Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
And I had every intention of keeping it that way.
Yet tonight, drinking my beer alone, there was an ache in me I couldn’t shake. An ache that had nothing to do with my responsibilities in the club, or sending a child killer to hell. It was an ache for the touch of a woman. For the soft, velvety comfort of a female body. And maybe a little more than that. It was the idea of having someone to share all of this with, the good and the bad, and all the fucking ugly that came with being with me.
But there was no one—and there wouldn’t be—because I would fight that ache.
I would fight it with everything I had because I wasn’t sure I knew how to end a man’s life with my bare hands and then come home and touch a woman the way she deserved to be touched with those same hands.
So, for now, while my fucking dance card was empty and I was trying to still the mayhem in my head, my right hand would have to do.
CHASTITY
Well, goddamn!
I stared at the mess in front of me.
Who knew how much damage a burst water pipe could do to your apartment?
The carpet squelched beneath my shoes as I surveyed the destruction.
“So?” I looked at the apartment super. “What happens now?”
“What happens now is that you move out for the next few weeks until we get this fixed.”
“Next few weeks? Are you kidding me? Why is it going to take so long?”
“Believe me, kid, if I could get it done sooner rather than later I would. But the damage to both yours and the upstairs apartment is extensive. I’ve got the perfect storm happening here. Broken pipework. Water damage. Cracked brickwork and soggy drywall. Not to mention the threat of black mold with this goddam heat. And then there’s the inspection we’ll need to get on the repairs.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning you need to go pack yourself a suitcase.”
“Great,” I mumbled, walking away and wondering where the hell I was going to live for the next few weeks.
As I walked through my apartment, I surveyed the damage and considered my options. My mom’s was definitely a no-go. According to my oldest brother Chance, she and Ari were hot and heavy, and when he was staying there following his release from hospital, he had to endure some pretty enthusiastic noises coming from their room at night.
So the ick factor totally ruled out Mom’s house for me.
My next option was my Uncle Bull’s. But he was so fiercely protective of me it would be like living with a chaperone. No, worse. My father. And it would probably be a nightmare for him anyway. He’d become so preoccupied by my whereabouts and wellbeing it would turn him into a bull with a sore head.
Pun totally intended.
My brothers’ places were also out. They had families of their own. While Honey and Caleb were busy with their growing brood, Cade and Indy had her mom staying with them because she had sold her house and was waiting for her new home to become available.
And with the wedding only weeks away, Chance and Cassidy’s house was wedding central. So, me moving in would be an added strain on an already chaotic river cottage.
That left my handful of close friends, but they simply didn’t have the room.
I walked into my bedroom. The damage was less in there, but the smell of damp carpet and mildew was already beginning to permeate the air. I pulled a suitcase down from the closet and started packing, while my feet continued to squelch in the soggy carpet.
I needed a place close to campus and my casual job at Wax-It. I was part-time at Humphrey University, or Hum-U, as most people called it, and was finally only weeks away from graduating.
After Joey and I had broken up, I’d caught a bad dose of laryngitis, and that coupled with Joey parading a new love interest around campus, made my decision to take a year off school a no-brainer. I moved back to Destiny and took some time off to figure out what I wanted.
It took me a few months but I’d finally made a life-changing decision.
I wanted to be a paramedic.
So, I was finally back at college.
Zipping my suitcase closed, I was still no closer to solving my temporary living arrangements, so I gave in and rang my uncle. He was an overprotective man but he was also one hell of a problem solver.
He answered on the third ring.
“So if I told you my apartment was uninhabitable for the foreseeable future, what would you tell me to do?”
“First, I’d want to know why it was uninhabitable. And secondly, I would tell you to pack a bag and then to hold tight until I got there.”
“What if I told you my bags were already packed and I was ready to go?”