“What do you mean, it didn’t go through?” I screeched, way too high and loud as my fingers curled into the counter. But I couldn’t help it. Not with the way a fresh round of panic that surged through my body.

It was like pouring kerosene on the fiery heartbreak that burned inside of me.

Dread and alarm and the threat of hysteria.

Right there in the middle of Heathrow Airport.

Just awesome.

I’d already missed the flight Paxton had been so kind to book me, not that I would have taken it, anyway.

Not while I had a scrap of pride left in me.

Not a chance.

At least the paparazzi didn’t give a crap about me anymore now that Pax had tossed me aside like a used-up piece of garbage.

A rumble of annoyance rippled through the long line of people waiting to check in behind me.

They were just going to have to wait. Because I wasn’t moving from this spot until I figured out a way to get out of here.

I needed to go home.

Where it was safe, and I could leave all of this insanity behind me. Where I could pick up the pieces and lick my wounds, try to heal from a blow that I should have seen coming from a million miles away.

Only I hadn’t.

And it hurt all the worse.

The ticket agent cocked her head in her own annoyance, looking at me as if I were daft. “It means, your credit card was not approved for the transaction. In other words, declined.”

“Are you sure? Try it again.”

A huff from her nose. “I’ve already run it five times. I’m sure the sixth will not change the balance on your account.”

“Please,” I pleaded.

With a shake of her head, she ran it again, the saccharine smile she plastered on her face telling me nothing but I told you so as she slipped my card back to me. “I’m sorry, but unless you have another means of payment, there’s nothing I can do to help you.”

I rubbed my temples, fighting another round of tears.

How could this be happening?

A rush of anger spiraled through my senses.

Oh, there was a clear answer for that.

Bottom-line—Paxton Myles was a jerk.

A horrible, terrible, lying, manipulative jerk who’d taken advantage of me.

And I’d let him.

Like a fool, I’d let him, and now here I was, stranded in a foreign country without a dime to my name.

Just great.

Those tears in my eyes burned hot, and I slumped down as resignation came sliding in.

Overwhelming.

Overbearing.

I choked, nodded in acceptance. “Thank you for your help.” Really, the only help she’d aided in was driving the knife a little deeper into my bleeding heart.

Reminding me the cost of being a #PaxtonMylesSlut.

Kendall’s words rang through my mind like a tease. Did I really think I was any different? Did I really think he cared about me? Did I really think I was anything more to him than another conquest, easy entertainment, until something better came his way?

My heart squeezed.

Squeezed so tightly I felt the physical pain of it.

Because I had.

I’d thought he was so much different than the tabloids made him out to be.

My hands were shaking when I slung the strap of my carry-on bag over my shoulder and grabbed the handle of my suitcase. I dragged it behind me, my footsteps weak as I stumbled away from the counter.

I looked around, and a choked cry scraped from my raw throat when it all finally came crashing down.

I had no place to go.

No money.

And I was going to have to suck it up and call Elle to bail me out.

It was all weighted and compounded by this stupid broken heart.

My free card had cost me everything.

Away from the crowds, I sank down onto a row of seats and dropped my face into my hands.

I tried to hide it. To keep it quiet. But another sob tore free. This time loud and ripping. Full of the pain that roared inside of me.

It hurt.

God, it hurt, and I hated that it did. But I’d fallen for a fairytale when I knew they weren’t real.

With my face buried in my hands, I sobbed. These big, heaving sobs. Scrubbing my hands over my face, I sniffled and tried to compose myself.

It was time I pulled up my big girl panties and figured out a way to get home.

I lifted my head and my shoulders.

I blinked through the tears.

Great.

Now I was hallucinating.

I’d lost my job and my heart and now I was going to lose my mind.

Because my breath hitched when I saw a man riding down the escalator, wearing the same tux minus the jacket I swore Paxton had worn to the premiere, his head dropped between his shoulders while he anxiously roughed his fingers through his brown hair.

Every part of me stirred in recognition.

Stop it, I silently scolded myself, hoping it wasn’t actually uttered aloud like the crazy person I was becoming. Because, let’s be real, the last thing I needed was to start talking to myself.

Then the man’s head snapped up.

Brown eyes.

Chiseled face.

The man who owned hearts around the world.

Most notably mine.

Shock flashed across his face, before it shifted into the most striking sort of relief.

It was all mixed with remorse and a hundred apologies.

My heart thudded in my chest.

It was him.

It was really him.

And I didn’t know if I wanted to drop to my knees in my own relief or rush across the floor and pound my fists into his chest.

Or maybe kiss him and beg him to never let me go.

Because the hurt and shame he’d caused me still tumbled through me like jagged, sharp rocks that scraped my insides, while hope blossomed bright.

He was there.

He stepped off the escalator and then stopped, staring at me from across the space. Unable to stop myself, I pushed to my feet, the breaths jutting from my lungs.

Hurt and hope and this love I shouldn’t feel spun around me like a windstorm.

They filled the air between us, and for the longest time, we just stood there…staring.

As if we were both trying to catch up to the moment.

Then his feet were moving, long strides eating up the floor, before his big hands were on my face and his mouth was on mine and he was kissing me.

Kissing me possessively and tenderly at the same time.

I gasped out, my hands curling in the fabric of his shirt.

“Oh, God, Kaylee…I thought I’d lost you. Fuck, I thought I’d lost you. Thank God, thank God.” The words were a rumble against my lips, and confusion spun through my mind.

“Why?” The cry escaped up my throat. “Why would you do this to me?”

Why did you change your mind? Why are you here?

He pulled back, still holding my face in his hands. “How could you think I would? After everything I told you, Kaylee? You really think I’d offer you a check as a parting gift?”

“I…” I stammered, searching the sincerity of his face.

“Kendall has always thought she knows what’s best for me. She’s been controlling my life for years, and I’ve let her. Because none of that shit really mattered to me, Kaylee. I let her make decisions for me, because in the end, it didn’t matter because I didn’t care. Nothing mattered. Not until you.”

“Oh.” It left me on a shocked breath.

He dropped his forehead to mine. “She’s gone, Kaylee. The second I found out what she did, I fired her, because I won’t let anything come between you and me.” He pulled back, those eyes latching on mine. “Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

I blinked up at him, my heart a stampede in my chest. “You want me?” I whispered.

“Fuck. Do I want you?” His brow pinched and he tightened his hold. “I fucking love you, Kaylee. I fucking love you the way I’ve never loved anyone, and I’m not going to let you go. Tell me you feel the same. Tell me all this bullshit is worth it.”

“You’re worth everything.” The words were soggy, and my hands were shaking when I reached up and scratched my nails across his perfect jaw. “Everything. I love you so much. So much it should be impossible, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

“Oh, thank God.” Quickly, he wrapped me up in his arms, my arms pinned between us as if he wanted to grab onto every part of me, the man holding me so tight it almost hurt.

Kind of the way I loved him.

I could feel his smile at the top of my head. “Good…now that that’s cleared up, I’m taking you back to the hotel so I can fuck you until you don’t forget it.”

I pulled back and stared up at his face. “I’m sorry…I…I never should have doubted you.”

Gazing down at me, he brushed back a piece of hair matted to my face. “It’s okay. I never should have left you alone when I knew Kendall wanted you out of the picture.”

I flinched. “I never wanted to make things complicated for you.”

He grinned that smile that I’d always known would wreck me. “Don’t ever stop making things complicated for me, baby. That’s just the way I like it. Let the rest of the world think what they like. As long as I’ve got you and you’ve got me, that’s all we need.”

A soggy smile pulled across my mouth. “Okay.”

“Come on.” He grabbed my bag and slung it over his shoulder, pulled me to his side, and took the handle of my case, and started us out toward the entrance. Kenneth was suddenly there, grabbing my things, sending me a secret smile.

Kenneth loaded my bags into the car, and Pax crawled into the car, pulling me right onto his lap.

Silence filled the car as Ronald drove us back to the hotel, Paxton’s hand cinched down tight on my leg the whole way, my arms around his neck.

He said nothing when we pulled to the curb and Kenneth opened the door, Paxton shifting me around to slide out first before he helped me out.

Paparazzi crowded behind a red rope on the sidewalk, flash after flash striking my eyes when we stepped out.

Pax didn’t hesitate.

He pulled me into his arms and he kissed me.

Kissed me for the world to see.

A statement.

A promise.

Then, without a word, he pulled me into the hotel, tension binding in the air as we rode the elevator to our floor.

He let us into the silence, and I turned to look at him as he snapped shut the door and locked it.

He turned back to look at me.

The shadowy darkness bated.

The man so beautiful he made me weak in the knees. He started to work the buttons of his shirt. “Who do you trust, Kaylee?”

Shivers rolled. “You,” I stammered.

He shucked free of his shirt. “Good. Don’t ever believe what the tabloids print or what someone else tells you. If you have an issue or questions, you come to me. Okay?”

“Okay, I promise.”

“Good. Now come here…I didn’t get to unwrap you from that red dress I’ve been fantasizing about all night. The entire premiere, the only thing I could think about was peeling it from this body. What a waste,” he teased, his voice dripping with seduction. “Put it back on so we can pick up where we left off. I’d been about half an hour from bringing you back here and ravaging you until the sun came up.”

A giggle slipped free, and I glanced at where the red dress still lied in a crumpled pile where I’d left it when I’d flown into the room three hours before, a heartbroken mess. I’d changed quickly and grabbed the few things I had brought with me before I was in a cab taking me to the airport.

Who would have thought I’d end up back here?

Sobering, I told him, “When I came back to this room tonight, I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

I watched the thick bob of his throat as he edged closer. “And when I found out you’d left, I knew I’d do whatever it took to find you. Find you and convince you that you belonged with me.”

“I think my heart knew it all along. My first instinct was to refuse what Kendall was telling me.”

He set his hand over my heart. “Guess this knows exactly where it belongs.”

He let his fingertips flutter down my belly.

I shook.

“And I’m pretty sure this body knows it, too.”

Beneath his touch, a moan tremored free. “All of me, Pax.” I bit my lip and looked him in the eye. “And you…you belong to me.”

It didn’t matter if he was famous.

Adored by millions.

He was mine.

I flicked the button on his pants and freed the zipper.

Pax chuckled. “Oh. Seems someone has finally figured out what she wants. It’s about damned time.”

I peeked up at him as I pushed the pants from his hips. “I’ve always known I’ve wanted you. I just always thought it was a fantasy.”

His big hands pushed up under my shirt, drawing it over my head. Cool air brushed across my heated skin.

“I am a fantasy, baby. Yours. And you are always going to be mine.”

I squealed when he suddenly picked me up and tossed me on the bed. Laughter jolted free, and I pushed up onto my elbows and watched as he twisted out of his underwear, a smirk riding his face as his cock jumped free.

The man so magnificently bare.

I swallowed hard. “You are so beautiful.”

He dipped down and blazed a path of kisses across my belly, murmuring the whole time, “Not even close to being as beautiful as you.”

He dragged down my leggings and underwear. He kissed the inside of my thigh. “Beautiful….”

He pressed another at my pubic bone. “So fucking beautiful.”

Crawling onto the bed, he edged up and pressed a kiss right over my heart. “Inside—”

Then he was hovering over me, his face inches away. The man was so beautiful he stole my breath.

“And out.”

He cupped the side of my face. “All of you, Kaylee. I love you.”

“I love you,” I whispered back.

“Good.”

I gasped.

It was a gasp of shock and pleasure.

Because Pax took me.

Took me in the way only he could.

Filling me in a possessive thrust.

My fingers sank into his shoulders. “Pax.”

“Feel good, sweet girl?” He uttered the same thing to me as he’d done the first night when I’d gone home with him. Somehow then, it’d felt like a threat.

Tonight?

It felt like another promise.

That he’d spend his life keeping it.

“The best thing I’ve ever felt,” I whispered where my face was pressed to his soft flesh at the crook between his neck and shoulder, feeling the erratic thrum of his pulse against my lips.

His arm hooked around the top of my head. He drew me closer, our mouths a breath apart as he began to move.

Deep, slow, possessive.

Mind-altering strokes that marked me.

Claimed me.

“You are perfection,” he murmured back. “So tight and wet and hot. Made for me.” His mouth moved to my ear, the words whispering across the shell, sending a wave of chills sliding down my body. “Just like I was made for you.”

And our bodies moved in the dim lights that bled from the ceiling.

Shadows that became solid.

Bound.

Tied.

Us.

I stared up at him as he made love to me.

For this first time his touch tender.

I sent him the softest smile.

My own promise.

Because my one wild night had become my forever.