Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72543 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72543 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
“We’ll recover, and I’ll build a board that isn’t filled with a bunch of crooks.”
“Let’s meet. Give me until late afternoon. Let’s have drinks. I’ll text you.”
Agitation has me pushing to my feet. “Let me be clear with you, Max. There are other ways I can handle this, but none of them are as lucrative for you as this option. Make it happen. And fuck drinks. In or out. If you’re out, I know what to do.”
He’s silent a beat. “I’ll make it happen. Give me the week.”
“You have until Monday.”
“It’s Friday.”
“Monday it is.”
“Tuesday,” he counters.
“Monday.” I hang up.
“Damion?”
Alana’s voice is a blast of sweetness, honey in the hard whiskey bite of my father’s bullshit. She’s finally here, by my side, in my bed, and I cannot even say I’m selfish for pulling her into this anymore. All those years apart did nothing to protect her. The reality is, she’s been marked by my family from the moment her family moved in next to mine. I’m sure my father thought she’d be a coming-of-age fuck buddy, and I’d soon move on to a more suitable match in his eyes. But she was, and is, so much more to me—my best friend, a fantasy, a moral compass when my father taught me to have nothing but a pitchfork and a bullet for my enemies.
I hate what I became without her and how tempted I am to bring that part of me out to play, to end this with my father and protect Alana. But I never want her to see that part of me. I will never let her see that part of me.
“Damion,” she says again, and I shake myself out of my reverie and turn to face her.
I swear, just seeing her there in my bed—our bed, if I get my way—her hair all mussed up and sexy, is as surreal as it gets. And when she snatches up my shirt from the end of the bed and pulls it over her, offering me a flash of a pretty pink nipple, I’m rock hard all over again. Her in my shirt says she’s mine.
“Morning, baby,” I greet.
“But not a good one, right?” She shifts to her knees. “What’s happening?”
“What we already know is happening. My father climbed into everyone’s heads and started turning their minds to mush. I need to shower and go into work.” I toss my phone on the bed and offer her my hand. “Come shower with me.”
She scoots closer and presses her hand to mine. “That’s not the way to get ready quickly.”
“It’s in everyone’s best interest that I fuck you before I go to work and fuck them.”
She doesn’t laugh, and neither do I. She climbs out of the bed and says, “Let’s go shower.”
A few minutes later, hot water streams over our naked bodies, and the sweet little girl next door is on her knees with my cock in her hand. Holy fuck, she’ll be the death of me. The way she sucks me deep and licks me everywhere just reinforces that she’s my dream girl. She always was, and she sure as fuck is this morning. When it’s over and she’s sucked me dry, swallowed, and done every naughty thing the boy next door dreamed of her doing for almost all my life, the edge of my mood is decidedly tamped down, and she’s wrapping her arms around me. “Feel better?”
“If you’re trying to convince me you shouldn’t live with me, that’s not the way to do it.”
She smiles and says, “I can’t move until my season is done filming in two weeks, but I can bring some things over if you can help me.”
I go still, not sure I’ve heard her right. “Did you just say yes?”
“I’m pretty sure I did that last night. You do know that once I move in, it’s hard to get rid of me.”
“Make no mistake, baby. I’m keeping you this time.”
“Unless you decide leaving protects me.”
I open my mouth to make my case, but she presses her fingers to my lips. “I don’t want to hear whatever you’re going to say. I made my decision. You’ll probably hurt me. I know this, but good, bad, or ugly, I’m moving in with you.”
I catch her hand, hating with a passion that she believes that’s how this goes, that’s how this ends. “I never wanted to hurt you, but the truth is, I wasn’t the man you needed me to be then, but I am now. Only good this time. I’m going to make it happen.”
“I don’t want you to promise it’s all good because we both know that’s not real life or reality. I just want you to face the bad with me this time. I can handle it.”
I pull her under the water with me and hold her close, but I don’t say anything because I can’t. Because she’s too good to understand how bad bad can get. And how dark I am, even if I don’t want to be anymore. But I might have to be that man one more time.