Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Because between one second and the next, he had his arms around my waist, pulling me in close to his chest.
“One night,” I told him. “One single night, and that’s it.”
“One night.”
He was lying.
I could read it on his face and in the way he spoke.
Tomorrow, he’d be right back where he’d been today. Tomorrow, he’d invade my space.
But tomorrow, I’d be stronger…right?
I’d be able to resist him. I would.
I should’ve known that trying to resist Baylor Hail would be futile.
I didn’t, though.
Instead, I broke my cardinal rule.
To never get too close to anyone again.
I got too close.
And I liked it there.
Chapter 11
Roses are red
Beer is delicious
I use paper plates
Because fuck doing dishes
Baylor
She was scared.
I could read it in the line of her body, and the way she wouldn’t look me in the eyes.
It was also the reason I stayed.
I could tell that something was bothering her, and I didn’t want her to be alone.
Normally when I knew I wasn’t wanted, I’d leave. It was never fun to be somewhere you weren’t wanted. This time, not so much.
I didn’t like knowing that she’d be here, alone and sad.
I didn’t want to go party with my brothers and family while Lark was over here purposefully not enjoying herself.
“What are you scared of?”
She shut me up by placing a gentle kiss on my lips.
“You think a little kiss like that is going to distract me?” I asked her.
She flushed.
“It’s going to take a lot more to distract me than that.” I got up and towered over where she now stood, backing her further into the counter where she’d retreated to after she’d kissed me. “You want to try again? Give it all you’ve got this time?”
She trembled.
I was close enough to her to feel the heat of her body without actually touching it.
It was maddening, but I wouldn’t budge.
I might come off as laid back and calm, but I wasn’t. I was probably the least laid-back person in this town.
That’s why I walked everywhere. Why I purposefully stayed the hell away from people who I knew could make me say something I might regret later.
That was why I felt so connected to this woman who was currently inches away from me.
She was like me, only better looking.
And I fucking liked that there was someone else like me.
It was exhausting hating everyone by myself.
“You hate everyone?” she breathed.
I paused, not realizing that I’d said that last thought aloud.
“Ummm,” I hesitated. “Is that a bad thing?”
I’d always been on the outside looking in.
In high school, I wasn’t a football player or a soccer player. I was a cross-country runner. That was about as alone as you could get in terms of high school sports. Then in the military, I was assigned to a unit that was made up of a bunch of obnoxious assholes. But I loved those assholes, even if I did so from afar.
When I took a different route that led me into a more covert role with the Marines, I found my true calling in life.
I loved being holed up alone, gathering information. Sitting, watching, listening. Those were my strong suits.
And when I was hurt while on leave, my life completely changed.
Gone was the anonymity I enjoyed. Gone was my free time that was my time.
Gone was the peace and quiet of my once orderly world.
Gone was the feeling that I could breathe.
“You feel like you can’t breathe?”
Guess I was still saying some of this aloud.
“Sometimes,” I admitted. “Then I get around you, and all of those anxious feelings start to drift away. It’s the only time the noise turns off and I get any silence in my head.”
I closed my eyes and leaned forward until my forehead rested against hers. “You make me feel like it’s ok to be this way, like I’m less of an outsider.”
She stared at me, and suddenly, she wasn’t standing inches away from me any longer. Now she was throwing her arms around my neck and slamming her mouth onto mine.
I did the only thing that any sane man would do in that situation.
I picked her up, urged her to wrap her legs around my hips, and took her entire body into my arms. Then I prayed that my knee wouldn’t give out.
Which ended up being a mistake.
I immediately switched our positions so that my back was leaning against the counter.
Since my accident, my knee couldn’t sustain the weight that I used to be comfortable lifting. Since my recovery—and I say recovery loosely since I still wasn’t back to what I used to be—I hadn’t missed the old me…well, at least not too much.
I had yet to be in a serious relationship, and I hadn’t had anything more than my hand in a really long time. I hadn’t realized my limitations. Hadn’t missed what I used to have because I hadn’t realized I was missing it.