Unbreak Me (15 page)

I am insane with wanting her. I don’t care where we are. I don’t care that she’s just kissed another man. I need this woman despite that.

Fuck all reason
, I need her because of it.

I slide my hand up her dress, tracing the edge of her panties with my fingers.

Her hips buck and her back arches as she rocks toward me.

“Tell me you don’t want me to take you here,” I whisper. “Tell me you don’t want me to bend you over this vanity. Tell me you don’t want to watch in the mirror as I take you in his bathroom.” I slide my fingers down the seam of her ass and cup her from behind.

She gasps and licks her lips. She’s struggling to maintain control. “Yes,” she breathes. “Please.”

I press my lips to her ear. “Tell me that you care about me.”

In the mirror, I watch her eyes flutter open. “What if I don’t care about anyone?”

I move my hand, rub her, and I’m rewarded with a throaty moan. I could touch this woman for hours if she’d let me. I want to make her lose hold of that control she holds so close. I want to break down her walls.

I slide my fingers into her panties from behind. “You’re so damn wet,” I murmur, touching her clit.

She moans softly.

A knock sounds at the bathroom door.

“Maggie, are you okay in there?”

Maggie pushes my hand from between her legs and spins around. She grabs my shirt, holding me still.

“My mother,” she whispers.

“Yes, Maggie, we’re worried about you,” another voice calls.

“And Granny,” Maggie whispers.

I groan softly.
Nothing
could kill my hard-on right now, but the word
Granny
certainly kills the mood.

“Yeah, I’m okay. I just needed a minute alone.”

“Maggie, are you sure that this isn’t all just a reaction to seeing Will marry someone else?”

Good question, Granny
.

Maggie shakes her head.

“Or maybe you’re feeling bad about yourself because you see Krystal starting this great life and yours is in shambles.”

“What about that nice man she’s here with tonight?”

“Oh, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” the other voice protests. “I can hardly see that working out.”

“Maggie, even if it doesn’t work out, I’m glad you’re getting yourself some tail.”

“Granny!” Maggie screeches, breaking her silence.

I chuckle silently and Maggie thumps me in the chest.

“I’m sorry, but a girl that young shouldn’t keep herself cloistered.”

Maggie rubs her hand over her eyes in obvious distress.

“So, what? You want her to tramp all over town?”

“Gretchen, sex is natural. God gave your daughter those parts for a reason.”

“Yes, so she could get married to a good Catholic man and make good Catholic babies.”

“But until she finds that man—”

“Mom! Granny! Please!” Maggie begs.

She shoots me a death glare when I have to bite back laughter.

Maggie turns on the sink and calls over the running water, “Give me a minute to wash my face, and I’ll be out.”

“Okay, dear.”

“If there isn’t anything we can get you.”

The women’s voices fade as one asks the other, “Where did her delicious-looking date run off to?”

As the sound of their steps fades, I let myself laugh. “They’re quite a pair.”

Maggie splashes water on her face. “They mean well. We should get back.”

With a sigh, I nod toward the door. “Go ahead. I’ll meet up with you in a few.”

“Rumors are already probably flying that I ran in here in despair and I’m desperate to get Will back to fix my broken life.”

A fist tightens in my chest at her words. “Are you?”

She closes her eyes. “No one can fix me, Asher. That includes you.”

I let her leave. I let her shut me out. For now.

A few minutes later, I return to the party, but when I survey the room, I don’t see Maggie anywhere.

“She left.”

I turn to see Maggie’s sister Krystal. “Left?”

She shakes her head. “Leave it to Maggie to leave a party without telling her date.”

“It’s kind of a kick in the balls,” I admit.

Her face relaxes a little. “I’m a big fan, by the way, and that’s kind of an awkward thing to admit to my little sister’s boyfriend.”

“Thanks.” I arch a brow. “Did she call me her boyfriend?”

Krystal snorts. “Are you kidding? She’s hardly talking to me. I stole her man, remember?”

“Hmm. That’s not exactly how she explained it to me.”

Silence stretches between us for a few beats before Krystal says, “I am sorry, you know. Everything’s just so screwed up.” She swallows and tears well up in her eyes. When she speaks again, I can hardly hear her. “Will’s always been in love with Maggie, and I’ve always been in love with Will.”

“And what about Maggie?”

Krystal frowns. “Maggie? Maggie’s too busy hating herself to love anyone.”

Chapter Twelve

William

“You should have told me that you didn’t want to marry me,” I tell Krystal.

She freezes in the middle of sliding a diamond stud from her ear. “What?”

Her lips part. For a minute I think she might feign ignorance, but instead, she sinks into the chair at her vanity and looks at her hands. “I do want to marry you.”

Everyone’s left for the night, and I can’t put this conversation off anymore.

I study her in the mirror and feel hollow. She looks beautiful tonight. Her hair is pulled off her neck in some sort of twist, and she’s wearing a long black dress that makes her look jaw-droppingly elegant. Under the dress, the bra and panties I bought her for Valentine’s Day.

On paper, we are so good for each other. We’re well-educated, like-minded, and we want the same things out of life. We love each other.

Why isn’t that enough?

“If you want to marry me,” I say slowly, “why did you sabotage our wedding?”

A teary streak of mascara runs down her face. Her lashes are damp with tears when she looks up at me. “Because you still love her.” The words are matter of fact, not thrown like an insult or accusation, simply delivered like an unfortunate truth.

“But I love you too.” My voice breaks on the words.

“I know you do.”

“Then
why?
” I sink to my knees and take her hands in mine.

She threads her fingers through my hair. “I didn’t want to live my life wondering if the man sleeping next to me would rather be sleeping next to someone else.”

I squeeze my eyes shut, guilty of the crime. “I needed you to believe in me. In us. The wedding…it made me question everything. It made me question us.”

“I needed time.”

“Time for what?”

“To prove to myself that things were over between you and Maggie.” She gives a sad smile. “But that’s not what happened, and I realized I wasn’t even living my own life. I was living the life you and Maggie had planned.”

“Why didn’t you just ask to postpone the wedding?”

“I was afraid you would think I was running away. Like she did.”

Her hands are so soft. I kiss each knuckle, then I open her hand and press her palm to my lips.

“It’s over, isn’t it?” she asks.

“I never thought it would end like this.”

She squeezes my hand. “We can’t pretend that this is enough anymore.”

The silence cracks with a ragged sob. Hers? Mine? I wrap my arms around her waist and lay my head in her lap. She combs her fingers through my hair as she cries.

I know she’s right, but that doesn’t make this hurt any less. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I couldn’t let her go.”

Minutes pass with nothing but our breath and her tears filling the silence, then Krystal gently pushes me back and pastes on a smile. “We’re both going to be fine.”

I stare at her, the reality of what has just happened settling in further with each beat of my heart. “Will you stay on? Continue to be a part of the gallery?”

She gives a sad smile. “I’ll be there through the opening. After…” She shakes her head. “It was never my dream. It was yours and Maggie’s. I was just the understudy.”

***

Maggie

She won’t stop crying and no one can calm her down.

“He was so perfect. Why do things have to fall apart like this? Why can’t people just live happily ever after?” She draws in a long, shaky breath and wipes her snotty nose.

Lizzy casts a pleading look at me over her shoulder before returning to patting and cooing. “Everything happens for a reason. Krystal’s going to be okay, Mom.”

I drag my hand over my face. Sunday morning brunch has been hijacked by the announcement of Krystal and Will’s breakup. They delivered the news together, holding hands, and I thought how much stronger she is than I am.

When I called off my wedding, I didn’t want to look at anyone, and I left town as quickly as I could. Not Krystal. She delivered the news with her shoulders back and her chin high. Then she and Will hugged before he left.

It would have been relatively painless if my mom wasn’t so beside herself.

I turn away from mom’s tears and run into Krystal. I’ve been avoiding her all morning, afraid she’d blame me.

“Can we talk outside?” she asks softly.

I nod and follow her out back. The sky is gray and it’s drizzled on and off all morning. A year ago, when I told Will I couldn’t go through with the wedding, the weather was like this. We walked by the river, letting the rain disguise our tears as I fed him small pieces of the truth.

I told him about how much I bled at the river and that I went to the hospital. I didn’t tell him it wasn’t a miscarriage.

I told him it was okay because I wasn’t ready to be a mom anyway. I didn’t tell him I would be giving my baby to someone else.

I told him I felt like I’d pushed him into marrying me. I didn’t tell him that the baby wasn’t his.

The memory makes me cold and I freeze in my tracks at the deck steps.

Krystal’s halfway down the path to the river before she realizes I’ve stopped. She turns and waves me down. “Come on, Mags.”

I swallow and push myself forward to catch up. When I reach her, she doesn’t say anything but continues walking. Neither of us speaks until we’re stepping onto the dock.

“I was always so jealous of you,” she says softly.

“What?” My oldest sister is about as perfect as a person can get. I can’t imagine why she would have ever been jealous of me. “Why?”

She shrugs. “You were the fun one, the cool one. Even when you were young and Will didn’t see you as anything more than a kid, he loved to be around you.”

“He hung around all of us,” I object. “Not just me.”

“I was the boring one.”

“You’re not boring.”

Her eyes connect to mine. She looks so tired. “It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault you shined so bright.”

I swallow hard. “You think I shined bright?”

“Brighter than the sun since the day you were born,” she whispers. “It’s not your fault that Will’s still in love with you.”

“Oh, Krys.”

“I don’t blame you anymore.” She takes a breath. “I used to, but I don’t anymore.”

My heart squeezes in my chest and I don’t know what to say.

“I blame myself. I knew he was in love with you, but I wanted him anyway. I told myself it was okay because you left.” She shakes her head. “But it wasn’t okay. He’s always been yours.”

The forgiveness is in her eyes, and it hurts too much. I walk to the end of the dock and look out into the water. A raindrop hits my cheek and another hits my shoulder, but I don’t turn back to the house.

“Will you try to go back to Will?” she asks. “Once everything settles down?”

I watch the rain hit the water, watch the tiny drop get swallowed up by the water. My tongue is heavy, as if it’s weighed down by wet sand from the river’s bottom.

“You don’t have to tell me, obviously,” she says, “but I know he’d take you in a heartbeat.”

Krystal is offering me a gift that I can’t take. Being with Will would mean I would have to tell him the truth—and the secrets I’ve kept from him, I don’t think he could ever forgive.

Chapter Thirteen

Asher

A knock at my door pulls me from sleep. I roll over and look at the clock.

Five a.m. is way too damn early for company.

I drag myself from under the covers, grabbing a pair of jeans off the floor and tugging them on as I make my way to the door. I’m in my apartment in New York, a place I keep for the sole purpose of the one week a month I get to keep my daughter. If it weren’t for her, I’d get rid of the damn place. New York is toxic to me, but I won’t spend the little time I get with Zoe in a damn hotel room.

The knock sounds again.

“I’m coming,” I mutter, pulling the door open without checking the peephole.

Juliana stands on the other side, her mouth drawn into a pout, annoyance coloring her features.

I cross my arms. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“Sure, I’d love to come in. You’re such a gentleman.” She pushes past me and into the apartment, and my mind is filled with flashes of memories from the days we lived here together. We’d party and roll in about this time and barely make it through the door before we fucked.

Now I never bring women here, and instead of weed and beer bottles, the living room is littered with pink toys.

Suddenly, she turns her appraising eyes to me, my bare chest. Her smile is approving. And a little lopsided. “What do you know?”

“Not much before a decent cup of coffee,” I mutter, ignoring the heat in her eyes and the suggestion of her smile. If I’m guessing right, Juliana is drunk or close to it.

Her eyes drop to my crotch. “You’re looking good, Asher. So good I haven’t stopped thinking about you since you came by the house this afternoon.”

I sigh and point to the clock. “That would be yesterday.”

“Such a stickler for details.”

“Where’s Zoe?”

“At home in bed.”

My jaw ticks.

“What? The nanny’s there. She’s
fine
.”

“Juliana, you need to understand something.”