Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 84075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
I open my mouth to say something—to apologize, to tell her I’ll go, to say whatever I need to say to make this end because I’m buzzing with embarrassment and rage and years and shame and self-loathing—but a person appears at the end of the hall and comes closer.
I look over and it’s Ford.
“Actually, Sara Lynn, you’re the one causing a scene.”
Sara Lynn looks like she wants to strangle him. “This is between me and my cousin,” she hisses.
Ford looms over her. “I know all about you, Sara Lynn. You sit there and pronounce judgment, but you’re no better than anyone else. You’re so self-conscious and desperate to be liked that you’ll shit all over your cousin here simply for having dinner with her fiancé. But what I think you hate the most is that you have no power over her anymore and you’re starting to see how empty your life has become now that you don’t have someone to lord all over. Are you going to cry, Sar? Are you going to prove how pathetic you are? Go ahead, I think we’d love it. No? How about you go back to your table and your weak little husband, and you’d better be thankful that I don’t break your skinny little neck right here for the fucking fun of it.”
Sara Lynn stands there in stunned silence. I don’t move, afraid that I’ll draw attention to myself. I feel thirteen all over again. I can smell the dirt under the bleachers, hear the roar of the crowd, see the dappled light against the ground. He stares Sara Lynn down and her face turns bright red. For one horrible second, I think she’s about to say something back to him.
Instead, she shakes her head. “I knew you were awful even back when we were kids, and you haven’t changed one bit.” And she pushes her way past him back toward the dining room.
I lean back against the wall, my heart racing, feeling dizzy. Ford comes closer but he doesn’t reach out to touch me. I look at him and feel a dozen emotions: shame, desire, relief, anger. His head tilts and his eyes narrow.
“Kit-Kat?” he asks. “She still calls you that?”
My jaw works. “I hate that nickname. I used to be heavy when I was little. It’s her way of reminding me that I’ll always be that stupid little girl.”
He grunts and reaches out. I think he’s going to touch me, hug me, comfort me—
Instead, he grabs my wrist and yanks me behind him.
I yelp as he pulls me into one of the empty unisex bathrooms. He practically throws me against the sink and I stand there staring at him with total shock as he slams the door’s lock into place and turns on me. He’s seething mad, angrier than I’ve ever seen him, and he advances on me slowly.
“I heard most of that discussion,” he says quietly. “I came back here to make sure you weren’t starting a fight and instead, I hear you getting a tongue-lashing from that waste of oxygen you call your cousin.”
“What are you—”
He grabs my hair tight and pulls hard. I gasp in shock and there are tears in my eyes. He releases a soft growl from his throat as he leans forward in my face.
“You didn’t tell her to fuck off. You didn’t tell her to go jump off a highway overpass. You stood there and took her abuse like you always do.”
“Ford,” I whisper. “What the fuck do you want from me?”
“I want you to grow a fucking spine. You’re going to be my wife soon, Kat, and my wife is not weak.”
I whimper as he turns me around and bends me over the sink. I try to struggle, but he pins me there and I feel his body against my back, so big and strong and hard, and he rips my dress up over my ass.
“Ford!” I gasp and his right hand bends my wrist behind my back. A flash of the boy that hurt Sara Lynn at the football game all those years ago flits through my mind, and I wonder if I’ve somehow finally crossed that line and I’ll meet the real Ford Arc.
But his hand comes down hard on my ass and he spanks me.
“Don’t you ever let her talk to you like that again.” He tightens his grip on my arm and I groan in pain. He spanks me again, hard and fast, and the pain is hot and intense, and a strange thrumming begins in my core.
“Ford,” I whimper. “What are you doing? Why are you doing this?”
“Because you need to learn how the fuck to stand up for yourself.” He spanks me again, harder, and I gasp. Half the restaurant has to hear this—he’s not holding back. I feel his stiff cock pressing against me and my head’s a wild, dizzy mess of emotions and desires all tangled up with pain and control and domination.