Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
But he didn’t attack me and yank my clothes off. He just put me under the blankets, undressed down to boxer briefs, and then climbed in with me and spooned me. I was in yoga capris and a tank top so I guess they’d do for sleeping. I nuzzled in and pondered it for a minute but then dared to plant a kiss on his forearm, which was across my chest, his hand cupping my shoulder. His lips touched the back of my neck just above the collar and he squeezed me and then gently took the elastic out of my hair and twisted the length of my hair around and around his fist gently, sweetly. He played with my hair until I fell back to sleep snuggled against him.
I had a long chat with my brother on the webcam before I went to bed.
“What’s going on?” Tommy asked.
“With what?”
“With Felicia. Everything okay? You’ve been off the last few times we’ve talked.”
“I’m not calling her that. She had a bit of a meltdown and asked me not to.”
“Meltdown?”
“Yeah. Fucking meltdown mode myself over here.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning…shit…it’s gotten complicated. Really fuckin’ complicated.”
“Uh huh,” my brother had replied with a knowing look.
“What?”
“You fucked her; you like the girl.”
“Fuck.” I had leaned back in my chair and stared at the ceiling.
“What’s the problem?”
“The problem? What about this isn’t a problem is more like it. Do I really want to take on a girl that’s broken? I didn’t wanna go here.”
“But you went there, anyway.”
“Yeah. She’s…fuck…she’s gorgeous and she’s submissive in bed and can’t get enough. She begs me for it.”
He let out a loud breath.
“She has nightmares, so I let her sleep with me.”
He moistened his lips and nodded.
“I called her Angel because she was trying to behave like an angel and because she has the face of one and now, she’s decided that’s her new name.”
He winced and gave his head a scratch.
“Yeah, I know. She won’t take off the collar they put on her because it gives her nightmares to have it off. She says she needs it on so they’ll know she’s mine and not try to take her back. She’s begging me to keep her.”
He let out a slow breath. “So you fucked her and now you feel bad ‘cuz you don’t plan to keep her?”
“Fucked her repeatedly, bro. Can’t seem to stop. It’s feeling like a relationship.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
He gave me a knowing look. “So, we change the plan,” he shrugged. “You wanna keep her, you keep her.”
“It’s wrong.”
“Yeah.”
“It feels right, though.”
“I know.” He gave me another knowing look.
“Pop’ll be laughing his ass off at me right now.”
“For sure,” Tommy said quietly. I saw Tia move in behind him and she waved.
“Hey,” I greeted.
She put a sandwich and a steaming mug down beside him and kissed him on the cheek. He’d caught her hand as she tried to walk away and yanked her back until she landed in his lap. He planted a kiss on her mouth. She blushed at him, gave him a look of promise, making me feel like I was a fucking peeping Tom on the honeymooners. I cleared my throat. He took her hips and lifted her away and gave her ass a swat. She left the room. His eyes came back to the screen.
I rubbed my eyes. I’d had a fuck of a day putting out fires and shit.
“So, what if as she gets well in her head, finds who she used to be again, she doesn’t want this?” I muttered.
“Or what if she falls for you and does?”
“Do I really want someone broken? I grew up with a broken mother, man, you remember. Sometimes Angel seems like she’ll get past it. But I don’t know if what I’m seeing is her or who they made her into. And I dunno if she’ll get past it. I’m not even fucking making sense here.”
“I get it,” Tommy stated.
“What if her wanting me isn’t real, just a side-effect of her hero worship because I got her outta there and then it becomes obligation?”
“Make it good for her so she won’t want anything else.”
“I’d hate to put myself out there when it could go sour.”
“Better to have loved and lost and all that jazz, man.”
He was validating it, telling me to keep her. Telling me to take a risk. I figured he’d understand, of course he’d understand, but this wasn’t him just telling me to take what I wanted in a caveman, crime boss kind of way; this was him speaking to me from experience. His situation wasn’t the same but it was close enough to be highly relatable.
“Send me your counselor’s details, okay? I think it’d do her some good to talk to someone. I don’t know her backstory yet but I’m guessin’ therapy could be good.”
“Will do.”
“Is it helping you?”