get myself under control before I do something I can’t take back.

Like rip her clothes off and take her right here. How many times did she try and get me to do that when she was still in high school? So fucking tempting but then I’d have to kill my driver for seeing her naked.

“You don’t understand,” she finally whispers, playing with the bottom of her shirt. Doing anything she can not to look at me. I can’t stop staring at her.

I don’t want her to feel ashamed, but my patience has all but run out. It’s hard enough to not grab her and smother her with my body, wanting her smell and taste on me. It’s been so long.

I’m still in somewhat of a state of shock that she’s finally sitting beside me. Don’t get me wrong, I always imagined this day would come, but that is vastly different from it actually happening. I try to calm myself, concentrating on each breath of air I can get into my lungs.

“You’re right, I don’t, but that doesn’t matter anymore.” Finally she flicks a glance toward me.

“You could be ruining everything right now. How did you find me?”

A humorless laugh leaves me. “You really thought I wouldn't find you?” She glances out the window. I hate it. I want to see her face to read every expression she has. I thought not having her was hard, but having her at my fingertips is almost unbearable when I can’t touch her. The reminder of how it felt to have her look at me like I was the only thing that mattered in her world is not something I’ll ever be able to go without again.

“Where are we going?”

“Away.” Now, that gets her attention.

“What do you mean? I can’t just leave!”

“Your father and sister will be alerted. No one else. You won’t even be on the flight manifest.”

“Flight manifest!” she screams. Her reaction shouldn’t make my cock jerk once again, but it does. She can breathe and I’m turned on. Nothing has changed on that front. It’s always been that way for me when it comes to her.

I should have seen her next move coming, but I was too focused on her to anticipate it. Thankfully, my girl gets her coffee iced because the contents of it fly through the air directly into my face, drenching me and my suit.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?” She lets out the sexiest evil laugh which I didn’t know was a thing until it passed her lips. “Just like you thought you wouldn't find me. You also thought I wouldn’t find out abouther.” Her anger is tangible, but there’s also hurt laced in her words.

Fuck, I shouldn’t play into this. But damn, the fire I see in her reminds me of the love I knew we had. That we still have for each other. She just needs to be reminded. I want all of it. It might be selfish, but I want to bathe in it. Her love and jealousy for me. I’m greedy and starved for it. For her.

“You can fuck so far off.” She turns her beautiful face from me. I can’t have that. It’s been too long since I got to stare into it. I grab her chin and jerk her attention back to me, not giving a shit that I’m covered in her coffee. “What are you going to do, blow our cover?”

“Neverland.”

“Don’t call me that!” she screams in my face, showing me all the pain she’s been going through right along with me.

“What do you want?” I ask her. Her eyes lock dead with mine.

“I want you six feet under.” She bares her teeth at me.

Years of anger rise to the surface for her. At this moment she's not realizing how much of herself she’s exposing to me. My girl knows on some level she can throw anything at me and I’ll take it from her. If she wants to rage, she can do it and I’ll take it all. Every single bit of it. I know I’m the only person she’s ever been able to let out her true feelings to. Each day when she went home, she put on a brave face. With me, there was no pretending.

Her behavior is so different from the girl I first met all those years ago. The one I had to lure out of her shell when we were in high school. Back then, she had just lost her mom and had so much weight resting on her shoulders. But I always saw fire and passion in her eyes.

It’s not a surprise to me that she has become successful. Her drive was something I envied. The world was laid at my feet, and I didn’t give a shit. In fact, I resented it …until her. She gave me a purpose, and then they thought they could take her from me.

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