Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 25708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
No one says anything for several seconds. The atmosphere in the room has grown charged, but I don’t totally know why. I only know that ticklish feeling within the depths of my sex is growing more exaggerated the longer I spend in Cash’s embrace. Especially when he says things like I can guard her better than anyone.
And he’s right.
I can’t even fathom the thought of going anywhere else.
“I don’t want to leave campus,” I say. “I…don’t want to run away scared.”
Cash scrutinizes me, strokes my hair. “Does he scare you, angel?”
“Yes,” I whisper, honestly.
He swallows audibly, then leans down to speak quietly in my ear. “You should run home to your parents, little girl.”
The funny sensation spreads. So intensely and so fast that I’m now embarrassed to be feeling it in front of my brother. Little girl? “No,” I say back, lifting my arms to wind them around his neck, sighing when he corrals me closer. “I want to stay with you. You said it yourself that you can guard me better than anymore.”
“Scout…” he says, sounding winded. Pained.
I look up at him and employ the Scout Method, putting out my lower lip and blinking back the moisture in my eyes. “Please?”
His eyes close. “God help me.” When he opens them again, they are trained on my face and full of fire. Like he’s vowing to protect me with his life. “I’ve got her, Russ.”
I pull my lower lip back in and beam at him, blinking away my tears.
Which only seems to make that fire burn hotter.
Behind me, Russ breathes a sigh of relief. “Thanks, man. I’ll try and come back early.”
“You do that.”
My brother approaches to my left, laying a hand on my head and ruffling my hair. Curiously, Cash’s gaze narrows at the action, his pupils seeming to expand and encompass the entirety of his eye. “Do everything he says, Scout. All right? When I get back, we’re going to handle this with the police.”
“Okay, Russ. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.” I rub my cheek against the center of Cash’s chest, enjoying the rapid pound of his heart. “I’m in good hands.”
Without another word, Russ leaves the apartment, the door clicking shut as he exits.
3
Cash
This is a very dangerous turn of events.
I’m all alone with my prey and she is smiling up at me like I’m her savior.
She has no idea how badly I want to occupy every aspect of her life, take up all her fucking oxygen so she can only gasp, preferably while I’m slam fucking her. She has no idea that I keep a Ziploc bag of her hair that I’ve collected from her pillow, a little cloud of blonde that I rub against my cheek like a ritual before bed every night. She’s been handed over to me like a giftwrapped present with the expectation that I’ll keep her safe.
But I’m the one from whom she needs to seek shelter.
“Thank you for doing this,” Scout says, letting go of me and stepping back, that maddening flush turning her face pink, her demeanor suddenly shy. “I know you probably don’t want your friend’s pesky little sister hanging around. I’m not…” Some of the sparkle dims in her eyes. “I’m not going to interrupt any dates this weekend, am I?”
Me giving the time of day to another woman? Laughable. “Nope.”
“Oh.” She starts a slow walk around my round, dining table and I suppress the urge to break it in half, so there won’t be a barrier between us. “It’s so funny, I don’t see you with girls very often, but Russ said you used to date all the time.”
Fucking Russ.
Putting the image of me with other girls in Scout’s head.
If he was still here, I’d strangle him with my bare hands.
“That’s right,” I admit slowly. “But I haven’t dated in a good while.”
“Why not?”
I shrug. “Focused on baseball.”
“Even in the off season?”
Is she fishing? Jesus. Does Scout…maybe have a little crush on me? Wouldn’t that be the cruelest prank the universe could play on me? My obsession having a crush on me?
Yes. It would.
Because she doesn’t know who I really am.
How I’ve been putting the fear of God in her, via emails and letters, to keep her from dating and driving me further into the pit of madness.
“Yeah, angel. Even in the off season.”
“Hmm.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” She is flitting around my apartment in a short skirt and skintight bodysuit and my dick is growing harder. And harder. And fucking harder. I want to put it in her more than I want to live. “It’s just that so many girls are interested in you. How do you resist?”
“Maybe I know they can’t give me what I want,” I grit out.
Immediately, I know I shouldn’t have said that. She stops in her tracks on her way around the table, her antenna obviously going up. “Oh. What do you want?”