Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 16561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 83(@200wpm)___ 66(@250wpm)___ 55(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 16561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 83(@200wpm)___ 66(@250wpm)___ 55(@300wpm)
Suddenly, Daisy shifts on her feet, her back straightens, and her slender fingers grasp the sparkling water she is holding in her hand hard enough to make the glass shatter. Looking away from her, I see her father approaching us.
Is he making her nervous? Scared?
Her father meanders toward us, and like a helicopter, he hovers just a short distance away. Knowing he’s this close makes me sick to my stomach, and I down the rest of my whiskey, setting the glass down on a passing tray.
Something in my gut tells me I need to get her away from him and out of his grasp. It’s like a voice inside my head is whispering it over and over again. He’s a poison, and I need to save her from him.
“Would you like to dance with me?” I ask, reaching for her hand. I’m not sure if she’ll agree, but I plead with my eyes, begging for her to say yes. Of course, she doesn’t look up at me. She’s loyal to her father, and whatever fucked up hold he has on her.
“No, thank—” She starts, but like I suspected, her father is listening and cuts in from a few feet away.
“Don’t let the man down, Daisy, give him a dance.” It isn’t a suggestion, but an order, and I clench my hand into a tight fist, wanting to tell him he can shove his order up his ass. Luckily for him, Daisy grabs onto my extended hand, momentarily dragging my attention back to her.
Her hand seems tiny and breakable in mine, so I close my fingers around hers carefully. Her skin is warm and so fucking soft. I have the urge to bring her hand to my mouth to kiss it, to let my lips feel the softness.
I let her guide us onto the dance floor. My body hums with anger toward her father, but it seeps away with every step we take. The fury inside me morphing into something else… an urge to keep her safe. A need to protect her. I’ve let her down so many times before, but I can’t let her down again. I won’t let her down again.
5
Daisy
We stop in the center of the dance floor, and I awkwardly turn around. My nervousness about the dance, making my limbs move even more clumsily than normal. Carter, on the other hand, moves like he is completely sure of himself. Confident and comfortable in his own skin like he has always been.
Holding my left hand in his, he places his free hand on my hip and pulls me close.
The entire time I’m dancing with Carter, all I can feel is the warmth of his body seeping into my own, while my thoughts circle around my father and whatever demented arrangement he is setting up with that Malcolm man.
“How has life been?” Carter asks, pulling me away from my thoughts.
Licking my lips, I peer up at him, “It’s been good.”
He’s so handsome like a real-life Ken doll, with his hair slicked back and his face carved from stone. Curiously, I wonder if he’s hiding a six-pack beneath his tux. He seems perfect in every sense of the word and standing beside him, I feel like a fraud. Like I don’t belong.
“What do you do for work?” He fires off another question, and it’s an innocent enough one. As I inhale, I catch a whiff of his cologne. It’s a mix of cinnamon and amber wood, and it tickles my nostrils with its intoxicating scent.
“Right now, I’m working for my father’s law firm as an assistant in the office.”
“Is that what you would like to do in the long run?”
“God, no,” I huff. I’m trying to get away as fast as I can, and even if it wasn’t for my father, I don’t like the job anyway. Actually, if I’m being honest, I hate it.
“So, you are planning for something else, then? Getting married, maybe?”
I blink, taken aback by his question. I also take note of how his hold on me tightens as if he’s afraid of my response.
“I mean, someday, yes…”
Carter smiles, showing off his perfectly straight white teeth. As we dance, I find myself being pulled deeper and deeper into his embrace. I want the warmth of his body to surround me. I want to be protected, secure, but staying with my father, I know I’ll never have any of those things. I’m merely a pawn to him.
“What about kids? Do you see kids in your future?” I almost choke on my own spit. Oh, my god, does he know about my secret? His question unravels a plethora of other questions in my mind. Marriage? Kids? Where is this all coming from, why would Carter ask any of this? Unless…
Suddenly, it all clicks into place, a bright red neon sign appearing in my mind.