Since I know the layout of this hotel, it doesn’t take me long to find Riley’s room.
I raise my fist and pound on the door. If the fucking bastard answers, he’ll likely try to slam it in my face, but I’ve got a strategy. He’s not bigger than me, and he’s not smarter than me. He definitely doesn’t have right on his side.
Instead, Corinne opens the door, her long hair in a messy bun. She’s dressed in some of the unsexiest pajamas I’ve ever seen—green with white stripes covering everything from her neck to her ankles. The shirt is emblazoned with an animated teddy-bear face from some childhood cartoon I vaguely remember. It’s obvious she cried off most of her makeup and removed what little was left. Her eyes are as swollen as that bruised lower lip she keeps chewing. She looks miserable.
I’m dying to hold her. But she stands firmly in the doorway, preventing any semblance of intimacy.
“What are you doing here?” she breathes.
“Making a few more things clear to you.”
She sighs tiredly. “Xavian—”
“Are we alone?” I’m not letting her shut me down before I’ve even said a word.
“Yes. Riley went to get himself some food. I wasn’t hungry.”
He left her alone when she’s more upset than I’ve ever seen her. What a bastard…
But his absence is an unexpected boon. And a smart man knows when to capitalize on his advantages. I’ve been called an asshole a lot, but never stupid.
“Let me in so we can talk.”
Corinne hesitates, her stare clinging to me like a kid through a candy store window. But she shakes her head. “We’ve said everything that needs to be said.”
“Wrong.” Since this isn’t the first time I’ve been pushy and it won’t be the last, I nudge her aside and stalk into the room, pulling the door from her grasp and letting it slam shut behind me.
Riley’s suitcase sits in one corner on a rack. Hers is spread out on a chair on the opposite side. There are two queen beds and they both look slept in. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a victory.
She gasps. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Because Riley might catch us?”
She shakes her head. “Because we just hurt each other.”
That alarms the fuck out of me. “I hurt you?”
“The things you said earlier—”
“Weren’t meant to upset you. They were meant to make you think.”
“They did.” She frowns like the memory is too painful. “About things I never should.”
My heart starts racing. “Like what?”
“Like…things between us weren’t fake.”
Her body language is telling me to back off, but my gut screams that’s the worst thing I could do. Now I just have to swallow my fear that Corinne will never want me for me and man up. “For me, none of it was. Ever.”
Her lips part in shock. “Don’t say things you don’t mean. I can’t handle…”
Tears start falling, ripping me apart. I step into her personal space, take her face in hand, and stoop down until I’m looking her straight in the eye. “I mean it, with every part of my body, especially my heart.”
That only makes her cry more. “No, you don’t.”
She’s not calling me a liar; she’s afraid to believe. I see it all over her face.
Hope surges hard. “I do. And I’m going to prove it.”
“Stop. Please.” She closes her big, dark eyes against me. “You wanted revenge and you got it. Don’t play games with me.”
“I’m not playing anything. I don’t give a fuck about revenge anymore. If I did, I would have released the video I have of Parker confronting us at our engagement party.”
That gets her attention. “You have video?”
I nod. “It’s stored on my cloud if you want to see it. Every word, including the part where your brother admits to fucking my ex-fiancée behind my back. I could have sent that to the world and changed the conversation three days ago if all I wanted was revenge. But I didn’t.”
“Why?”
She can’t guess? “Because as much as I’d love for him to get the public spanking he deserves, I hated the things he said about you. I didn’t want you being hurt more than he already had. And this will probably sound crazy after the incident at the club, but I never wanted people to gossip about you; I just wanted them to believe in us.”
“Oh, my gosh.”
“The video is on my cloud. It will stay there forever if you want.”
She drags in a shaky breath. “You’re giving up a lot.”
“I’m not giving up a fucking thing I don’t want to.” I lift her face, willing her to look at me again. “The day you first came into my office, I was seething with the need to get back at your brother. I would have dropped that video on TMZ and walked away from you, too, if all I cared about was payback. But I stopped giving a shit about that days ago. There’s only one reason. Surely you can figure it out, princess.”