This time, I pull my hand from him. “I’m not saying you’re wrong, Blake. I’m not saying anything you just said isn’t true, but...out of everything that you said, what was said about doing what’s best for me?”
He furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”
I’m feeling more reassurance in what I’m thinking now, and I decide to just lay it all out there. “You talk about how you need me and how I benefit your life, but...how did you ever benefit me? What did you ever add to my life?”
He sat back in his seat and straightened out his tie. “I never forgot our anniversary. I always got you flowers when you were feeling down. I cuddled you every night until you fell asleep--which you always did first because you sleep like a baby. I gave a lot to our relationship, and to you. How can you just forget that?”
“It’s not that I forgot it,” I clarified. “It’s that...it didn’t matter. You bought me flowers because I was feeling down after an argument we would have. You didn’t forget our anniversary because I would make a notification in your calendar. And when you cuddled me at night? It felt more like you were trying to stop me from leaving, rather than love me for staying.”
He looked shaken at my words, but I was only just getting started.
“I didn’t see it that way at the time. I was blissfully ignorant and thought that was just the way relationships were supposed to be. I thought that that was the best I deserved, but...then you left. You left and I had to pick up all the pieces by myself, and that’s when I realized that none of those pieces fit together. It had always been broken. We had always been broken.”
“Emma--” Blake began, but I cut him off.
“No, Blake. You left to find yourself. I don’t know if you actually did, or if that’s what you really wanted in the first place. All I know is that in that time...I’ve started--slowly--to do exactly that. I’m beginning to find myself, and, most importantly, beginning to learn what I really deserve.”
He cleared his throat and took a deep breath. “Wow. I didn’t realize that this...us...was so irreparable.”
I didn’t say anything, just waited for him to finish his thought.
“We had some good things though, didn’t we?” He looked over me longingly, and I recognized the look of desire in his eyes that I’d seen only sporadically in the past. It used to make my entire body tingle, my heart pound faster knowing that the man I loved wanted me. He wanted me.
And that was all I’d ever really been searching for in our relationship. It had always been a game of give and never receive, and the few times that he would dangle a morsel of love in front of me, I’d bend over backwards to earn it.
“I mean, together--like together--we were really good,” Blake continued. “We had something special. We had that chemistry.”
My mind drifted to Dylan. Before meeting him, I would have agreed with Blake. I would have said yes, we had something sensual and exciting. But now? I was realizing that the only excitement with Blake was in the chase--in convincing him to want me back.
I didn’t have to do that with Dylan.
Everything between us was mutual, and the way he made me feel--hell, the way he made me come--was beyond the most sensual, exciting, spiritual, life-changing experience I’d ever had. Sitting here now with Blake, there was not a doubt in my mind of who I really wanted.
And it wasn’t Blake.
“I’m sorry, Blake. I think I’m going to go back and join the wedding,” I told him, pushing open my car door and stepping out into the parking lot.
He exited the car on his side and walked over to where I was standing. “Emma, can I just say one thing?”
I paused for a moment, then finally nodded. After years together, I honestly didn’t feel any ill will toward him. I wasn’t angry that he had left me anymore. Hell, I wasn’t even angry he was here with my freaking cousin. I just felt like he was a chapter in my life that I’d long since closed. And that I didn’t want to revisit.
I was having too much fun writing the chapter I’m in now.
“Sure,” I concede, deciding to give him that small courtesy.
He stepped closer to me, his hand circling my upper arm and causing me to step back. When I did, my back hit the car and I found myself temporarily trapped between his large frame and the car door. His other hand found my chin, and he gently tilted my face up to look at him.
“I just want you to know how sorry I am,” he finally said, after surveying my face for a moment. “I am going to love you for the rest of my life, and I’m going to do everything I can to grow and become the man you deserve. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day? One day, you’re going to see that you and I are meant to be together. One day, we’re going to find our way back to each other.”
I gave him a small smile, but all I felt was sadness. Not even for myself, but for him. For him to think that that was ever going to happen. For myself to think that I had ever once found this man to be my everything.
Without warning, Blake leaned forward and placed his lips against mine. He kissed me softly and gently, and even though my initial thought was to pull away...I didn’t. I let him have just this. This goodbye. It was a parting gift, a small favor, and the very last time I would ever think of him again.
Finally, he pulled away and gazed in my eyes.
I blinked and cleared my throat.
“Goodbye, Blake,” I whispered, then stepped sideways until I was free from his embrace.
And that’s when I saw Dylan.
He was standing at the entrance to the venue, his hand on the door as if he’d just walked out and then paused mid-step. But that wasn’t what I was focused on. It was his expression, the ache in his eyes as he watched me. The slight downward tilt on the corners of his mouth.
I knew full well what he had just seen.
I knew full well how badly I had just hurt him.
Dylan took a step backward, a small shake of his head. Then he turned and walked back inside.
And took my heart with him.
Chapter Six
Dylan
Is it even possible to feel heartbroken by a woman I’m not even in a relationship with? Or were Emma and I in a relationship and just hadn’t labeled it that yet?
Honestly, I didn’t know what we were or where we were going to end up together. I had never really thought that far ahead. What I did know, however, was that when I walked outside to look for her and found her kissing Blake...I felt the unmistakable pain of heartbreak.
Heading back to my assigned table, I grabbed my suit jacket off of the back of the chair I’d been sitting in. The table had been mostly abandoned as everyone was either on the dance floor, at the bar, or starting to filter their way out of the venue and head home. It had been a long, yet beautiful wedding--at least, until that moment.
Sandy, however, was still seated at the table by herself. She was stirring a cocktail with a small straw and looking forlorn. She glanced up at me when I was pulling on my jacket.
“Hey,” she said simply. “Seen Blake around?”
I scoffed, trying to control what I really wanted to say. “Yep. Just spotted him and Emma outside.”
“He’s with Emma?” Sandy looked immediately concerned, and I wasn’t sure if I was the one who was supposed to break the news to her. “Like...with her?”
I paused for a moment, trying to decide if I wanted to be the bearer of bad news. I sighed and then nodded. “Yeah. They were definitely together together. Sorry. I’m headed out. Have a great evening.”
She looked dejected and forlorn, and, for a moment, I almost felt sorry for her. It took me a moment to remind myself that she’d brought Blake here to hurt Emma in the first place, so it was partially her fault that karma was now biting back at her. Hell, the more I thought about it, the more I was mad at her for bringing Blake. None of this shit would have happened if she’d stayed in her own lane.
But then, I may never have known the truth.
I may never have known th
at Emma wasn’t feeling any of the same things that I was feeling. She’d already given that part of herself to Blake and he wasn’t letting go--and, it would seem, that she wasn’t interested in him letting go either.
Heading for the exit--a different exit than the one I’d spotted Emma and Blake canoodling behind moments ago--I decided to circle around the entire building to avoid Emma on my way to my car. There was a big family and wedding party brunch tomorrow morning, so I figured I’d just say goodbye to everyone then instead of now.
Which reminded me, I needed to move my flight back to tomorrow. I’d cancelled it entirely, deciding to take a week, or maybe more, off to spend with Emma. I had enough vacation days saved up at work and I was partner now. I could really do whatever I wanted.
But what I wanted was to get the hell away from here, and even farther away from Emma.
After a ridiculously long walk in an attempt to circumvent Emma to get to my car, I found myself staring directly at her. She was standing in front of the driver’s side door of my car. I had to hand it to her, she clearly knew me well enough to know I was going to be leaving the moment I witnessed what she’d done.
“You’re leaving,” she said as I approached her slowly, rolling my keys around in my hand.
I nodded, but didn’t make direct eye contact with her. I didn’t think I could. I wasn’t sure what I would feel, and, even more so, I wasn’t sure what I’d do. All I knew was that a lump was beginning to form in my throat and there was a pounding in my chest as if my heart wanted to escape my ribs and run as far from pain--from her--as it could.
“I know you think you saw what you saw, but nothing happened.” There was an ache in her voice, and there was no denying that she was hurting.
I guess guilt does that to you.
“Nothing happened?” I repeated. “Emma, I saw you and Blake with my own eyes. You were kissing each other.”
She looked frustrated, her brows scrunched together and her lips pointed down. “I know, but it wasn’t anything. It was...I don’t know, but I promise you, I didn’t want that.”
“I know he kissed you, Emma. I saw that much. But I also saw your reaction. I saw that you didn’t pull away. In fact, you closed your eyes and you leaned in.” An all too familiar ache rose in my chest again as the memory played out before my eyes. “You wanted that kiss. You wanted him. And I just don’t have room for that in my life.”
“Dylan…”
“It may seem stupid. May have been too soon, even. But...I was beginning to feel things with you, Emma. Things that I hadn’t felt in a long time. Things I hadn’t even known I wanted to feel.” I cleared my throat, trying to keep tears at bay. My heart was pounding so loud, I could barely hear above it. “But seeing you kissing him, less than an hour after your lips were on mine--my dick inside you--me still inside you? I realized I was only kidding myself. I’m a fool for thinking this weekend was anything more than a Tinder hook-up.”
With that, I walked around her and climbed into the front seat of my car. I quickly pulled on my seatbelt and then sat there for a moment, my hands gripping the steering wheel as I tried to decide what I wanted to do.
Did I really want to drive away? Did I really want to leave her?
I looked up to see her standing a small way from the car. She was watching me and tears were streaming down her face. She wasn’t doing anything to hide them or push them away. She just looked...defeated. She looked lost.
Guilt swarmed in my belly as I wondered if I’d been too harsh. Had I made the wrong decision?
Then the door to the venue behind Emma opened and Blake stepped in to view.
I couldn’t hear him, but his mouth moved and it looked like he was calling out to her. She turned around to look at him, and I saw him smile. It was warm and happy, and there was a hope in his eyes that I hadn’t seen earlier in his desperation.
I knew then and there that I had made the right choice. She was going to give Blake another shot. She was always going to have picked him.
Placing my key in the ignition, I moved the car into drive and made my way out of the parking lot. I heard a ping and glanced over at my phone that was lying on the passenger seat. Emma’s name popped onto the screen, but I didn’t bother to look at it. I wasn’t going to read it. I was going to delete it, and her, as soon as I got to the hotel.
It had been a great weekend, but that’s all it was ever going to be. One weekend.
One quick fling.
One night stand.
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Keep reading for a short excerpt from another novel!
A Sneak Peek of Wylde Fire
A Contemporary Southern Romance
Now Live!
booksbysarahrobinson.net/wylde-fire/
Prologue
Flames flickered high in the rickyard, the strong scent of sugar maple and whiskey tickling Sam Wylde's nose as he watched the blaze grow higher. There was nothing he loved more than preparing for the first season of his brand-new company launch in Wyldefire Whiskey.
He'd spent the last five years building toward the launch of this business. Blood, sweat, tears. Name it, he'd done it. But it wasn't without sacrifice. As Sam watched the flames grow higher, he thought of everything he'd lost in the last year and everything he'd sacrificed in order to make Wyldefire the leading new brand of whiskey in the country.
There was one question he had to keep asking himself…
Was it worth it?
Chapter One
"You cannot do this to me, Cassie," Sam Wylde argued over the speakerphone attached to his truck's dashboard. He cringed as his Southern drawl came out a little thicker than usual. Frustration did that to him, and right now it was taking everything in him to not start cussing.
With a deft twist of his wrist, he steered his truck into the parking lot next to Town Hall, cutting off another car with a halfhearted wave of acknowledgement. He needed to pick up several permits before the city offices closed, leaving no room for pleasantries.
Damn, for a Saturday, the lot sure is packed.
He sighed and forced his attention back to the phone call. "We've got a few months until the launch of the entire brand. Everything I've done the last two years is riding on this."
"I'm really sorry," Cassie, his event planner, said from the other end of the phone. Or former event planner, apparently. "But I can't be in two places at once, and neither can my influencers and vendors. We're booked for that day now."
Teetering on the brink of exploding, Sam breathed in slowly. "But. You. Signed. With. Us. First." He ground the words out slow and steady.
"Technically, I haven't signed an actual contract. I was helping you out as a favor to Noah," Cassie informed him. "And where I go…so do my connections."
Sam needed no reminders that his cousin was a major pain in his ass. There was no doubt in his mind Cassie quitting on the launch was directly related to Noah Wylde breaking things off romantically between the two of them yesterday. Yes, yesterday. Sam was pretty out of touch with the small-town gossip vine, but even he'd heard about the messy, public break up last night. Bringing his cousin into the business had been at the not-so-subtle suggestion of his father and uncle, and Sam had never regretted acquiescing to their demands more.
Despite his frustrations with his cousin, Wyldefire Whiskey was still Sam's pride and joy. He and his cousin, along with a silent partner, Caleb Daughtry, had built their own distillery from the ground up and begun crafting their own brand of Tennessee whiskey. The first batch was being bottled now, and, in a few months, they'd be on liquor store shelves nationwide. He'd hir
ed Cassie to plan their giant grand opening launch party at a swanky hotel in Nashville, only a short distance from the distillery—and Sam's hometown—in River Ridge, Tennessee. It was the last step in a massive public relations campaign for the entire brand.
"There's no one else in town who does events this large, Cassie. Especially last minute." He hated begging, but right now, he had no other choice. Cassie was an extremely well-connected socialite across the South who had come highly recommended by his PR company. He'd already put thousands of dollars into the brand's publicity, and a launch party filled with celebrities and social influencers she'd bring was supposed to be the final piece they needed to make their whiskey a household name.
"Like I said, I'm sorry," Cassie continued, zero remorse in her tone. "I'll make sure you get your check back on Monday. Have a great weekend!"
The line went dead and Sam slammed his foot against the brake, coming to a dead stop in the middle of the parking lot. His hands were clenched so tightly around the wheel, there was a good chance he'd snap it in half.
"Sonofabitch!" His anger bubbled over, exploding at no one in particular.
Disconnecting the call, he placed his foot back on the gas and turned into the next aisle of cars to look for a spot. Pulling his truck past the open spot just enough to give him room to reverse, he shifted gears and anchored his arm behind the passenger seat, looking out the rear window.
One Night Stand: An Erotic Serial: Episode Three Page 3
