24. Chloe
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHLOE
NOW
Strong fingers guide mine over my throbbing clit, and although it’s my own touch driving me closer to the edge, I lost control the second Kingston stepped into the shower.
Every few seconds he flexes the hand around my throat, making my core ache for release.
He knows what he’s doing. He’s making it almost impossible to refuse him.
But how can I marry a man who would manipulate me like this?
“I can’t, King,” I whimper. “I can’t marry you.”
“Of course you can, Chloe. I can have an officiant here by tonight. Our marriage license is in my desk. All you have to do is say yes.”
I open my mouth to reply but quickly snap it shut. How the fuck does he have a marriage license? Don’t we both have to sign something to get one of those?
“I can’t marry you because I have feelings for someone else…multiple someone else’s actually,” I admit, even though the words hurt on the way out.
No matter how hard I fight my need for them, I can’t shake how my heart feels torn between each of them, and it would be unfair to Kingston to say vows of commitment when he’ll never have my whole heart.
No one will.
I’m destined to be torn, to ache for each of them until the end of time.
He doesn’t respond at first, and I start to think he’s not going to reply at all. He’s gone to such lengths to take me, to build a life around giving me everything he thought I needed. But the truth is, I’ll never have everything unless I have all of them.
Four men that would sooner kill each other than stand in the same room.
The hand around my throat drops and a surprised gasp escapes when my back hits cold tiles.
Kingston gathers both my hands in one of his, pinning them above my head, and I have no choice but to look up into dark eyes filled with fury.
“You’re mine,” he growls.
I should be scared. He has me pinned down, and I couldn’t escape even if I wanted to, but I know Kingston, and I know he would never hurt me. Not physically.
The same hands he’s holding me with are the ones that nursed me back to life all those years ago. They’re the ones that held my hand when I broke over and over again, mourning everything and everyone I had ever loved.
I shake my head, tears welling in my eyes as I swallow past the sob rising up the back of my throat. “I’m not, King. I can’t be.”
The words hurt as they fall from my lips. All I wanted when I was a kid was to get married and have a houseful of kids. But offering anyone part of my heart wouldn’t be fair.
Pain lances across his usually hard features, and guilt eats away at me, my need to make everyone else happy aching to give Kingston everything he’s asking for.
He stares down at me for long moments, eyes tracing every inch of my face like he’s committing it to memory before his hands drop away from my body.
Without a backward glance, he steps out of the shower, barely pausing for long enough to grab a towel before he’s gone.
Tears well in my eyes, my chest aching with unshed tears, and once again, I’m all alone.
I drop to my knees, the pain barely registering as my chest cracks open.
Kingston was offering me everything I’ve ever wanted, but how could I possibly accept when it means living without them?