Total pages in book: 20
Estimated words: 17761 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 89(@200wpm)___ 71(@250wpm)___ 59(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 17761 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 89(@200wpm)___ 71(@250wpm)___ 59(@300wpm)
Ash didn’t speak. Didn’t press me to keep going. He just waited, letting the silence be mine to fill. But I felt his gaze locked on me, unwavering.
I swallowed hard, the lump in my throat too big and heavy. “At first, he was... great. Charming. Attentive. The kind of man who made you feel like the world revolved around you.” I laughed humorlessly. “I learned fast it was all fake with Brady. But until then, he let me believe everything was great. Let me believe that we had something good. Something real.”
Ash placed his hand over mine, and I stared at where we touched.
I let out a slow, shaking breath. “But I realized too late I was locked in a cage.” I rubbed my free hand on my thigh, my body suddenly feeling too cold. “It got to where I just stayed inside, locked away from society and the friends I once had. He knew what he was doing,” I said bitterly as I stared at the television. “No family. No friends. He thought I was weak because of that. Easy prey,” I whispered.
I clenched my hand into a fist, nails digging into my palm, closed my eyes, and breathed out, feeling stronger for saying all of this out loud.
“And the thing is… he never had to hit me. He never even had to yell. He just made me believe no one else would love me the way he did. That everything he did do was because he cared for me.” I let out a bitter laugh, shaking my head. “I was a fool.”
Ash’s presence beside me was solid, unmoving, like an anchor I hadn’t realized I needed. I missed feeling this.
But I’ve never felt anything like this.
I looked over at Ash to see he was staring at me.
“Thank you for trusting me with your truth. I’m sorry you had a piece of shit use your emotions against you. I’m sorry some motherfucker was so miserable with who and what he was and made you feel less than,” he told me quietly, and it made more words spring to my lips.
“By the time I realized what he was doing, I wasn’t me anymore. I was… small. Empty. I measured my worth by how well I could keep him happy, by how infrequently I did anything to upset him. And when I finally understood that love wasn’t supposed to feel like that, I knew if I stayed, I wouldn’t survive.”
I blinked, forcing back the sting of tears in my eyes. “I was sick of it, so I left. In the middle of the night. With nothing but my small bag and the last bit of strength I had left.”
Silence stretched between us, but Ash still had his gaze on me, heavy and unreadable. But still somehow gentle.
I wasn’t sure what I expected—pity maybe?
Instead, his voice was steady, low, and threaded with something that made my chest ache. “You never have to feel like that again. I won’t let it happen, Evie.”
I sucked in a breath. So many things coursed through me that I suddenly felt hot and high and bombarded with it all, but I loved every bit of it.
I wasn’t sure when it happened—when the air changed, when my pulse climbed, or when I realized how close we were—but I felt so bare and vulnerable, yet I wanted to delve deeper into what these feelings were.
I could feel the heat of his body, the way his arm rested along the back of the couch close enough that if I leaned just a little, I’d feel it against my shoulders. He still had his other hand over mine, comfortingly, his thumb gently stroking my skin.
Focusing on anything other than Ash was impossible, but suddenly, I was also acutely aware of my body. And God, it had been so long since I’d felt like… me, like myself in my own skin. Which felt too warm now, as something tightly coiled in my belly.
Desire?
Yes.
It grew slowly before curling through my veins.
And I wasn’t afraid.
For the first time in forever, I was in control. And I wanted to see where this could go.
I let my gaze scan Ash’s face, taking in his square jaw with dark scruff covering his flesh. His lips were full, and mine tingled to kiss him, to see if he was as gentle with me there as he had been the rest of the short time I’d known him, despite him seeming like he could be savagely brutal in every other aspect of his life.
I shifted just enough for my knee to brush his. The touch was barely there, light, tentative, but my—his—reaction was instant.
His hand flexed lightly against mine, his big body visibly tensing.
That desire I’d felt taking over inside me grew even more.
The TV droned on in the background, forgotten as I watched Ash’s gaze drop to my lips. For a split second, doubt flickered in his expression. “Evie—”