He huffed a laugh, and those were definitely tears in his eyes. “I always wanted to hear you say my name.”
Now that I had, I wanted to say it a million times, but first…
I gripped his jaw and leaned in, pressing my lips to his.
“I’m not leaving,” I repeated, still in a gravel-rough whisper. “Not you. Not her. We’ll figure it out.”
He shook his head, but he didn’t push me away.
I kissed him again, more urgently this time, crowding him so he was forced to back up. I grabbed the hem of his shirt and lifted it. He let me pull it over his head. I did the same with my own before sealing my mouth to his.
Through hungry kisses, we managed to shed the rest of our clothing, and only when I had Rule on the bed, naked beneath me, did I look him in the eye again.
His eyes moved over my face.
“I love you,” I said, forcing the words to be clearer than before. “I couldn’t say it. You wouldn’t’ve listened if I could, but I’ve been trying to prove that to you for years.”
Again, Rule shook his head. He was in denial. That had been his problem for so long. He couldn’t accept that anyone could love him, but I did. And despite what she said earlier, I knew Laikyn did, too. She just needed a minute to catch up to the rest of us. We’d kept her in the dark, and once she fumbled through it and realized that everything Rule had done had been for her, she would be here professing the same thing.
“Jinx, we—”
This time, I shook my head, effectively silencing him before I retrieved the lube that had been left out on the nightstand. It took minimal work to prepare us both, and then I was sliding inside him.
I took his hands and stretched them over his head, holding him in place as I rocked inside him.
“Look at me,” I whispered.
Rule’s eyes met mine.
As I made love to him, I witnessed his surrender, then proceeded to show him what words never could.
32
Laikyn
I woke up the next morning alonein my hotel room.
Granted, I wasn’t sure you could call what I did last night sleeping, so I probably should’ve said I got out of bed. I’d tossed and turned, cried and blubbered, but I hadn’t really slept.
I knew I looked as horrific as I felt, but I didn’t care. At this point, nothing mattered. My entire life was a lie. Worse than that, it was a lie I hadn’t been privy to but also one that I had perpetuated by my refusal to ask the difficult questions. I had known something was going on, but I’d chosen to put blinders on and live out a new existence in the dark.
It pained me to admit it, but I couldn’t put the blame entirely on Rule and Jinx.
I wanted to. God, how I wanted to. In fact, numerous times through the night, I flip-flopped on where I stood, insisting I was the victim while knowing you can’t be a victim when you played an active role in the plot. I knew going in that my marriage to Rule wasn’t real, but I had played along, never thinking he’d done it for selfish reasons.
As much as I wanted to hide out here for eternity, I couldn’t. It was time to go home. To return to whatever was left. I doubted there was anything to salvage, but it was time to face the music regardless.
As I was stuffing my clothes in my suitcase, there was a knock on the door. Creed hadn’t told me when the flight was leaving, but I intended to be ready when he did. Since the sun was just coming up, I figured that was him at the door, coming to tell me it was time to go.
Without looking in the security hole, I unlatched the door and pulled it open.
Creed wasn’t standing in the hallway.
Knox was.
He smiled. “Good morning.”
“I can tell you now, there’s nothing good about it.”
