Page 69 of Wreck Me

“Well, shit. Who? My dad?”

“Hell if I know. But I’m going to figure it out while easing out of working under his thumb. I don’t want to ruin my writing career, but I refuse to work for him any longer.”

“You think he’d really make it so no one else would hire you? Your own father?”

“Without a shred of doubt. He would,” I reply honestly. My dad doesn’t make idle threats. A deep growl rumbles from Carter’s chest, his hands tightening into fists.

“We’ll figure this out. You aren’t going to lose your career because of him. You aren’t his fucking pawn. I’m right beside you now.” My heart swells at his words.

“Thank you.”

“So right now, let’s keep this quiet. We can sneak around, right? Until we figure everything out?”

“Yeah, I mean, if you’re up for it, there’s always Temptations,” I suggest.

“You want to play out in the open, baby?”

“I’m not against it. Especially if that’s the only way I can have you.”

He gives me a heated look before looking away quickly, his face morphing into concern.

“I do need to come clean as well, and I owe you an apology.”

My spine tightens, but he continues to hold my face,stroking his thumbs delicately back and forth across my cheekbones.

“Okay?”

“I’m sorry for leaving you in Maine and not hearing you out. It was shitty after everything we shared that weekend. I panicked, and I let that fear control me against all reason. It wasn’t fair to you.”

“I understand it, as much as it hurt.”

“I trust you.”

His words blow me away, and my head bops backward, his hands dropping to my thighs. They mean just as much to me as hearing that he loves me, and my eyes well with tears.

“Baby, don’t cry. We’re going to get through this together. But I’m sorry for not staying, and I’m so sorry for the things I said when I got here. You didn’t deserve to hear those words from me. Thank you for sticking with me, for not giving up on us.”

I wipe the tears from my eyes and nod, swallowing down my emotions.

“You weren’t the only one who went to Maine with less than innocent intentions,” he continues, and dread festers in my stomach briefly.

“What did you do, Hayes?”

“I convinced myself that everything I was doing—regardless of what I was feeling—was all to get close to you to butter you up to get the story I wanted.”

I can’t help it; I laugh. “You’re a dick. I’m not even offended because there’s no way you could whore yourself out to me and keep your emotions off. I felt every single goddamn one. In every look. In every touch. Every kiss. Every time we made each other come. It’s real. Raw. We’re the real deal, Carter Hayes, and the real you can’t ever hide from me.”

“Fuck, I love you,” he says right before he pounces, pushingme back into the couch. We make out like teenagers, slow and methodical, until I pull him down the hall and into my bed.

“The first thing I want to do once we’re out is move closer, sleeping away from you after knowing sleep next to you isn’t something I’m willing to do for long,” I tell him. Carter snuggles into me, throwing his leg over my hip and nuzzling his face into my neck.

“I second that.”

CHAPTER 17

carter

It’s beenthree days since Finn and I decided to be together. Three days of allowing myself to love another person and be loved in return. Since we decided to keep this from everyone right now, I’ve been taking the drive out to his place every night, but I want him in my bed, I want him in Aspen Ridge. The more I’m here without him, the stronger the pull is to blow the lid off this shit so I can move his ass into my house and be with my person.

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