Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 45548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 228(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 228(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
I understood a young girl’s fear of her parents finding out she was experimenting with weed. Knowing the stigma attached to drugs of any kind in this neck of the woods, it was easy to see how that would strike unreasonable fear in her heart. She fucked up yeah, but in this, she was as much a victim as I.
13
I stood up and brought her to her feet in front of me. She held her body stiff until I pulled her in close with my arms around her. It took her a minute but once she realized I wasn’t going to attack, she relaxed and let her head fall against my chest.
Her warm tears drenched my shirt and I stood there letting her cry it out as I thought of what I had to do next. I was ass deep into wringing Doug’s neck when she did something that pulled me back from the brink.
“Did you just wipe your nose in my shirt?” For some reason both of us found that shit funny. Laughter through tears. I looked down at her, pushing the hair back from her face. The fear was gone. The weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
“I might have to make a run but I’m not sure about leaving you here.” There was no question that things had changed between us. If the sex had been mediocre I could’ve written it off as a one-off and moved on. But what happened in that bed yesterday wasn’t something you find everyday and I was smart enough to know that.
“What are you going to do? Where are you going?” I didn’t answer her right away, just studied her as I formulated my thoughts into words.
“Let me ask you a question. You said that the first time you saw me, you felt an attraction. Putting aside everything that came after, how do you feel now?”
I held my breath as I awaited her answer. It wasn’t easy for me, but I’d had to accept in the last hour that everything I’d believed for the past five years had been a lie. That she wasn’t the person I thought her to be. More importantly, I like the person she would’ve been had Doug not fucked us both.
She pinked up and tried hiding behind her hair before I pushed it back from her face again. “I think you know the answer to that.”
“You mean the sex.” She blushed and nodded her head being all shy and shit.
“You were pretty fucking hungry babe.” I made light of it to ease her discomfort and she shot me a look before punching me in the gut playfully. The move surprised us both and she paused as if just realizing what she’d done. I grinned and kissed her nose.
That bright-eyed girl who’d approached me was still in there though she hid her well. I wanted to know that person. Maybe we could both salvage what’s left of our lives, but first I had one last thing I needed to ask.
“What’s the deal with you and Bryan?” She tried to hide the face she made but I caught it.
“Let’s just say that I didn’t think I deserved any better. After what I did to you, I guess I didn’t believe I deserved any happiness. I turned down a lot of guys before he asked me out. I knew there was no danger of me ever falling in love with him. I guess it was my way of punishing myself.”
“Penance, I knew it. Here’s the deal I don’t know where this is going, you and me, but your punishment is at an end. I don’t want you going back to him.” I couldn’t bring myself to come right out and say it, not yet; but I wanted her with me. What did I have to lose?
For the past five years our lives have been intertwined in one way or another. We’d both been imprisoned because the actions of one man, though her hell had been self inflicted. I’ve seen what she’d done to herself and I gotta tell ya, physical incarceration might be hell, but I can’t imagine it had been much easier living that shit in your head.
She looked spooked as fuck but I knew there was no turning back. I’m enough of a bastard to use our past against her if I had to, if only to save her from herself. No way she responded the way she had with me if it didn’t mean something. I know it sure as fuck did to me.
“What would I tell Bryan? He moved all the way across the country because of me.”
“The plane goes both ways. You’re not wasting the rest of your life in that fucked up relationship and even if you wanted to, I want you again. I might want you for a long fucking time to come, who knows? And I don’t share.” Let her make of that shit what she will.