Page 38 of Rush
I frowned, my heart aching. Somehow, I knew the bullet was more than bad grades and scant employment opportunities.
“I struggled for a long time,” he went on. “But things are good now even though I complain about getting a fight. It could be worse.”
“Yeah,” I said, not knowing what else to say.
Glancing at me, he sighed. “Here. Lay down beside me.” He flopped back onto the sand and gestured for me. “Don’t be a pussy, J.”
The air lightened between us, and I curled up beside him, not caring I was getting sand all over my designer cocktail dress. I nestled into the crook of his arm, and we stared up at the lightening sky, counting stars as fast as they disappeared.
“Number four, check,” Ryan murmured.
“Yeah,” I replied, not understanding why I felt so empty. “Check.”
12
Ryan
Rolling over, I fisted my hand into the sheets and pulled them closer.
Sometime after sunrise on the beach, Jade and I had made it back to my place and collapsed into a heap. Fumbling for my phone, I flicked it on and saw it was just before lunchtime. I hadn’t slept this late in years, and my body was kicking me up the ass for it.
Sliding out from under the sheets, I scratched my balls and stared out the window. Jade was asleep in the next room, my head felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool, and all I could think about was her body next to mine. On the dance floor, on the beach, beside the water slide, on the back of the Harley.
This entire week had been explosive in more ways I could count.This was what my life could be like with her. What a dangerous thought.
I needed to go for a run to clear my head.
Rubbing my hand over my face, I grunted and reached for my shorts and a loose tank top. Shoving my feet into my trainers, I grabbed my keys and phone and went out into the lounge room.
Jade was curled up on the couch, dead to the world.
Her hair was tangled and frizzy, her makeup was smeared, her singlet was twisted around her middle, her legs were pulled up into the fetal position, and her arms were askew, one hanging over the edge of the couch and the other resting underneath her cheek. She looked like she’d been dragged through a hedge backward, but I still thought she was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen. I didn’t have the heart to wake her.
Instead, I grabbed a pen and paper from the junk drawer in the kitchen and wrote her a note. Sliding it onto the coffee table, I left, locking the door behind me.
Downstairs, I turned right, jogging down the side street and onto Church, starting my usual five-kilometer circuit around Richmond and the fringes of Abbotsford.
After all our adventures this week, nothing had dissuaded me from my lingering feelings for Jade.Nothing. I’d gotten to know her, who she was now, and she was still the same underneath all the fancy clothes and high-flying job. She was still the same, and so was I. Only this time, it was much worse.
Watching her discover things she’d never experienced had me enamored…and hard.
Watching her skip around my apartment in her singlet and knickers,with no bra, killed me.
Knowing she was rebounding from that douche canoe, Hunter Ballinger, made things a whole lot worse.
Knowing I couldn’t touch her was torture. It wasn’t right or fair.
I kissed her once, at the bottom of that stupid water slide, and at that moment, I knew I’d never gotten over her.
Yeah, she could be shallow and completely selfish without realizing, but underneath all that was a person with the potential to be real.
My feet pounded on the concrete as I wove through the streets of Melbourne, trying to work her out of my system. She would be gone soon enough, and I would be left behind.
Jade had ruined me once and didn’t even know it. She would ruin me again if I let her, and this time…it would be forever.
13
Jade
