by K. A. Linde
That look alone made her soften. This was Jack. He knew what made her freak out. He knew everything about her.
“You’re such a big part of my life. And I know we’re not ready to make a big step, but I felt like I just needed to show you that I am ready to make a little step. It’s more important to me, I think, Lex, to show you that I’m committed to you more than anything. Because I am. I can tell you a million times that I’m all yours, but I know that time will be proof of that. So, for now, I just thought I’d start with this.”
Jack held out a tiny silver ring with a looped knot on the top. It was simple and easy and so unbelievably perfect for them.
“I want you to be tied to me, Lex, in every way possible,” Jack said, his voice hoarse. “I want you to wear this one until we’re ready for you to wear the other one.”
Jack slid it onto Lexi’s finger. Her heart was in her throat the whole time. This wasn’t an engagement ring or anything, but it meant so much. Maybe, at this moment in time, it meant even more than that. It was a promise ring—a promise to commit to her, a promise to love her, a promise to treat her the way she deserved. And by wearing it on her finger, she was promising him the same in return.
And so much more—so much that they would never be able to articulate to the other, except through glances and touches and experiences and time.
And they had all the time in the world.
THE END
Thank you so much for going through this journey with me. This book is the culmination of more than four years of writing and publishing the Avoiding series. I know that this series has had many ups and downs and twists and turns. I’ve heard of people throwing their Kindles. I even had someone bring me a broken iPad to a signing. I get that this journey is emotional, and I appreciate every single day that you allowed me to show you my vision.
I know that this story isn’t exactly conventional, but I’ve never claimed to be a conventional storyteller. This last book took a lot for me to write, not because I didn’t have a story in my head, but the one that I tried to write wouldn’t let me. Once I figured out the real ending, the one that you just read, I wrote the entire first chapter without stopping. And then, I wrote the entire book with that ending in mind. It’s the story I had to write.
I’ve never been a person who likes things tied up in pretty little bows. Life is messy. I like my fiction messy. I like my characters flawed. I like to keep them true to themselves while still growing, changing, and adapting to the situations at hand.
We’ve all been in situations where we knew someone was perfect but not for us. I know how hard the decision is to not settle for anything less than you deserve and that not everyone will understand that decision, but it’s your decision as much as it was Lexi’s.
The whole team mentality made the decision about how to end this book difficult, but once I figured out what I wanted—more importantly, what Lexi wanted—there was no turning back. So, I hope you appreciate the different challenges Lexi had to face along the way. And even if she didn’t pick your guy, I hope you still love her for standing up for herself—for what she believed in and for the man who she chose to love.
♥
K.A. Linde
Turn the page for a sneak peek of K.A. Linde’s next series!
Bryna barged into Eric’s house without knocking, and she slammed the door closed behind her. She had just finished business as usual and needed to de-stress. Eric loved to hear about all her latest conquests, and she was happy to provide him with the information. How often did she get to gloat? Well, all the time, if Trihn and Stacia were around, but it was more of a competition that way.
With Eric, she was free to be herself—her uninhibited, gold-digging self.
She whisked her golden blonde hair off her shoulders and let the big curls fall down her back. She smoothed down her short, skintight red dress, the deluxe gold watch and diamond tennis bracelet jangling as she moved. She was riding the high of her accomplishment as her stiletto heels carried her up the short flight of stairs and around the corner to Eric’s bedroom.
Nearly running into someone, Bryna deftly jumped out of the way and right into a large fish tank at the top of the stairs. Why Eric had that thing, she would never be able to guess. Running into it now and seeing the water slosh and splash onto the cream carpet upon impact just made her wonder even more.
“Fuck, I’m sorry,” the person said immediately, reaching out for her. “Did it get you wet?”
Get your mind out of the gutter.
Maybe under other circumstances, she would have laughed and made that sexual, but she actually was a little wet, which was pretty disgusting. Bryna regained her balance and turned to face the unexpected visitor.
“Andrew?” she breathed, looking him up and down suspiciously.
Andrew Fennell was on the football team. Stacia could have told Bryna what position since she was the jersey-chasing cheerleader, but all Bryna knew was that he wasn’t the quarterback. And he was also walking away from Eric’s bedroom.
“Uh…Bri…shit. I wasn’t expecting you to show up,” Andrew blabbered, straightening his shirt and standing taller.
I bet you weren’t.
“Were you just with Eric?” She narrowed her charcoal-rimmed baby-blue eyes accusingly.
Andrew wasn’t the biggest player on the Las Vegas State football team, which had won the national title for the past two years, but deciding which guy was the biggest player was a hard thing to determine. It was like judging between mass murders. Are they really that much worse because they killed fifteen people instead of fourteen?
“Now, Bri, don’t jump to any conclusions,” he muttered.
She liked that he was flustered.
A smirk crept up onto her mouth. “You’re acting as if I have a conclusion to jump to.” She stood straighter, crossing her arms and arching an eyebrow. She would love to see him try to wiggle out of this.
He blushed furiously. “Of course there isn’t. I was just…uh…”
“No wonder we never worked out,” she said, shrugging nonchalantly. “Turns out I’m not exactly your type. I was curious as to why you never tried anything.”
“Bri, you broke up with me,” he reminded her.
“Oh…right,” she said after pondering for a moment. It had lasted three weeks during their freshman year, and then she had gotten bored. “For Bryan Stewart. He was gorgeous. Too bad he transferred to Virginia.”
Andrew rolled his eyes at her tone of voice. “Are you through?”
“Quite,” she told him, smirking devilishly.
“Mind not mentioning this around?” he asked tentatively.
“You know me.” She gestured to her mouth and ran her hand across it like she was closing a zipper.
“Right,” he murmured, sarcasm oozing from every pore.
“Oh, Andrew, I’ll keep your little secret,” she said, patting his shoulder. “Just remember that I did.”
For a second, he looked like he would rather she told the entire university that he had taken it up the ass than be indebted to her. With Bryna, there was no telling when a favor would be called in and under what circumstances he would be forced to help out.
But, really, what other choice did he have? Even though she was just a sophomore, Bryna was wildly popular at LV State because she was tough shit and flat-out gorgeous. She was the kind of girl that every guy wanted and every girl wanted to be. She was the kind of girl that guys were afraid to take home. She was the kind of girl who had a particular proclivity for wealth, status, the chase, and getting exactly what she wanted. Some people called her entitled, but why wouldn’t she be?
“Whatever, Bri,” Andrew finally acknowledged.
And she had him.
Andrew nudged past her and walked back down the stairs.
Bryna let a wry smile come onto her face before proceeding down the hall.
“Eric?” she called as she burst into the room.
Her smile widened as stepped
inside and observed Eric lying buck naked in the middle of his enormous king-sized bed. His entire muscled body was perfectly tanned…inappropriately so. Things that weren’t supposed to see the light of day were tan. All of his muscles were standing at attention—all of them. And he was a man of many indulgences. Toning his already built body was one of them, and she let her eyes scan from his calves up the curves of his thighs, over his tightened erection, to the line after line after line of hard abdomen, up to his defined chest, and then his well-sculpted arms. It was truly a sight.
His soft blond hair was a wreck, but he looked good with tousled bed head. The green comforter and a mass of sheets were tangled at his feet and falling onto the floor. A pair of handcuffs lay unused at his headboard, very close to his wrists. She bit her lip at that, not even wanting to keep the dirty thoughts off her face.
Soft music, something classical, was playing in the background. And as she listened closely, she could make out something else, too. Bryna realized that pants and moans were coming from the direction of the large mounted television on the adjacent wall. She tore her eyes away from her friend’s gloriously naked body and turned to stare intriguingly up at the girl-on-girl interaction on the screen.
“For a gay man, E, you watch an awful lot of lesbo porn,” Bryna said. She shook her head and took a seat in a plush cream-colored armchair.
“Sometimes, it makes them feel more comfortable,” Eric said, his eyes never leaving the screen.
“Oh, just admit it. You like it,” she purred, letting her legs spread wide in her mini dress.
She was on full display for him, and he wasn’t even paying attention. This was always how it was with Eric. It was fun to tease.
“Sometimes, I think I do,” he said with a shrug, his eyes trained on the television screen.
The pants turned to cries of ecstasy and climax, and Bryna watched him visibly harden before her. Her eyes flicked to the screen and saw one girl going down on another.
“When were you last with a woman?” she asked, startling him out of his trance.
He looked at her then—her legs spread wide, breasts nearly bursting from her top, eyes wide and ravenous—and laughed. “Darling, you’re not my type.”
Bryna shrugged, unperturbed, and straightened herself again. “You’ll come…around.”
“How often will you dangle yourself before me?”
The moans increased in volume in the background.
“Probably until you comply,” she said without compassion.
“And why would I?”
He returned his attention to the screen. Bryna secretly loved how uninterested he acted because it meant she got to chase him at every turn. Eric was the kind of guy she loved and would fucking marry in a heartbeat if he weren’t gay. But he was. So, she consoled herself with his friendship and tried to fuck him at every opportunity.
“I’ve never been with a gay man,” she told him.
It was mostly true. There had been that time…but the gay guy hadn’t fucked her. He had fucked the other guy. She shook her head at the fond memories.
“This, I’m well aware of, but you’ve been with every other guy on campus.”
“Not every guy,” she said coyly, kicking off her pumps.
“Right,” he agreed, “not the gay ones.”
“Eric!” she chided.
They both knew that the statement wasn’t true. She enjoyed sex. She had a rather lavish sex life in fact, but she was careful about her reputation and who she slept with. She wasn’t easy. She wasn’t going to just give it up to anyone. There were a few exceptions along the way, but the last thing she wanted to be known for was having slept with every guy on campus.
She preferred to give it up to guys who she could get something out of. And even then, she was very particular about who she was digging. She didn’t always need the money. She did it for fun, for sport, for the challenge that college guys didn’t offer—except Eric, of course.
“Anyway, I’m your best friend, Bri. What do you want me to do?” he asked, licking his lips. His honey-colored eyes defiantly found hers. “Tie you up to the bed and have my way with you, so you can feel a gay guy’s dick? I promise, they all work the same.”
Bryna started to walk toward him, seductively placing one foot directly in front of the other. Her hips swayed in time with her steps, and she knew her breasts bounced just enough to draw attention. She tilted her chin down and eyed him thoughtfully. His eyes didn’t even register the motion.
“You’re right. I’m just teasing,” she said.
She stretched her body out next to him on the bed and curled into his side. Staring up at the scene of a woman now plunging a dildo in and out of another woman, Bryna realized how horny she really was. Lesbian porn never turned her on, but it had been so long that she couldn’t even stop herself. Her lower half began to pulse.
“Dear Lord, you’re overcharging,” Eric said, placing his hand on her abdomen.
“I know. I’m horny as fuck,” she murmured. She hid her face in his neck and smelled the faint touch of sex still on his skin. Bryna trembled and breathed deeper. It smelled like fucking heaven. “I might call up Rohde.”
Eric groaned, pulling away from her, at the mention of his fellow fraternity brother’s name. It was a bit ironic that they were in the same frat, and no one—let alone Rohde, who Eric hated—knew that Eric was gay. Very, very few were privy to that information.
“Really? Are you still letting that douche fuck you? I can’t possibly comprehend what you see in him. He’s a chronic, alcoholic, asshole, womanizer. He’s not worth a second of your time, Bri.”
“First, I’m not into him for anything but to satisfy a certain need that you refuse to quench,” she argued.
She always had to defend Rohde. He wasn’t a total creep to her, but she knew he had his moments.
“Second, just because he’s a binge-drinking frat boy doesn’t make him an alcoholic or an asshole. You should know!” She pointed her finger into his tanned chest, trying to punch in the last words.
“Yes, but I’m different. No one knows I’m gay. I have a reason to act like a moron frat boy. Rohde’s just a moron,” he quipped.
“Regardless, he’s some of the best sex I’ve had, and I’m not about to give that up without a really good fucking reason. And since I have to keep up appearances with everyone else, I think it’s all right for me to fuck a moron who treats me like a queen without any pretense.”
Another half-truth. Rohde treated her like a queen in bed, which she supposed was where it mattered. Once he came, he treated her about like everyone else.
“You choose your life, darling,” he said unsympathetically. “Speaking of, how is Mr.—or is he a doctor? I can’t keep them straight.”
“Doctor,” she cooed, extending her arm to show him the beautiful tennis bracelet sitting on her wrist.
Eric gasped, straightening and grasping her arm to examine the unbelievable piece of jewelry.
As he shifted, his penis fell against her leg, and she groaned.
“Eric, please.” Bryna pointed downward at him. She was trying desperately not to respond.
“God, Bryna, it’s not like you haven’t seen one before,” he sighed dramatically, shifting again to remove it from her leg.
She clenched her open hand into a fist and blew out. She really needed to rein in her sexual drive.
Eric still had a hold of her wrist, and he whistled slowly. “Damn girl, this thing had to have cost a fortune. Is it Tiffany’s?”
Bryna nodded proudly, remembering the powder blue box the doctor had pulled out of his suit coat pocket and then handed to her at lunch.
“When do you see him next? He better be getting hot pussy for this.”
“Nope,” she cried enthusiastically. “I broke up with him after he gave it to me.” It was always a treat, not to have to sleep with the guys to get what she wanted. Sometimes, it was better to use her powers of seduction without having to cross the line.
It made the highs even better.
Eric gasped a second time. “Naughty girl. I love it! Your escapades astound me.”
“I know, right?” she said, admiring the cut of the diamonds strung on the chain. “You should have seen his face. He never saw it coming.”
“I don’t know how you do it,” he said. He fingered the diamond bracelet with envy.
“It’s a gift,” she breathed triumphantly. “Anyway, I’m taking the night off. Let’s party!”
“Girl, I’m spent,” he said, lying back and lifting his arms over his head.
He closed his eyes and seemed to be returning to the state of peace she had found him in when she burst through the door. He looked like fucking Adonis, and she wanted to eat him alive. Bryna shifted her weight to straddle him, and his eyes snapped open at the movement. Now, she had his attention.
“Bri,” he warned.
She placed a finger on his lips to silence him. He rolled his hazel eyes at her but complied nonetheless. Bryna wiggled her hips a bit on top of him and felt him stiffen under her weight. Reaching forward, she snatched the remote from the nightstand. He eyed her curiously, clearly waiting for her to shut off the television, but he didn’t comment. He just waited and let her do what she wanted. She liked when he got like that. Finding the volume button, Bryna turned up the sound louder until the room was filled with pants, grunts, moans, and cries of elation as the women pleasured each other on the screen. Eric arched an eyebrow at her, but he couldn’t deny that it was sexy.
Tossing the remote onto the table, she let it clatter until it hit the lamp and stopped.
In imitation of what was going on behind her, Bryna began softly stroking her own body. She already had a heightened sexual appetite and incredibly sensitive skin, so even the faintest touches caused her to gasp. Her hands pushed down from her collarbones to cup her breasts, barely hidden under her red dress, which was already hiked up to the top of her thighs. She massaged her breasts in circles, tossing her head back dramatically, while purring in delight. Tugging lightly on the straps of her dress, she let the top fall to her stomach, displaying a white lace bra, and hidden underneath were her perky, large breasts. Her smile was devilishly playful when she next looked at Eric. He was just staring at her, unmoving, but he wasn’t completely uninterested. Her hands returned to the soft contours of her breasts. She touched them and prodded them for his display. After unsnapping the clasp at the back of her bra, she threw it across the room and let her breasts fall gloriously out of their enclosure. Proud of her naturally incredible rack, she let him stare for a few seconds. She didn’t give him much more time to stare than to get a full view of them before she went back to work on them. She pinched the nipples until they hardened, savoring the buildup she was creating for her own body.