Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
I moaned, Cowboy catching the sound with his mouth. And he kissed me. He kissed me and kissed me, wiping away the stain that had been left on this part of me a long time ago. I felt the cords of Mexico, of him, begin to break. Not fully, but enough to make it easier for me to fucking breathe. To move, without feeling the ever-present pull of Juan drawing me back to his side. The scars he had left on me calmed, their burning marks cooling under Cowboy’s hands.
When he broke away, I kept my eyes closed, happily sitting with the tingling feel of his sweet taste on my lips. “Now that,” I said and smiled, eyes still shut, “was worth the hype.”
“Sleep, cher,” he whispered, chuckling softly at my words. He laid me down on the couch. I let him guide me to the soft cushions. I didn’t open my eyes, but I felt him lie beside me. He stroked the hair from my face. “We’ll look after you now.”
He curled me against him, my back to his chest, and wrapped his arm around me. I sighed in contentment, more comfortable than I’d felt in such a long time. The room was still warm from the heat of the fire, the smoky burning-log scent filling the air. Cowboy’s sleepy breaths played on the back of my neck.
I was almost asleep when I felt someone in front of me. I went to open my eyes, but a soft voice shushed me back down. A finger ran over my cheek, back and forth, in a hypnotizing motion. Then, warm breath fluttered over my cheek, and a soft mouth pressed a single kiss to my lips. My breath held, my body still, as the mouth moved to my ear and gently whispered, “Sleep, cher. Sleep.”
I opened my eyes to see a tattooed back retreating toward the hallway. Tattoos decorating rich, beautiful brown skin . . .
Hush, I thought, my heavy eyes forcing me under with the pull of sleep. Hush. I sighed . . . and drifted off with a smile on my lips and a new sense of hope in my heart.
Chapter Six
Hush
I rode the Harley around the perimeter one last time, chasing the rising sun across the horizon as my eyes ran over every inch of the land. I saw nothing out of the ordinary. I knew I should go back to the house.
But I couldn’t.
I pulled the Harley to a stop in the middle of the field. I sat back in the seat, watching the sun cresting over the far hills, and took a deep breath. The warming wind blew across my face.
I was dog tired. But I hadn’t been able to sleep.
There wasn’t a chance I was gonna catch any z’s after last night. I closed my eyes and heard Sia’s voice . . . after I came back from Mexico . . . I’ve never trusted anyone else. I . . . I haven’t let anyone get close . . . Until you . . . and Hush, if he would just let me.
A groan stuck in my throat . . . and Hush, if he would just let me . . .
I ran my hand down my face and tipped my head back to the lightening sky. “I would if I could, cher,” I said aloud, to nobody and everybody at the same time. Reaching into my cut, I removed the pills and took them like I did every day. Then I focused on my hands. The brown skin looked back at me. Not black, and not white. But a mix.
My fucking chest tightened, a damn iron lung making it impossible to breathe as I heard Cowboy’s words too . . . You’re both so fucking broken . . . From the minute we met you, I could see in you what I see in him every day . . . loneliness . . . Two people who are lost, two people who don’t know how the fuck to escape the darkness they’re living in.
Sia had been crying, his words hitting home. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to get my best friend’s fucking words from my head. I knew he worried about me. I knew he cared. Fuck, he was the only one who did.
I stopped that thought dead . . . because I now knew he wasn’t the only one.
Sia. Motherfucking Elysia Willis.
They hadn’t known I’d been listening. Neither of them had known that I hadn’t gone upstairs into the bedroom; instead I had slumped down against the wall in the hallway and listened to every fucking word. I hadn’t been able to leave them alone. Some fucking internal tether held me close.
I listened to Sia cry. To Cowboy promise her things I wasn’t sure I could ever give. I couldn’t give anyone that anymore. I was a fucking bad omen. Whoever was with me would always be ruined. It had always been that way. I gritted my teeth and tried to shake her from my head.