Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
He dropped the charm back in the box, closed it, and tossed it back to me. I fumbled the box and barely caught it.
“Fuck the truce.” He stepped forward, dangerously close. “Just when I thought that I might be able to trust you again.”
“Leave it, Percy,” Penn said. “Can’t you see that you’re hurting her?”
Camden grasped the front of Penn’s shirt in his hand. I thought Camden was going to punch him.
“What are you doing?” I gasped.
“You should get the fuck out of here, Kensington,” Camden growled.
Penn pushed him off, straightening out his shirt. “Yeah, I’m going to go, and I’m taking Katherine with me. I don’t trust you not to hurt her.”
“My wife is not going with you.”
“Both of you, stop it,” I said, pushing my way between them. I turned to Penn. “Just go. I’ll be fine. He’s not going to hurt me.”
“Only if you ask me to,” Camden said low.
Penn’s eyes were pained. He didn’t want to go. Not because he was in love with me, but he was my closest friend. We’d been through everything together. He’d defend me to his last breath, but he couldn’t defend me against this. We both knew it.
“Go to Natalie,” I said, jutting my chin toward where she stood, her silver hair glowing in the moonlight. She was watching what was playing out. I could practically see the calculus running through her mind about whether to come over or not. “Go.”
“Fine. But if he lays a hand on you… I swear to god.”
“He won’t. He’s never hurt me,” I assured him. “It’s not like that.”
Penn shot one more furious look at Camden, and then walked toward Natalie.
I could hear her voice rise up out of the crowd. “What’s going on?”
He wrapped an arm around her waist and just shook his head. I didn’t hear his response. I probably didn’t want to anyway.
I whipped around then. My own gaze now simmering with anger. I needed off of this beach. I needed to be somewhere alone to release all of this. I didn’t want to have the rest of this argument in front of my friends and a party full of strangers.
“Walk with me,” I snapped.
Then I set off across the sand with the box clutched in my hand. My knuckles were white with strain. I didn’t wait to see if he followed me. I had no doubt that he would. I heard his feet behind me, but he made no move to catch up. I walked until my legs ached and I could go no further. Our villa was mere feet away, but I couldn’t go back inside either.
I waited for him to reach me. My chest rising and falling with a growing fury. I had put everything aside for him this week. I’d ignored all the problems we had. I’d done everything so that we could start fresh, just like he had asked. He had wanted this truce between us. And then he’d thrown the whole fucking thing in my face. My hands trembled at my sides.
Camden finally came to stand before me.
I lifted my gaze to meet his. “What the fuck was that about?”
He laughed once sardonically. “You have to ask?”
“We were on a truce!”
“That doesn’t mean you can go and fuck with Penn Kensington and I’m going to ignore it!” he shouted back.
“Penn and I aren’t together! We haven’t been for a very, very long time, Camden. He’s with someone else. And he… he doesn’t want me.”
“But you want him.”
“Maybe I did, but not anymore.”
He laughed, but it was a cruel thing. “I don’t believe you. I saw you two together.”
“You saw what you wanted to see. I don’t even know why I have to justify myself to you. You were the one on the phone with Fiona.”
“So what if I was?” he asked, uncaring.
“It’s my birthday,” I snarled. “You talk to your fucking mistress and then have the audacity to blame me for having a conversation with my best friend. You need to get the fuck over yourself, Camden Percy.”
I pushed past him, prepared to walk the beach until I felt calm enough to go back to my party. But he reached out and grasped my wrist, pulling me toward him.
I tried to yank away, but he held me firm. “Let me go.”
“You know, I was going to ask that we keep this truce going,” he said, low and urgent. “I was going to say that maybe we should go home and try this out again. Try to be together. But we can’t even make it a week without tearing each other apart.”
“You can’t make it a week,” I yelled at him.
He arched an eyebrow. “You fell into his arms as soon as my back was turned. You’re never going to change, Katherine.”
I shoved against him, but he still didn’t release me. “Let me go.”