Page 2

Present Day

Kerrington

“What time is our flight?”

“Uhhhh…” Landon glances at the clock on the oven. “We’ve got two hours before we have to leave.”

“Perfect.” I slap his bare ass.

Landon cooking in nothing but an apron is a sight I’ll never tire of. “Then I have time for one more round with you this morning.” I bite his shoulder and untie his apron, raising it over his head.

“The eggs are going to overcook.” He’s wearing this gorgeous lazy grin that I’ve had a hand in putting on his clean-shaven face.

“I don’t want eggs, anyway. Not when I can have you.”

“You always say the most perfect things.”

Yeah, but not the right ones , I think to myself.

Landon and I have been a little rocky ever since the night we brought Nicole to our bed. I wish I could say it was a mistake, but I can’t. I loved having her there and I know Landon hasn’t stopped thinking about that night, either.

That woman dashed out of our suite so fast, you’d have thought the place was on fire. She hasn’t answered our calls, texts, or emails since. Her social media posts have changed too, which makes me think someone else is running her accounts now. It’s like she’s avoiding not just us, but the whole world.

I’ve asked Mason a couple times if he’s heard from her, but when he asked why I was so curious, I made up some nonchalant reason and never brought it up again.

Landon turns the burner off and abandons breakfast, ready to lure me back to one of our bedrooms.

“No.” I pull him back to me. “Here.”

He arches a brow and licks his lips. “Okay.” Then he goes down on his knees and starts unbuckling my dress pants.

“No.” I tug him up. “I want you on the counter.”

His brow twitches with confusion for a second, but he climbs up and waits for my next orders.

The nice thing about Landon is he’s up for anything.

His dick is at half-mast, so I stroke it to attention while keeping my gaze locked on his. Then I lean down and take him into my mouth.

“Oh fuuuuuck,” he groans quietly .

Holding his base, I lick his shaft and playfully suck on the tip.

“You feel so good, Kerr.”

Keeping my pace steady, I suck him off like I’ve got all the time in the world. I love making Landon feel good. I love taking care of him.

And I love making him beg.

“I want to come,” he whimpers, then groans again when I stroke him with a tighter grip.

“Not until I say you can.”

He bites his pouty bottom lip and leans back, breathing harder as he holds his control for me like a good boy. I tease and punish him until I know he’s vibrating with the need to blow.

I look up at him and wink, giving him silent permission to unload in my mouth.

Three strokes later and he’s roaring his release, his hand in my hair, fucking it up while he rides his pleasure wave. Once I’ve swallowed my breakfast, I lick my lips and grab my waiting coffee from the counter.

Landon hops down, looking dazed and confused. “What was that for?”

I shrug and take another sip, not telling him why. It’s not like I need a reason to pleasure him, just like he doesn’t need one to with me. We’re just…

Hell, I have no idea what we are anymore.

“Come here,” he says playfully, going for my belt again.

My firm hand over his stops him. “Not now.”

The happy, blissed out look he’s wearing fades in a blink. Replaced by rejection. “Why not?”

I turn to leave because I’m not ready for this conversation, and quite frankly, I don’t think he is either. “I’m going to shoot some emails off before we have to go.”

His stare burns into my back, and I ignore it.

By the time I’m in the living room of our condo, he’s banging pots and dumping our half-cooked breakfast into the trash. Then he storms past me and heads to his bedroom, slamming the door shut.

It makes my stomach drop every time he gets like this because I know one day he’ll walk out the door and never come back.

I’m not enough for him.

Even when I try to be… I’m not.

I think this trip will be a tipping point for our… situationship. We’re spending the week with Mason and Leah to go over some business shit for her company, the Brazen Bunny, and also have some fun. Honestly, Landon and I have been working like dogs for months. I think the stress of work has added unnecessary pressure to our relationship too.

Thank God we’ve finally both walked away from BanditFX. He left with Mason when the company was sold off about seven months ago, but Gage and I stayed on the board to make sure things transferred smoothly. I thought it would have taken longer to get everything in order, but we were too efficient for our own good, I guess.

Now Landon and I are floating in this weird in between space, both professionally and romantically. Landon started helping Leah with her online business, and I’ve been eager to get more involved myself, but every time I try to help with the workload, he says he’s got it handled.

He’s hella smart and just as savvy as I am, if not more, but damn, when he rejects my assistance, it still hurts. I think he’s using the Brazen Bunny project with Leah as a distraction from Nicole. Not that I blame him for needing something to occupy his mind. Technically, we made so much off selling BanditFX, that neither of us have to work a day in our lives anymore, but I love a challenge of a new project, and Landon would be bored out of his mind without something to keep him busy. Besides, one can never have too much money. If we can work out this integrated payment platform for Leah’s new company, we can offer it to others and make a mint again.

But money won’t buy us the one thing I think we both need.

Nicole .

My gaze drifts to Landon’s door again. I hate when he’s upset, and I keep screwing things up between us.

How do I tell him how I feel without losing him? How am I supposed to make things right when they’ve been a little wrong since the very beginning?

A tension headache forms, and I shut my laptop, abandoning work all together. Shoving my gear into my waiting backpack, I fold the blanket on our couch, straighten the chairs, water the plants, and wipe down the kitchen sink. None of this mundane bullshit helps take my mind off Landon.

I don’t like tension between us, damnit.

Creeping to his door, I press my ear against it and listen.

“If you’re going to hover, you might as well join,” he grumbles from inside.

Well shit, I didn’t think he’d notice me out here.

Popping my head in, I see him lying on his bed, dressed in a pair of jeans and a Henley that fits him like a glove. He’s holding his phone with one hand, the other tucked behind his head.

“She’s got a new post,” he says.

I gave up on stalking Nicole online months ago. Landon, however, seems to have made it part of his daily routine. I don’t know how I feel about that.

“What’s it about?” I ask, against my better judgement. “New business collab, or another ploy for donations to the Greystone Foundation?”

Those are the only kinds of posts she makes on social media. Because she’s tied so tightly to her family’s well-known corporation, and since she doesn’t mix business with pleasure, Nicole never posts personal stuff online. Ever.

“It says she’s stepping away and taking a break. There’s a link to mental health awareness added to it.”

My heart crashes.

We stare at each other, both rocking huge concerns, and I’m already pulling out my phone, dialing her number.

Of course it goes straight to voicemail. And the inbox is full.

Fuuuuck.

“This is bad,” Landon says.

And there’s a part of me that takes the blame for it.

The morning she left our hotel suite, the first article published online about the gala. Then another. Then another. It wasn’t enough to make international news, but it definitely made the rounds in every part of the judgmental society she’s part of.

Greystone heiress rejected by Big Tech Heartthrob.

Nicole Greystone publicly dethroned by Camgirl .

The click bait got uglier and uglier from there.

Greystone Princess rebels with ex-fiancé’s best friends.

Rebound and Reboot- Taking revenge where she can find it .

But everything went away before it had a chance to go viral. Mason told us her family likely paid off the reporters to have them take their pieces down, or perhaps threatened to sue them.

It was a whirlwind mess that lasted less than seventy-two hours online but has become immortal in my brain. Landon’s too.

“This fucking sucks.” He tosses his cell on the bed. “I can’t believe she’s shut us out. We didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Her family controls her, Lan. You know that.”

“She’s a grown woman, for fuck’s sake.”

True, but we learned from Mason how their families are. It’s terrifying, honestly. “Mason was a grown man,” I remind him.

“Yeah, and he got out of all that. He broke the cycle.”

“Maybe she’s trying to do that now, too.”

One can only dream, right?

Landon runs a hand through his wavy dark blond hair. “If she’d just let us help her.”

Silence falls, and I clench my teeth. I’m constantly pulling myself back from going off the deep end with my thoughts because it never helps. I’ve worried about her for so long, it’s become second nature.

The only reason I haven’t kicked down her door, or showed up at her office, is because I don’t want to make things worse for her. Not after all those goddamn bullshit headlines.

I also don’t want Landon to think I’m not happy with him anymore. There’s been this guilt-ridden strain on our relationship ever since that night and I hate it. To make it worse, there’s this awful, invisible elephant in the room that neither of us has had the balls to acknowledge.

I’m hiding something from him. And I suspect he’s hiding something from me.

His cell buzzes and I think we both have an irrational burst of hope when we hear it. Landon snatches it fast and frowns. “Our driver will be here in five minutes,” he says, resting his head back on his pillow again.

“Okay. I’ll do another sweep, then we can head downstairs.” Backing out of his room, I check the stove, iron, and a bunch of other things I know are already turned off. When Landon comes out carrying his duffel, I grab my backpack and open the door for him.

“Maybe Mason will know something.” Landon looks expectantly at me for hope.

“Maybe.” I smile, but it feels foreign on my face.

Taking his hand and squeezing it, I give him a little reassurance. When he returns the favor, that’s all I need to know that, for another day, we’re going to be okay.

But what about tomorrow?