Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 103104 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103104 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
I bite my lip at the pain in his voice.
“She killed herself a month later.”
Tears prick at me as those images flicker in my mind, and I shove them down, pick up one of his fisted hands, and press it to my lips. I kiss each knuckle, unfurling his fingers until they’re no longer clenched.
“I know I’m not ugly, but sometimes, sometimes, it gets in my head a little, and I…just…I don’t know…can’t stop thinking about it. I mean, if my own mom hurt me, then what the fuck is wrong with me? Then I remind myself that she had serious issues, but shit, the scar bugs me. I see it everyday in the mirror, and it’s a reminder that maybe I didn’t help her enough, that I should have seen how bad off she was that day we left her to go to school and she…she ended it.” He sucks in a breath. “It just…made me push people away. I didn’t want anyone to know what happened and I didn’t want to ever fucking kiss a girl again.”
“I’m sorry it happened, Knox.” God, what else can I say? He’s been through so much more than I ever realized.
He nods, sighing. “Dane has similar mental issues, I think.”
I wince.
“What?” he asks.
“He was doing coke the day I was hit outside the gym.” I describe how I saw the powder on his nose. “I kinda sorta said I wouldn’t tell you, not really out loud, but with my eyes, and now I’m a snitch again and we haven’t really been talking—”
He squeezes my hand. “Thanks for letting me know. Now, can you truth or dare me again? Because I really feel like this conversation took a nosedive.”
I turn to face him on the bed. “Okay, truth or dare?”
“You sound so serious,” he murmurs.
I pop him on the arm lightly. “I am! It’s the only way to get you to talk to me.”
“Ah, Tulip, I always want to talk to you…” He trails off. “Truth.”
“Are you SA?”
He pops an eyebrow. “SA?”
I dart my eyes at him. “Don’t play innocent. You wrote me that letter and you’ve been texting me these poems, and if it isn’t you then I’m in deep shit cause I think SA is nice and I may really want to kiss him—”
“Yes.”
Warmth washes over me.
“You’re smiling,” he murmurs.
“Mmmm, I guessed it, so many clues there…how you showed up to help with my car, the mention of your brother…” I let my words drift off, thinking back to that letter. “Whose cell number do you use?”
“One of Dane’s burner phones I took a while back.” He grimaces. “I really tried hard to not be stalkerish.”
“Did you have anything to do with Tyler getting his scholarship?”
His lips quirk. “That was all you, Tulip. Vicious girl. I bet you made Trask wet his pants when you waltzed in there and laid down the law.”
I blush and scoot closer to him until our legs are touching. “Truth or dare?”
His chest rises and he rakes a hand through his hair. “Shit. Truth?”
“Why did you come tonight?”
He lets out a frustrated growl, all male. Hot eyes drift over me. “I want you so bad I can’t think straight.”
Oh, sweet Jesus. There it is. Somebody give the man a gold star.
“Because you’re slumming?”
“No!”
“Because you plan to use me for some evil plan?”
“No!”
“Because you feel sorry for me?”
“No!”
“Because you just can’t help it?”
“Yes!”
His hand tilts my face to his and I drink him in, the scar that slices down his cheek, those eyes that burn—for me.
I play with the V-neck of his jersey, wondering what he looks like with his shirt off.
“What makes me so special?”
He cocks an eyebrow. “Does that even need a response? Don’t you see how incredible you are? How fucking hot and sweet and strong? And what happened to you at the party—figuring that out doesn’t stop, you feel me? It’s not over for me. I will find him, and when I do, I’m going to make him wish he’d never been born—”
“Shhh.” I refuse to let what happened that night ruin this moment. “One more time. Truth or dare?”
His eyes lower to half-mast. “I believe you are out of turns.”
“Pretend I’m not,” I say softly. “And you best say dare.”
“You’re quite the master player. Dare.”
My heart flutters and my hands are clammy. I know what I want to ask for…
“Take your shirt off. And the pants while you’re at it, right down to your underwear.”
He gulps air. “Ava, wait a minute now…”
There he goes, holding back and wanting to protect me, but doesn’t he see how I feel? He gets a weird look on his face. “Were you like this with Chance?”
“And by like this, what do you mean?” My hand reaches out and brushes the hair from his face, and he grabs it, pressing a hot kiss to my palm.