Bryce’s POV

Bryce just did not get it.

Why was Vivian playing hard to get after so many years of following the script and always taking him back? As far as he could see, nothing had changed.

He was still very good looking. He did not mean that in a bragging way, he was just stating facts.

As a personal trainer, he exercised a lot, which meant that he was in peak physical condition.

And thanks to that very same job, he made a lot of money. But those were not Bryce’s only good traits.

He had other things going for him as well.

One of the best of them was his ability to pick women.

When looking for someone to have fun with, he chose only the hottest babes.

Some of them were clients, but the majority were not. They were just incredibly beautiful, very bendy and more than willing to please him in bed. His ability to choose women was also what had helped him when he had picked Vivian to be his official girlfriend.

He had taken one look at her, seen all of that flab, all of those stretch marks, her warm smile and her kind heart.

And Bryce had instantly known that this was a woman that he could carve up to suit himself. Someone who would be at home waiting for him if he got tired of playing the field, or if he ever got too sick to cheat.

That was the kind of woman that Vivian Rose was.

The one that he had chipped away at to better suit his needs. For years now, Bryce had been very satisfied with the way things between them were.

He got to have his fun, and then he would head back to Vivian, toss a few crumbs of affection her way, before going back out to do whatever he wanted.

But now he was tired of being out in the streets, and she would not let him return home to her.

What was her problem?

***

If she were not being as stubborn as a mule this time around, Bryce had actually intended to take her on a vacation.

Some place nice. A place where the two of them could go to the beach, lounge out in the sun. Allowing her to get a much needed tan, while Bryce himself ogled all of the beauties passing by, it was the least he could do.

It would be his silent apology to her, for nearly getting her sick( thank goodness he had been freezing her out for months).

The last girl that he had cheated with, had ended up having an STD.

Now though, Bryce had cleared it out of his system, and he needed a bit of Vivian’s tender-loving and care, to give him the confidence to go out there, and sleep around freely again without worry.

Sure he was still sleeping with other women. But the worry that he might catch something, and not have Vivian to look after him, was seriously killing the mood. He needed to get back in her good books, but it was very difficult.

His calls to her were no longer getting through, which meant that she had probably blocked him, something that she had never done before.

It was a worrying development. Add to that the fact that she had unfollowed him on every single social media platform, and had also turned all of her profile’s private so that he could not even peek into her life.

Bryce was not having a good time.

Had all of the years that they’d been together meant nothing to her?

He had dedicated more of himself to her than he ever had to any woman, why was she being like this now?

It was very frustrating, and Bryce was actually considering doing some pretty extreme things. Like maybe following her around to remind her why it was so important that she get back together with him. Perhaps if he spent a few weeks just showering her with gifts, love, praise. All of the nonsense that she liked, she would come back to her senses.

***

But even though Bryce was thinking of doing all of that in a bid to win Vivian back. He was not as confident that she would return to him as he had always been all of those other times.

Something had changed.

The last time that he had seen Vivian face to face, she had actually looked him straight in the eyes.

There had been no silent hurt when he had been digging into old wounds with his words, trying to get her to curl in on herself.

Instead she had met his gaze head on, and that was not the only thing.

Somewhere along the line, Vivian Rose had picked up the confidence to start dressing well instead of looking like well...a teacher.

She stood up for herself, she dressed well, she seemed genuinely content with her life, and Bryce was not liking that at all.

A person who was content, the way that she seemed to be, would have no use for him.

And that just could not be allowed to stand. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Vivian needed to know that she was a broken individual, someone that only Bryce could stand.

That way she would cling to him with all of her might, and Bryce would be free to keep doing whatever he wanted. But now Vivian had self-worth ...what an awful thing.

That realization made Bryce feel horrible, and that was because he knew that a development like that could not just come out of nowhere.

They had been together for years, and Vivian had never shown any signs of healing herself. The fact that she was doing so now could only mean one thing.

There had to be another man in the picture.

Someone who was hell-bent on undoing all of the hard work that Bryce had put in to making sure that Vivian was perfect.

That she would never, ever want to leave him, too fearful of the world outside.

The mere thought of anyone looking at Vivian Rose, and finding her attractive, sounded ridiculous to Bryce. But with the way that Vivian was acting, there was a very huge chance that it was true.

If it was, then that was really, really bad.