Lahat ng Kabanata ng One Night Stand With The Unforgettable Stranger: Kabanata 451 - Kabanata 460

Declan walked over to the Nespresso machine and popped in a capsule while Jonathon sat, slumped, on the barstool on one side of the kitchen island bench. Declan slid a shot of espresso in front of him and stood on the other side of the island, his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he growled. “You, arsehole,” Jonathon grumbled, not looking at his friend as he spun the small cup around in a circle on the counter. “What the hell did I do?” “You told me I should tell her how I feel to see if she felt the same.” Declan exhaled roughly and his stiff posture relaxed. “Shit,” he said. “She turned you down?” “Ding, ding, ding,” Jonathon said, “give the man a prize.” “And how the fuck is that my fault?” “Because you told me to do it.” Declan shook his head and came around the bench to sit beside Jonathon. “You needed to know,” he said. “You needed to be sure about how she felt about you before you tol

Could she go to sleep beside him every night and wake up next to him every morning? Could she actually have sex with him? The reality crystallized in her mind. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t marry this man for his money. It had all seemed like such a game when she started. She’d never really believed she would end up on a date with the man she built this stupid plan around. She didn’t expect to even meet him. It was all just big talk and a fantasy to protect herself. By setting her sights on Jonathon Ashby she’d been able to justify her real plan. The plan to never fall in love. The plan is to not end up like her mother. It had nothing to do with the money and everything to do with protecting her heart. As if she’d ever had any control over that. Jake was the proof of that. She had fallen hard for him and there was nothing she could have done to stop it. She pushed her plate away and plucked the napkin off her lap, laying it beside her plate. “I’m sorry, Jonathon,” she said.

“So?” Zoë pounced as soon as Emma walked through the door. “How did it go?” Emma sighed. She was so confused. She turned down Jake because she felt too much for him and now she was turning down Jonathan because she didn’t feel enough. “I don’t think I can have this conversation without a drink,” Emma said, heading for the kitchen. Zoë followed her. Her friend had agreed to come and stay with Devi and Kirra while Emma went on her date. Kirra complained she didn’t need a babysitter, but that wasn’t why Emma wanted Zoë there. Emma didn’t want Kirra to have to put up with any of their mother’s crap by herself. Zoë was there to protect Kirra from any damage that Devi could thoughtlessly cause. They didn’t keep any alcohol in the house, something Emma had forgotten as she reached for the glasses. What she wouldn’t give for a shot of whiskey right now. Instead, she turned to the kettle and set it to boil. Tea would have to do. “I don’t think I like where this is going,” Zoë said as

How do you come to terms with everything that you had known about your life being a lie? Not quickly or easily. Emma supposed that not everything about her life had been a lie, just the bedrock. So many of her life choices were made with the erroneous assumption that Devi and Tom’s ‘big love’ was to blame for her shitty childhood. Now she was forced to look at it differently and the foundation she’d built her life on was no longer stable, but flawed. On top of that ground-shaking revelation was the very real heartache she was suffering because she missed Jake. It had been two weeks since that awful night when she turned him away and with every passing day the ache got worse, not better. She honestly thought if she nipped their burgeoning relationship in the bud, her feelings for him would fizzle and die out. She hoped a few days without his hands on her making her scream in ecstasy would cause those pesky emotions to crawl back under the rock where they’d come from. No such luck.

“He’s not, what?” he asked. His lungs seized as he waited for her answer. She looked up at him, her feelings for him visible in her big eyes. “He’s not you.” She took a deep breath. “I love you, Jake.” He barely waited for the words to be out of her mouth before he pulled her to his chest and crashed his mouth down on hers. Her smoky taste flooded his mouth and he groaned as he deepened the kiss, needing more of her. He pulled her closer and her nails dug into his chest through his shirt. He broke the kiss and looked down at her dazed expression, realizing they were on the front porch and what he wanted to do to her should not be done in public. “Get in here,” he said, grasping her hand and dragging her through the door.Emma let him pull her through the door and crush her against his chest. She could barely draw in breath as her heart pounded madly. She expected a fight or a polite no at the very least. She expected him to reject her as she had rejected him and the rel