Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 129460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 647(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 647(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
And with that, she slips out of the car and skips to our building, aware my aching nuts now have nothing to do with a bursting bladder.
CHAPTER 16
JESS
My eyes drift away from the fourteen-day meal plan kit hogging my kitchen counter to the door when a noisy bang rattles its old hinges. The willingness gleaming through Caleb’s hooded gaze when he submitted his application to be my fuckbuddy has my libido praying it is him, but considering our exchange was almost an hour ago, my heart won’t let it get too excited.
“Just a minute,” I request when my greeter knocks again.
I stripped out of my nightclub clothes—not as seductively as Caleb did his clothes several times today—but my booty shorts and singlet combination aren’t suitable for guests, especially with how late the hour is. My father would have a coronary if he could see me now.
Either not hearing me or having no concerns for my privacy, my guest knocks again. This time, they bang so firmly the door’s old hinges buckle under the force and pop open.
“What the hell?” I push out in shock before anger ruefully takes over my emotions. “Warren, what the fuck?” As his wild eyes shoot around my apartment, I storm into the entryway to block his unwanted intrusion into my personal space. His face has healed from the beat down Caleb gave him last month, but his cut lip is still obvious. “Get the hell out of my home.”
His pupils enlarge even more when he mutters, “Where is he, Jessmina? I saw him follow you in here.”
“You what?”
I don’t know which shocking fact to take in first. His admittance that he’s stalking me again or the baseball bat in his hand. I go for a different tactic altogether when trained survival instincts kick in. I didn’t attend lessons for me. I did it for one of my oldest and dearest friends. They helped me grow the backbone I needed to leave a six-year relationship, but Serenity’s spark never returned.
“No one is here with me, Warren. I’m alone.”
He doesn’t believe me.
He never did.
Near the end of our relationship, not even male cousins were allowed near me. To Warren, there’s no such thing as a platonic relationship, and if a male sat next to me, by not moving to another seat, I welcomed his attention.
The ghastly reminder of his controlling ways is heard in my tone when I warn, “You need to leave before I call the police.”
My threat doesn’t slow him down in the slightest.
After dragging his eyes over the meal kit that will last me a month since each meal is prepped for two, he storms down the hallway like Lou’s eyes displayed he wished he could have done earlier today.
Like a lightbulb switching on, the truth finally smacks into me.
“You called Lou.” I stiffen as another shocking revelation hits me. “How do you even know who he is? This is my apartment, Warren. My fucking life. You are not a part of this.”
He throws open my bedroom door before storming into the small space. “Just like I was excluded from your year abroad, Jessmina, and look how that ended? Back with me, where you belong.”
When memories of my time backpacking Europe smack into me, I gulp. It was meant to be the gap year to rival all gap years, but it didn’t even last a week when three of my besties and I were robbed at our hostel.
It was a cruel, gruesome attack that had us calling our parents for early flights home and promising to never leave the States again.
Now Warren’s haughty expression has me wondering if that was the purpose of the attack. Not only have I never left the country again, but I also ran straight back into his arms before excusing his controlling behavior as him being overly protective because he didn’t want to see me get hurt again. I put up with his shit for years purely because I was too scared to imagine my life without him in it.
I’m an idiot, but not as much as Warren.
“You’re an absolute dick!”
Blind to the consequences of my actions and uncaring of how much trouble I could get into, I belt into him like he isn’t clutching a baseball bat and wearing an angry sneer. I don’t give a shit what he does or has done to me, but Serenity is still suffering from the ordeal. She’s been in counseling for years and never leaves her home since her attacker was the most aggressive of the four. Who knows how far he would have taken it if I hadn’t escaped my attacker’s hold to barge him off her.
His head smacking into the bunk beds in our room was so loud it alerted the three backpackers in the dorm next to us that we were under attack. They were male, Arabic, and so large they scared off our attackers by merely walking into the room.