Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 76396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
“Don’t tell me what I do, and do not want for my life, Slater Knight. There’s something about you, and I want to know what that something is. And trust me, once I get my eye on something...”
She stares at my lips.
And fuck me if I don’t ache.
“Too old for you, darlin’.”
She snorts, “You’re not that much older than me, hell, it isn’t even close to eight years, which is the cut off, right?”
I raise my brows. “Who told you that?”
She shrugs. “I just said it so you’d disagree, and then my point was made.”
I grin at her. She grins back down at me.
“You just turned eighteen...still feel like a kid...”
She reels backwards, almost horrified. “Now just you wait a minute, Slater Knight, you have to work a whole lot harder than this for my sexual affections. I’m simply telling you I like you, and maybe, I don’t know, you can go ahead and take me out. You just keep it in your pants.”
And fuck.
In that moment.
I know I could absolutely fall in love with her.
“Well, now we’ve gotten that out of the way. Goin’ to let me kiss you, because I’ve been dreamin’ about it for a fuckin’ long time?”
She leans down, so close her warm breath puffs against my lips. And I brace, waiting for the moment I finally get to taste her, but just before her lips touch mine, she jumps off and stands, extending an arm down to help me up. “You have to work a little harder than that. I know you can have any girl you want, at the drop of a hat, but not me, Slater Knight. For me, you’ll have to work.”
I take her hand, and tug her so she comes crashing back down on top of me. I roll us so my body pins hers to the grass. Then I put my forearms either side of her head and lean down. She’s panting, lips parted, and it takes a whole lot of fucking control not to take her right here.
“And work I will, darlin’. Work I will.”
She smiles.
Big and bright.
And I know in that moment...
I’d turn the world upside down to have Ellie.
~10~
NOW – ELLIE
We’re sitting out front of my house, in Slater’s truck, and neither of us has said anything. I’m still clutching the necklace, and I’m wondering if I should tell Slater I have it. But if I tell him, then I have to explain I know it’s mine, and that it brang on a familiar feeling, kind of like I had at the cookout.
“Did you know that man?” he asks me finally, the truck so dim I can’t really see his face.
“No,” I tell him. “But know he works for him. They’re looking for me.”
“They’re not goin’ to find you. Got a watch on your house, in case we were followed. Gotta be careful, Ellie. They’re zoning in. It won’t take them long.”
I tremble, terrified at the thought of being found. Even more terrified at the thought of going back to him. And this time, not being able to escape.
“I’m afraid, Slater,” I admit.
He turns and looks at me. “Don’t be, because I will not fuckin’ let anyone take you away again.”
I try to hold his gaze, but I can’t and look away. The call falls silent again, and it takes a few minutes before I speak.
“How come you fight?” I decide to ask, even though I know the answer to that.
“Certain Finn showed you the safe, Ellie.”
His voice is low, and raspy. He’s staring at the steering wheel, he raises his big hands and curl them around it, biceps bulging. I have to look away.
“You get yourself hurt...for me?”
“I like the pain.”
“Because it makes you forget?”
He turns to me. “Nothin’ in this fuckin’ world could ever make me forget you. Nothin’.”
I swallow, and stare at him. And then I reach into my coat pocket and pull out the necklace, stretching my hand out and showing him. He stares at it, for a long moment, and then looks up to me. “Finn gave that to you.”
“I kind of...took it out. I knew it was mine, I just didn’t...I didn’t remember where I got it. Then I saw the tattoo on your chest...”
He studies the necklace, then plucks it out of my hand and curls his around it. My heart kind of sinks, because I was hoping he’d let me keep it, but I don’t have the right to ask that.
“Slater?” I ask, and his eyes swing to mine again. “Don’t fight for me. I don’t like seeing you get hurt.”
He studies my face. “I’ll fight for the rest of my life for you.”
I drop my head, and stare at my hands. “Thanks for bringing me home.”
I turn and climb out of the car, once again disappointed that he doesn’t say anything, though what do I expect him to do? Stop me? I already know he cares about me, hell, I can see it written all over his face, a level of affection I’ve never seen before. He doesn’t deserve me to make it any worse with some childish fantasy I’m cooking up in my head about him launching out of the car and scooping me into his arms.