Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 28386 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 142(@200wpm)___ 114(@250wpm)___ 95(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28386 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 142(@200wpm)___ 114(@250wpm)___ 95(@300wpm)
Why?
In that short, black dress and lip stain, she could only be a prostitute.
Not to mention, this is a small town. If she was a local family girl, I’d know her from church or school—even if I tended to avoid class whenever possible before I graduated. After all, I don’t need to know algebra to raise horses, now do I?
The girl is on her knees now, looking bewildered.
And hold on now. The tree is behind her. Last thing I remember, I was inside that tree.
What the hell?
“Um…” She wipes her palms on that indecent dress and my mouth turns dry. “Who are you? How…how did you get here?”
“That’s the voice,” I say, my heart lurching, and I take a step toward her involuntarily, like I’m being pulled. “I heard your voice.”
“Where?” she whispers.
“In the tree.” I squint past her shoulder. “That one right there.”
She breathes in and out deeply and I find myself deeply invested in that breath. The in and out of it. How much I enjoy her breathing.
“I heard your voice in there, too,” she says.
Our gazes snap together hard. A frisson of alarm runs down my shoulder blades, but again, I’m fixated on her. I can’t see anything but her. I’m wholly and completely absorbed by the dark tumble of her hair, the shape of her mouth, her scent—I can smell it from here and it is pure sweet tea and sunshine. I don’t know how I got here, but my body informs me of its mission. To lay her down on her back and take the relief offered by her profession.
I’ve done it a few times. Enjoyed it, sure. Every man needs release occasionally.
But something tells me I’ll be visiting this girl until I’m a pauper.
Matter of fact, she’s not going back to the brothel. I’ll burn it down first.
“Are you okay?” she asks, coming a little closer in the moonlight, knitting up my stomach so tight, pain shoots downward to my balls. Oh my God, she’s almost unbearably gorgeous. My whole body hurts, inside and out, just looking at her. “What’s your name?”
“Name’s Blaste, honey.” I toss my hat into the grass, itching to pull down my zipper and get this going. “And no, I’m not okay. Yet.”
“Okay…” Head tilting right, she comes closer. “How can I help?”
There it is. The proposition. I can’t do anything but hungrily accept. My dick has never gotten so hard so fast in my twenty-two years. “Why don’t we start by you telling me how much?” I rasp, shoving a hand into the back pocket of my jeans in search of my bill fold. Doesn’t matter the price, I’ll hand her the whole thing right now. Just get me between those legs.
She stops, brow quirked. “How much what? What do you mean?”
I take a quick tour of her body, the clinging black dress that barely hits her mid-thigh. Bare feet. The way she’s boosted her tits up so I can see that tantalizing hint of roundness in the neckline of her dress. Girls from town don’t put on lipstick that dark. Not that I’ve seen. This girl is selling her body. It’s obvious, right? Jim must have brought her home from town and been too drunk to complete the transaction. Thank God.
“I mean…” I reach out and tip up her chin, ignoring the wave of affection that rolls through my chest. Surely, it’s misplaced. How could I feel something so potent so fast? “I mean, sugar, how much is it going to cost me to fuck you in the grass?”
The second she turns pale, I know I’ve gone and screwed up. Big time.
My next clue that I’ve misread the situation comes in the form of her hand, which whips out and slaps me clean across the face. And I take it like a man. It’s not the first time I’ve been slapped or punched. Hell, it’s not even the first time this week, because I’ve got a big ol’ mouth that has been known to get me into a lot of trouble. Not to mention, if I just mistook this girl for a whore, then I deserve a lot worse than a slap across the face.
“I don’t know where you came from, Blaste,” she says, her eyes like bottled lightning. “But I would like you to kindly return there.”
“First of all, I didn’t come from anywhere. I came from…here,” I say, shooting a glance at the tree that has been a landmark in my life since childhood. “Second, if I misunderstood the invitation, I apologize. It wasn’t my intention to offend you. Only to get your dress off.”
Her beautiful mouth falls open. “Wow. You are unbelievable.”
I tip my hat, even though it’s on the ground. “Thank you, ma’am.”
“Get off my property or I’m calling the police.”
She’s off like a shot, but I’m faster, and I wrap my fingers around her elbow, drawing her to a stop before she can get too far—and the touch of her skin almost drops me to the ground. My knees weaken and I lurch awkwardly, before finding my balance again. What in the hell is going on here? My pulse is fucking haywire and…and she’s affected, too. When I turn her around to face me, her eyelashes are fluttering and she’s sucking in a shaky breath.