I lean back against the elevator door as the full magnitude of what she said hits me.
“Every guy you’ve dated ghosted you?”
Carolina stares at her feet. “All but one.”
“Douchebag Dash.” It was not a question.
“Yeah, and I can’t get him to leave me alone, no matter how hard I try.”
Chapter 24
“Who left all these eggshells lying around?”
-Carolina
No matter how hard I try, I cannot move a muscle. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Something heavy is sitting on my chest. I force my eyes open. Dash’s face looms in my line of vision. He’s grunting.
“You’re so tight, Lina,” he places a wet kiss on my slack mouth. “I knew you’d be so tight like this.”
“Whaaaa?”
Why can’t I move? What is he doing?
Pain radiates from between my legs.
“You thought you could just break up with me, and that would be that?” Dash grunts. The pain gets worse. “Fuck that noise. You were made for me. Only me. No one else. And no one else was getting into that pretty pussy of yours. Your virginity belongs to me now.”
Tears fall down my frozen face. “Stooooooopppp.”
“No stopping now, babe,” Dash grunts again. “I’m coming. But don’t worry. I wore a condom, so no one else will know what I did.”
I sit straight up in bed and scream my lungs out. Rand is beside me in a heartbeat, wearing basketball shorts and no shirt.
“What’s wrong? Carolina? Are you okay?” His hands are on my face, but he’s looking around the room for an intruder.
I can’t breathe. My chest is tight. I’m lying in a pool of sweat, still in my cocktail dress from the night before. After returning to the penthouse, I kicked off my shoes and crawled into bed - fully clothed.
I push him away and reach for the nightstand. “My medicine.”
Rand beats me to it. He hands me the pillbox and a bottle of water. “Breathe, Carolina. Breathe.”
Easier said than done. I swallow my pills. I run through the breathing exercises from my therapist. But nothing is working. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can, puffin,” Rand pulls me to his chest, rubbing my back. “One breath at a time. Breathe in. Breathe out.”
I don’t know how long we stay like that. But my breathing eventually evens out. I roll over to my side, pulling him with me, and fall back to sleep.
???
The next time I wake, early sunlight peeks through the blinds. I reach across the bed, but Rand is gone.
The smell of coffee and breakfast carbs, that siren song of the morning, call to me from downstairs. I get out of bed, scrub the remaining makeup off my face, and change into a pair of shorts and an FSU T-shirt.
When I get downstairs, I expect to see room service. Instead, I spy a very sexy Imaginary Fiancé cooking bacon in the kitchen. Still shirtless.
“That’s a good way to burn yourself,” I quip, reaching out for the coffee pot.
“How are you feeling?” Rand turns around.