Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 116759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
My breath whooshed right out of my body.
The crowd of dancers had all stumbled away from the skirmish that had broken out between Sebastian and Chris. Considering my ex was drunk and Bastian wasn’t, it wasn’t a fight as much as it was an annihilation.
Sebastian was pummeling Chris, his expression tight and wild all at the same time.
“Stop him!” I lunged toward the fighting men, but Zac held me back.
“No, you’ll get hurt.”
However, Harry seemed to sense what I could.
Sebastian wasn’t going to stop.
He braved the fighting men and grabbed Sebastian under his arms, gripping him by the chest for leverage. Sebastian tried to resist, but Harry was as determined to get him away as Sebastian was to stay and kill my ex. Finally, Harry yelled something that made Sebastian give in a little. He hauled him off and shoved Sebastian through the crowd toward the exit.
Chris lay groaning in the middle of the dance floor, blood spilling from his nose, one eye already swelling shut.
“We need to get out of here now!” Zac started guiding me after Harry and Sebastian, the girls hurrying along with us. I barely remembered getting out of the club I was in such a shaken daze. My stomach roiled as we hurried up through the building and out onto Blair Street.
“Keep moving.” Zac’s grip was hard around my biceps. “We need to get away from here.”
Harry and Sebastian stormed ahead, eating up the ground with their long legs.
“What just happened?” Jan was at my side as Sierra and Maddie huddled along with us.
“That was Chris.” My voice shook. “My ex.”
Jan halted. “The son of a bitch who stalked you?”
“What?” Zac snapped, horrified. “And keep moving.”
Jan started running after us. “Well?”
“Aye, the same,” I bit out. It wasn’t exactly something I wanted to be public knowledge.
“Does Bastian know who Chris is?” my sister asked.
My heart turned over in my chest as indignation began to douse my shock. “Aye.”
Harry and Sebastian finally stopped outside their apartment building, and I yanked my arm free of Zac’s grip. Marching toward Sebastian, I took in his defiant, hard expression and felt an uncharacteristic wildness rise. I wanted to tear at something. Shake him! Scratch and claw at him.
I didn’t.
But the words seethed from me as I hissed, “What the hell was that?”
He glowered right back. “I recognized him. I know who he is.”
“And you thought pummeling him to death in a club was an appropriate response?”
Sebastian took a step toward me, baring his teeth like an animal. I sensed that same wildness in him, but I wasn’t afraid. I was too enraged and disappointed and mad at the world—specifically at Sebastian—to fear anything right now.
“He grabbed you! The arsehole who messed with your fucking head was touching you against your will, and I lost my mind for a second. I’m only human!”
I shook my head, letting my disappointment drip from my words. “You’re not angry at him. You’re angry at yourself. Because you know that you’re messing with my head too, just in a different way than he did.” A crushing finality settled over me and I felt it in the slump of my shoulders. “The thing is, Sebastian, you can only have your head messed with for so long before you realize that you’re allowing your head to be messed with. And I’m done. I’m done with you. I need you to stay out of my life, and I need everyone here to respect the fact that I don’t want to see you anymore.”
I turned on my heels, wrapping my arms tightly around my waist as I strode away from him.
The crushing expression on his face tugged at me.
However, for once, I didn’t want to put someone else’s feelings before mine.
I kept walking and heard my sister’s and friends’ footsteps follow.
As much as it hurt, I recognized in the long run I’d done the right thing. It wasn’t up to me to protect Sebastian from himself. If he loved me like I loved him, I’d be more important than some subconscious vow of penance he’d made when he was sixteen years old.
But I wasn’t.
I had to let him go.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
LILY
Butterflies raged in my belly as I approached Sebastian’s flat, but I needed a clean break.
The doorman recognized me and stepped aside to let me up. I shook my head instead and held out an envelope to him. “Can you make sure this gets to Sebastian Thorne in the penthouse flat?”
“Uh …” The doorman frowned but tentatively took the envelope. “Of course. Shall I tell him who it’s from?”
“He’ll know.” Tears thickened my throat and my voice cracked as I thanked him before turning back around. The tears finally fell as I rode off on my bike. Wasn’t I supposed to feel lighter? Like I’d just freed myself from something?