Because You Love Me (Falling for You, Book Three) Read Free Page A

Penny.
    The closer I got to Jenna I thought that anger and all my unanswered questions would drown me, but as I waded through the guests, I found myself having a different reaction altogether. Our unsolicited reunion had ripped me from the best day in recent memory. I’d flipped through every page in the reaction dictionary from ‘Am I still breathing?’ to ‘Well, I guess I should ask her where the hell she’s been’. To be honest, her whereabouts since she ended things were irrelevant. She was currently standing in the way of me getting to my actual girlfriend.
    “Excuse me,” I chewed the words, knowing full well I wasn’t getting rid of Jenna that easily.
    Jenna swayed to the left, then the right, wrapping her arms tight around her body. I remembered the first time she’d done that and I thought she was like some enigma, dancing by herself, free, needing nothing and no one to glow brighter than anything I’d ever seen. But when her smile spread like she thought she’d ensnared me, I realized just how empty that little dance was. How empty our relationship was.
    “I have nothing to say to you, Jenna.”
    Her crafty smile faltered, but she beckoned me with her finger anyway. “Let’s dance, X!”
    X—her nickname for me. It used to make me feel special. ‘X marks the spot!’ she’d playfully explained the first time she’d tried it out, wrapping her vine-like arms around my neck. Now, it was just annoying. Manipulative. Little more than the opportunistic man who thought he was on a first name basis with me. He didn’t know me. She didn’t know me.
    “Get out of my way, Jenna.”
    Her pale eyes narrowed, her pout following suit. “Well, that’s no way to treat an old friend.”
    “Friend?” I snorted. She had brass ones. It was hard to believe I’d once found that wild, pouting thing she did not only sexy, but endearingly Jenna. “At what point were we friends? When you told me about how your first love disappeared, then did the same thing to me?”
    “Xander-”
    “Or is a friend whatever bullshit game you and Victoria have been playing?” I growled. “I haven’t seen or spoken to you in years, but we’re dating?”
    And just like she’d flipped some switch, Jenna dropped the pout, her stance hardening like she was ready to step in the ring. “God Xander, where is your sense of humor?” She swept agitated fingers through her chopped platinum locks. “Marie told me you lost it and now I can see that’s true.”
    My anger was already balancing on a tight rope and hearing my sister’s name made it snap in two. “Marie is behind this?”
    Jenna batted her eyes innocently. “Girls will be girls, Xander.” She picked at her nails nonchalantly. “If it makes you feel any better, I would have asked for more if I would have known you actually liked that brunette.”
    There weren’t very many instances where I was totally blindsided, but looking at my ex, the first woman I said those three words to, the first woman I dared to imagine a future with...I was stunned. I realized I never knew her at all.
    I didn’t want to waste one more second on her, instead using my anger to navigate my way to the exit. Even outside, finally able to breathe, not sharing air with that conniving-
    I powered forward, leaving that toxic energy behind me with every step. Victoria, my sister, my ex, it was all irrelevant. Right now, I had to get to Penny.
    Every call went to voicemail. I left a text, asking her to call me back, fighting the urge to unload the whole sordid mess in a series of confusing texts.
    I needed to hear her voice. See her face.
    Behind the wheel, I pointed my car in the direction of her hotel. I knew her room number and knocked to no avail. Deciding that she wasn’t back, I leaned against the wall, ready to wait as long as it took. The whey protein walking advertisement that ambled down the hall toward me an hour in had other ideas.
    I could hold my own, lean and muscled with my own gym