Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 50840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
"My father."
"What'd he do?"
"You mean aside from get my mother pregnant, tell her to abort me, and then spend my whole life refusing to acknowledge my existence? Nothing."
Jesus Christ. I'm going to find him and tear his throat out through his asshole.
"What's his name?" I growl, my hands clenched into fists.
"Doesn't matter. None of it matters. It was a long time ago. I answered the question. End of story."
Yeah, I guess she did. But she's lying to herself if she thinks it doesn't matter. It clearly fucking does because she's still bleeding over it. Whatever his name is…fuck him. He doesn't deserve her.
Hell, maybe I don't, either. I don't know. But I'm willing to work my ass off to be the guy who does deserve her. That has to count for something, right?
I don't know.
Maybe I should walk away. With Montaque hanging around and all the shit with Lauren, maybe that is the safe, sane thing to do. But I've never done the easy thing just because it's easy. I've always fought for what I wanted, even when the shit was hard, especially when it was hard. And what I want is standing in front of me right now, scared to trust because her father scarred her in ways that no child should be scarred.
I'm not going anywhere.
I reach for her hand, tangling our fingers together.
"Take the job, Peyton," I murmur, turning her to face me. "Trust me enough to believe that I'm not like the prick who never deserved you or your mother. You're safe with me."
"Logan."
"You really think I'd do anything to hurt you, angel? That I'd let anyone else hurt you?" I ask, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Is that really who you think I am?"
She stares up at me for a long moment, her tongue peeking from between her lips, before she huffs a massive sigh. "No," she says reluctantly. "I don't think that, okay? I just…"
"Don't trust me."
"You lied to me."
"And I'm an asshole for not regretting it," I mutter. "I get it. But regretting it means regretting the best night of my life. It means not knowing what you sound like, what you taste like, what you feel like unraveling on top of me." I press my face to her hair, breathing her in. "I don't regret you, Peyton."
"You make it really freaking hard to be mad at you, Logan."
"Yeah?" I grin, my lips against her crown. "That's probably a good thing because I have a feeling I'll be pissing you off a lot."
"Yay for me," she says sarcastically.
I tip her head back, brushing my lips across hers in a soft kiss. At least, that's my intention, but the road to hell and all of that. As soon as I feel her lips beneath mine, my restraint unravels. I haul her into my arms, devouring her lips like a man starving. That's what I am. Starving. Drowning. Going out of my fucking mind in want of her. I've been in hell since the minute she ran out on me, and the furnace is only growing hotter.
"Goddamn," I groan, nipping her bottom lip when she pulls my hair, whimpering. "I could kiss you all day."
"I told you not to kiss me, Logan."
I grin against her lips. "Oops. My bad."
She huffs quietly, pulling back to look at me. "I'm going to live long enough to regret this, aren't I?"
"Nope. You're going to live forever."
She rolls her eyes at me, but she can't hide her smile. She's thawing, slowly but surely. Christ. How long until I can take her back to bed?
Judging by the way her smile slips and her brows furrow…not soon enough. Goddammit.
"Come on," I growl, grabbing her hand. "We have places to be."
I wasn't lying to Alice when I told her that I planned to tell Peyton everything. I'm doing that today, before she finds another reason to be pissed at me for withholding information from her. If she's going to be part of my life, I want her to know every part of it. I owe her that much.
"What?" She tugs against my hold in protest. "I don't work for you yet, Logan."
"Then it's a good thing this isn't work, isn't it?"
She huffs loudly, but I just smile in response. She isn't fooling anyone. What she feels isn't hate. It isn't even annoyance. It's the makings of forever. I just need her to cooperate and let me prove it.
Chapter Seven
Peyton
"Where are we going?" I growl, glaring at the back of Logan's head as he practically drags me through the parking lot toward his truck. I swear, he drives me nuts! One minute, he's being infuriating. The next, he's being sweet. And then the next, he's being bossy and mysterious. There are more facets to this man than a dang diamond, and I'm not sure any of them really capture all of him. He's complicated. Quadratic equations complicated, and no one understands those because math is situated on the level of hell Dante never traversed.