by K. Webster
“You two can have each other,” Nate says in a defeated tone as he walks backwards onto the balcony. “It was always going to end that way. I was just too stupid to believe her.” Then to Meredith he shakes his head, disgust on his face. “I loved you. Since we were kids. I loved you and you always loved him. You could have married me but you didn’t. You chose Duncan because marrying me would be ‘too obvious’ and we’d never get what we wanted. I fucking believed you. Fuck.”
He’s too close to the balcony edge. My heart is hammering in my chest but I don’t know what the fuck to do. I could charge for them but he’d probably slit her throat before I made it.
“Nate,” I choke out, approaching slowly so that I’m at the threshold, “we can talk this out, man. Just us. You’re my best friend. The girls can get out of here. We can have a drink and get this shit off our chest.”
For a moment, he considers it, and then he gives a violent shake of his head. “I’m not stupid, Win. I don’t walk out of this situation unscathed. But since this whole fucking thing is Ash’s fault, I don’t think she should walk out unscathed either. If I’m going down, she’s going with me.”
Down.
Down. Down. Down.
No.
“Nate!” Meredith yells, pointing to the right of the balcony where a gun is aimed his way.
As soon as Nate turns his head, a deafening crack can be heard as the person on the other end of the gun fires. I’m rushing forward even as Nate’s head snaps back, tracking each move with sharp calculations. Ash’s scream is otherworldly as Nate falls over the edge with Ash still in his grip. I’m already on the move, diving across the concrete, my arm chasing after them between the iron bars.
The side of my face digs painfully into the railing, but I don’t give a fuck because a tiny, feminine wrist is in my grasp. And she’s screaming. She’s screaming so fucking loud. Still so fucking close.
“Don’t drop me!”
My grip on her wrist is so tight I actually feel the bones pop from the pressure. She screams some more, her words littered with more curse words than I’ve ever heard in one sentence.
“Stop. Fucking. Moving,” I growl. “I’m going to drop your ass if you don’t stop.”
Her sobs are my undoing. If I can’t figure out a way to pull her up, she’ll drop sixteen floors and she won’t live. I can’t lose her. Fuck.
Meredith is crying hysterically from nearby. Shut the hell up.
“Don’t let go, boss,” Xavier growls. “I’m coming down to get her.”
I tighten my grasp on Ash, refusing to let go even if I break all the bones in her goddamn arm. If only I could see her. I want to see her face. I fucking need to see her face.
“Cinderelliott,” I rasp out. “I love you.”
Her sobs slow and she chokes out a teary laugh. “I hate you.”
“Wrong answer.”
“I’m hanging from the side of a building and now you tell me?! You’re the biggest asshole I know!”
“I wanted to make you work for it.”
At least when she’s talking, she’s not moving so goddamn much. My palm is sweaty but I don’t let go. I’ll never let go.
“Okay, boss,” Xavier bellows from a floor below. “You can let go now.”
“I can’t,” I whisper. “I can’t see you. I can’t.”
“You have to, man. You can’t hold on to her forever.”
“Fucking watch me,” I growl.
She screams and it feels as though she’s being tugged from my grip. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I try to hold on but she’s slipping. My hand is too slick from sweat.
“No,” I roar. “Nooo!”
“Win!” Ash screeches.
And then she’s gone.
One second she’s in my hand and the next she’s being yanked away by gravity.
“Got her,” Xavier yells. “She’s on the balcony below!”
“Win,” Ash cries out. “Win!”
“Ash!”
“I’m okay!” She sobs and her words are filled with disbelief. “Oh my God, I’m okay!”
Pain lances through my shoulder and I grimace as I pull my arm back through the iron bars. My face begins throbbing and I can feel burning across my chest. Rolling onto my back, I glance down to see blood seeping through my now torn dress shirt from skidding across the concrete. My shoulder is screaming like a motherfucker and I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a bruise the size of Texas on my face.
But she’s alive.
Ash, my crazy, annoying, so fucking beautiful girl with the bird is alive.
I can’t move because I’m too overcome with relief. I’d have given up everything if it meant saving her from a horrific death. The money and cars and company. It’s insane, but true.
“You love her,” Meredith whimpers from just inside the apartment. “You love her.”
“Put the gun down!” Todd bellows. “Now!”
Meredith shrieks and drops the Glock with a loud clatter. She starts crying for me to save her as he manhandles her to the ground. I can’t move. My heart is racing and all I can do is stare up at the ceiling of the balcony above me.
“Win!”
Ash’s voice is close and like fucking music to my ears. She appears in the doorway, face bruised and red and streaked with tears. So fucking pretty.
“I love it when you’re messy,” I murmur reaching my good arm for her. “Come here.”
With her wrist cradled to her chest, she falls to her knees beside me. I clutch on to her tangled hair, yanking her to my mouth. The kiss I give her is frantic and needy and so goddamn thankful. She tastes like cherry Starbursts and forever.
“I love you too,” she says between kisses. “I tried to tell you and your stupid ass wouldn’t listen.”
“Your mouth moves a lot and so much nonsense spills out, it’s hard to sift through to the important stuff.”
She smiles against my mouth. “You looooove me.”
“I take it back.”
“Too late. You said it. The damage is done.”
I kiss her again. That’s one way to shut her up. She doesn’t seem to mind.
“Win?” Her whispered breath tickles my lips.
“Hmm?”
“Thank you for saving me.”
“Don’t get used to the hero act, Cinderelliott.”
“Too late. I’ll expect daring displays to prove your love for me all the time now.”
“For fuck’s sake.”
“We can start with movie night. In your bed. Popcorn and candy.”
“What kind of candy?”
“Red gummy bears.”
“Hmm.”
She lifts up, her teary eyes meeting mine. “What?”
“Just thinking that if I get a cavity from that shit you force-feed me, I’m breaking up with you.”
Her lips spread into a beautiful grin I hope to see every day for as long as I live. “You’re my boyfriend. I can’t wait to tell your mom. She’s gonna freak when I tell her I told you so.”
“I bet she’ll freak all right.” I stroke my fingers through her hair. “Don’t tell her I told you so. I’ve already rescued you from one death. Let’s not make it two.”
She curls her body around mine, resting her head on my shoulder that’s still throbbing painfully. But I don’t care. I’m quite content in holding her.
Soon, we’ll have to get our injuries seen to. I’ll have to deal with the police and the fact Nate’s body is somewhere on the pavement. There’s the issue of Meredith and Manda. So much bullshit.
Until that time comes, I hold her for as long as I can.
I almost lost her.
Fuck.
The gravity of the situation hits me like a ton of bricks. She must feel it too because she cries softly against my neck, clinging to my tattered shirt.
We made it through.
We’ll always make it through.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Ash
Everything hurts and I’m dyin
g.
I want to whine, but how can I when I’m in Win’s bed watching him sleep? Seeing his bruised face relaxed and softened with sleep makes me tear up. He’s a sight to behold when he’s rocking his three-piece suits. But, something about seeing him in nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs and matching arm sling, his lips parted and his golden-blond lashes fanned over his slightly pink cheeks is the most beautiful I’ve ever seen him. His hair that’s usually styled so perfectly is messy and hanging over his brows. So perfect in this moment.
I’m aching to reach out and touch him. I don’t want to move, though. After getting back late from the emergency room in the early hours of the morning before the sun came up, we fell into bed completely exhausted. I didn’t even get to enjoy my first sleepover in his bed because I was in pain and traumatized after the day I’d had.
Nate’s dead.
I shiver, the entire bed moving. He’d hurt me and I thought I could handle that. Everything changed when he dragged me onto the balcony. I was scared to death. So afraid I’d never see Winston or my bird again. I didn’t want to die.
And yet I was yanked over the balcony.
I’d barely registered I was falling when a powerful hand snagged my arm. It hurt and my legs were dangling beneath me meeting nothing but air.
He caught me.
Win caught me.
And broke my wrist in the process.
Small price to pay for not dying.
Glancing down at the light blue cast, I smile. In black Sharpie, Winston wrote: CONSTANTINE PROPERTY – RETURN TO WINSTON IF LOST.
When my eyes leave my cast and fall to his chest, I wince in pain. He’s scabbed over. Looks like road rash. Since he dove across concrete to catch me, he shredded his chest and tore some ligaments in his shoulder. He’s going to most likely need surgery, but we’ll know more when he meets with a specialist next week.
“Creepy,” Win grumbles, his voice thick with sleep.
“What?” I dart my eyes to his, lifting a brow in question.
“You. Watching me. Please don’t tell me this is what I have to look forward to with you in my bed every night.”
I flash him a wicked grin. “Every single night. You chose this life, boyfriend. I was just minding my own business, living my own life, and there you had to go professing your love for me while also heroically saving me from falling to my death.”
“Hmm.”
Leaning forward, I try not to grimace at the tugging of my sore skin beneath the bandage on my neck, and press my lips to his. The fingers on his good hand card through my messy hair stroking me in a possessive way that makes my heart skip a beat.
“Can we stay in bed all day?” I murmur. “Please. I’ll pay you a million dollars.”
He groans. “This is going to go to your head, isn’t it? You don’t even have your supposed fortune and you’re already trying to use it to get what you want.”
“I literally learned that from you. It’s your signature move, Win. Lording your money over the lesser thans.”
“I’m not a lesser than, so don’t insult me.”
“A billion?”
He nips at my bottom lip. “Be quiet.”
“Bazillion?”
“Not a real number.” His grin is roguish. “Besides, you don’t know how much is coming to you. Could be a measly five hundred grand.”
“I’ll just borrow it from you. An IOU.”
“I’m not lending you money to give to me.”
“It’s for a good cause,” I say, teasing his dick with my fingertip through his boxers. “I’d make it worth your while.”
He’s hard, so I know he’s considering it.
Someone bangs on the bedroom door and I let out a shriek, nearly coming out of my skin.
“Francis is almost done with breakfast. Stop humping and get downstairs.”
“Perry,” Win growls. “You have a home. Go there.”
“While you’re on the mend, I’m the Constantine in charge,” Perry booms, all authoritative like he might actually convince someone. “Well, until Mom gets here.”
“Caroline’s coming over?”
“She’ll be here any minute.”
Winston sighs but he doesn’t really seem mad. If anything, there’s a lightness to his expression that wasn’t there before yesterday. He looks at me now like I might vanish, so his eyes linger for longer than they should. Each stare is a lover’s caress that makes me shiver.
“We’ll be right down,” Win calls out to Perry.
He grimaces as he slides out of bed. I hate that he’s in pain because of me but I’m also thankful he cared enough to put himself in harm’s way to save me.
“Stop staring at my ass and get dressed,” he grumbles, his back to me as he opens one of his dresser drawers.
“It’s a lovely ass.”
He tosses sweats at me followed by a T-shirt. Then, he yanks out a pair of sweats for himself. As though he’s not even injured, he uses one hand with an admirable gracefulness to pull the sweats on.
God he’s hot.
Even scraped up and bruised and in a sling.
All the golden, muscled curves of his upper body are on full display. His dick that’s still hard bulges beneath the gray material making my mouth water.
“Move your ass,” he barks out, sounding more like himself than he has since the drama from last night.
He saunters into the bathroom and I can hear the water at the sink turn on. I’m not nearly as graceful as he is while trying to pull on his clothes. They swallow me but they smell like him which makes me happy. This isn’t my best look, but Caroline will just have to deal with it. Once I’m dressed, I make my way into the bathroom where he’s brushing his teeth. I can’t help but grin at his sexy reflection.
“What?” he demands around the toothbrush that’s jammed in his mouth.
“You’re kinda hot right now. Like a bad boy rather than a suit. I’m into it.”
He rolls his eyes and spits. “Do something about your hair, Cinderelliott. It’s criminal.”
Ignoring him, I brush my teeth and then gently wash my face with one hand. When I’m done struggling and wincing against the pain, I notice his irritated expression has morphed into a fierce glower.
He grips my hips and turns me toward him. Intense blue eyes catalogue each bruise on my face. Then, with such a gentleness I nearly sob, he strokes his thumb over my bottom lip.
“So beautiful,” he murmurs, making my heart flutter wildly. He moves his thumb along my sore cheek to my jaw. “So mine.”
A smile tugs at my lips and he kisses it away. I could stay like this forever—wrapped up in his loving embrace with his powerful lips on mine. He steps back and assesses my hair.
“Except that. Your hair looks like total shit. Seriously. Put a hat on.”
“There he is,” I grumble as I snatch my hairbrush off the counter. “There’s my guy.”
“Your guy?” He scoffs, plucking the hairbrush from my grip. “Your man. Guy makes me seem like I’m Tate.” He says Tate like I say Layla. Poor Tate and Layla. “I’m not Tate.”
He tugs on the hairband in my hair, pulling it loose from the tangled bun it was in. Once my hair tumbles over my shoulders, he moves around me, brushing out the tangles with such patience and care, I decide I’d fall in love with him right here in this moment if I already hadn’t.
But I have.
And he loves me too.
“That smile means trouble,” he complains, brows furrowed as he brushes my hair.
“Hmm.”
“That’s my line.”
“We share now.”
“You’re going to drive me fucking crazy from here on out, aren’t you?”
“It’s one of the things you love about me.”
His eyes roll again, and without his billionaire badass power suit on, he looks boyish and much younger than his nearly forty years. He doesn’t argue my words which makes me ridiculously happy.
Since we’re both injure
d, neither of us can manage to put my hair back up, so he settles for swooping it over one shoulder, hiding the bandage that covers the cut on my neck. The nurse at the hospital didn’t think it’d leave a bad scar. I don’t care either way. I’m alive and with Win. That’s all that matters to me.
Win doesn’t put on a shirt much to my utter delight. We walk hand in hand downstairs to an apartment full of people. All Win’s siblings—even the ones I haven’t officially met. The two women, who I learn are Vivian and Elaine from a quick introduction, are flawless beauties like their mother—elegant but fierce and dressed in the most expensive clothes money can buy. The younger siblings are all wearing variations of something comfortable—Tinsley in a T-shirt dress, Keaton in basketball shorts and a Pembroke Rugby T-shirt, and Perry in a pair of plaid shorts that are probably supposed to be worn with a Polo or something but he’s paired it with a white undershirt with a coffee stain on it.
“I have to eat breakfast while looking at that?” Vivian asks, waving a manicured hand at Winston’s scabbed, naked chest. “Vomit.”
He ignores her, abandoning me with his siblings, no doubt on a hunt for coffee. I curl up next to Perry on the sofa. His arm wraps around me and the tension in him bleeds away.
“You look like shit, Ash,” he says. “Seriously. So bad.”
Elaine smirks at his words but says nothing from where she’s perched in a chair.
“Says the guy wearing an outfit that he looks like he pulled out of the dumpster behind Dillard’s,” I say back sweetly.
Keaton and Tinsley both laugh. Shrimp sings from the chandelier as though he’s joining in. So cute.
“When’s Mom supposed to be here?” Keaton asks as someone knocks. “Damn. Speak of the devil.” He stands up and saunters over to the door. Caroline breezes in, dressed in a tailored suit, wearing too-tall spiked heels, and hair smoothed to perfection. Her eyes find me and she actually winces.
Great. I really do look like shit.
“You should see the other guy,” I joke, but then bite on my bottom lip because it’s not that funny considering half of Nate will probably have to be pressure-washed off the sidewalk.
Caroline purses her lips, ignoring my words before turning to her older daughters. “Thank you for indulging me by agreeing to brunch here rather than at the house.”
