The idea sent shivers up and down my spine. I wanted it. I wanted him. Now. My teeth tingled with it, and I arched into him.
It was like he knew, because his laugh shivered along my lips. “You’re so fucking transparent, Snitch.”
Then he was off me. He took Sonnet carefully from my arms, putting her in the green bassinet that rested beside our bed and beneath one of the many gilded floor-to-ceiling windows.
Then his eyes were back on mine—hungry—as he reached for something from the drawer.
I sat up on my elbows. “Why are you getting a condom?”
I wanted him bare. Skin to skin, like always.
“Because I’m going to fuck your ass.” He pumped himself at the image. “And then I’m going to finish inside your cunt.”
Heat rushed through me at the image.
He grinned, crooked. Dark. I watched him, transfixed, as he rolled the condom on his hard cock. I licked my lips, and his eyes dropped to that.
“Later…” He bent over, lips at my ear, voice sliding along my marrow. “I’ll fuck your ass again and come inside that too.”
I groaned, ragged.
It’s happening. Fucking finally—
Then there was a knock.
“Ignore it,” I groaned.
“Sir?” One of Grayson’s guards called from the bottom floor. “You wanted to know when she was leaving.”
Downstairs in the foyer, the double doors were open, shedding lemony light onto the marble floors—and a mountain of luggage. A flashback to Asheville hit me. I’d seen that luggage once before. Now, Lottie stood before them, getting ready to—
“Were you planning on disappearing without a goodbye?” Grayson’s deep voice echoed in the hallway. It had a subtle spice of irritation to it. Because after everything Lottie, Grayson, and I had been through, he was hurt.
Lottie spun, eyes wide like she’d been caught. A moment or two passed, the salty summer breeze blowing. She looked at her feet, working one of her low-heeled camel shoes on the marble.
“I was hoping to leave without a big to-do,” she said at last.
“Where will we find you?” I asked.
“I’m not sure…Asheville is gone. My father and brother are dead. My mother is…well I hope I never see her again. I guess I’m going to try to find myself.”
“But—” Grayson started, and I gripped his bicep. He looked down at me, a deep groove between his brows. Pain. Worry.
I knew what Grayson was feeling, because I felt the same bitter conflict. After everything, it was coming to an end. We had no real connection to Lottie anymore, but I worried for her. She was in the same boat as us, but without any tether or life boat.
Yet it wasn’t my place to demand answers.
The best thing we could do was let her go.
I squeezed his bicep and he let out an exhale. Like okay.
“Charlie?”
Lottie froze at the voice. In the pale sunlit doorway, a shadow of a man stood. He took another step inside, and his features became visible.
Jack.
Lottie’s Jack.
“What?” Lottie blinked. “Why are you here?”
Grayson and he exchanged a long look.
Oh no. Oh, fucking no.
I glared at Grayson. You fucking didn’t.
“I, uh…” Grayson scratched his head. “I may have…sent him a letter.”
Both Lottie and I shot him the same look at the same time.
“Why would you do that, Grayson?” Lottie gritted.
As if on cue, the reason started to cry in his carrier. Jack’s gaze zeroed on it, following as Lottie lifted her baby out. Unblinking. Focused.
Stunned.
“I’m…” He swallowed, Adam’s apple bobbing. “I’m staying at our family home, here in town.”
“I don’t see why I need to know that,” Lottie clipped.
“Charlie—”
Lottie spun, giving him her back.
After a minute, Jack exhaled. “You know where to find me.” He walked back the way he came.
I glared at Grayson.
Grayson grabbed Sonnet from my arms, acting completely oblivious to my and Lottie’s ire. He rocked Sonnet back and forth, making faces.
“What did you tell him?” Lottie demanded.
“Nothing that was yours to tell,” he said easily, still making faces at Sonnet. “But you deserve to be happy, Lottie.”
Lottie’s face caved, then she shook her head. “Not with him. Never with him.”
Grayson sighed. “Lottie—”
“Grayson, with you I became someone wrong, someone greedy, someone bad. A liar. I was the other woman. With him…” She looked over her shoulder, at Jack’s retreating body. “It would be ten times worse. I’m not just the other woman, I’m the same age as his daughter. A daughter I like. Jack and I were never supposed to happen.” She shook her head. “It will never happen again. I will never be that woman again.”
I nodded, understanding, but still so sorry, and so sad that Lottie couldn’t have someone without complications.
A town car pulled up, but Lottie lingered.
“I’m sorry—” Lottie started.
Grayson held up his hand, stopping her. A silence descended, and he rubbed his forehead with the same hand.
“I am.”
“If I accept your apology, I feel like I have to accept it’s your fault. And it’s not.”
She shifted on her feet. “But I did wrong.”
“We all did, Lottie. I never wanted to do this to you…I never wanted to make you my mother. To leave your heart out to rot.”
“It’s not rotted,” she said softly. “It’s just a little rusted.”
He worked his jaw, in the way I knew he was about to drop some kind of ultimatum. “I’ll accept your apology, but you have to promise not to disappear from our lives.”
I perked up. I know she had a lot she needed to learn about herself, but I didn’t want Lottie to disappear. I was actually going to miss her.
“I can’t promise that,” she whispered.
After her luggage was put away and her child safely secured, we all lingered.
“Well, goodbye,” Lottie said.
“Good luck, Lottie,” Gray said.
I looked between all three of us. This couldn’t be how it ended, quietly as we all stare at the vines in the marble.
I rushed Lottie, pulling her into a hug. She froze, in my embrace, arms at either side.
“I’m going to miss you,” I said, face pressed into her creamy, periwinkle jacket.
“I…” Lottie swallowed. “I will too.”
Her hand found my back, timid but there all the same.
I stepped back, swiping my nose. Her car was waiting for her, and she had to go. After everything, it was bittersweet watching her get in the glossy car.
She waved as the door shut.
Jack was walking down the long, cobblestone driveway and her car drove by him. He paused, watching it go through the gates, a distant look in his eyes. Almost like he wasn’t letting it go—letting her go.
I hoped for her sake that she would find someone uncomplicated. Someone easy.
Sonnet still slept soundly in Grayson’s arm, curled into his bicep. He looked like he belonged in this role, and every time I saw him with her, I got tangled up in heat.