Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 129207 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 646(@200wpm)___ 517(@250wpm)___ 431(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129207 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 646(@200wpm)___ 517(@250wpm)___ 431(@300wpm)
“Well,” he scoffs, taking one look at me. “If it isn’t my whore of a daughter.”
I clench my jaw and keep quiet, knowing that the times I fight back usually end up worse for me.
“Cat got your tongue, princess?” he questions, stumbling closer toward me as his gaze drops down my body, lingering on my tits and waist. His tongue slips out, rolling over his bottom lip. “If you really insist on dressing like a whore, I have no problem treating you like one.”
My stomach rolls with unease, and I back up, unable to keep my mouth shut. Surely he doesn’t mean what I think he means . . .
“Mom would despise you,” I say with disgust, keeping my voice low so not to alert the boys in the garage. Their night is too big to ruin with something like this. If they heard what he had just said, tonight wouldn’t be about a record deal, it’d be about blood.
Dad lunges toward me, gripping my chin in his tight grasp. “Yeah, well what’s she going to do about it?” he demands as I feel my jaw on the brink of snapping. “The fucking bitch is dead.”
Anger booms through my system, and without a single thought, I bring my knee up in a devastating blow, slamming it right between his legs, and as he crumbles to the ground, groaning in agony, I sprint to the garage.
I throw the door open and run right into Ezra. “Woah,” he says, catching me by the shoulders. “You alright? You look—”
“Yeah,” I say, trying to shake it off as I reach back and pull the garage door closed behind me, hoping he doesn’t hear my father’s pained cries coming from the kitchen. “I thought we were late. I didn’t want to keep you waiting.”
“Yeah, I was just coming to get you,” he says before pulling back and really taking me in. His brow arches as his dark eyes deepen with hunger, and whatever fear my father had instilled in me is replaced with nothing but pure lust. “Fuck, Rae. You look good enough to eat.”
“Do I just?”
“Mm-hmm,” he murmurs, pulling me in and hooking his arm over my shoulder as he leads me out of the garage and to his car. His head tilts down, more than aware that my brother is two feet away. “Fuck the label. All I want is to concentrate on you.”
A wide grin stretches across my face as I tilt my chin up to meet his stare. “You know, I was thinking—”
“YOU!” Axel’s voice booms, the raw anger in his tone making Ezra and I spring apart from each other as though we’d just got caught with our fingers in the cookie jar. At least, that’s where I hope to catch his fingers after his gig.
My eyes widen as I whip around and take in my big brother as he lunges toward me, and I panic, trying to remember the exact words Ezra just said to me and what he might have overheard.
“What?” I rush out.
“You and I need to have a little conversation about the appropriate exit and entry strategy from the bathroom. Nudie runs were funny when you were a kid, but I don’t need to be seeing that shit now that you’re all . . . You know.”
“Now that I’m all what?” I push as a wicked grin stretches across my face, loving how awkward he is about this. “You mean now that I’m all grown up and have tits?”
“Ewwww. You’re my sister. That word isn’t supposed to come out of your mouth,” he groans as Ezra and the boys break into snickers.
“Wait. Which word?” I ask, playing dumb. “You mean tits? You know, every girl has them. They come in all shapes and sizes. Big tits. Small tits. Voluptuous, bouncy tits.”
“Oh, don’t forget the Dirty Areola tits,” Dylan adds.
“STOP. Stop,” Axel cries, bracing his hands against his ears like a child refusing to listen to his mother. “For the love of all that’s holy, please fucking stop.”
I shrug my shoulders and stride toward him, pressing up onto my tippy toes and dropping a kiss to his cheek. “Just trying to have an educational conversation with you, big brother,” I say, sugary sweet. “But if titties freak you out so much, you better not go diving between a woman’s legs. You’ll be horrified to find what they have hiding in there.”
Axel glares at me before lifting his gaze to the boys. “Can we get going before she starts drawing diagrams?”
Ezra laughs and slips his hand into mine, pulling me along. “Come on,” he says. “You’re riding with me.”
The ride to the old bar is quick, and before I know it, the boys are busy hauling drums and sound equipment out of the back of Rock’s van, and not wanting to get in the way, I make myself comfortable at the bar.