Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
My teeth ground, and I itched to race back out the door. Track the bastard. But I didn’t know who the fuck I was looking for.
“Would you be able to describe them?”
Sniffling, she shook her head. “No. It was a man, I’m pretty sure, and he was wearing a khaki jacket and brown pants, but other than that, he was too far away to make anything out.”
“Would you recognize him if you saw him again?”
She blew a heavy strain of air through her nose. “I’m not sure.”
“It wasn’t your ex?” She’d already told me she didn’t recognize the person, but my gut told me that’s who it had to be.
Despair shook her head. “No. I think I would have known if it was him.”
I wanted to demand his name. Didn’t matter if it wasn’t him. I knew he was responsible for her fear. Wanted to fuckin’ gut him for whatever he’d done to her in the past.
She laughed a demoralized sound and turned her gaze away. “Maybe it was nothing and I was imagining it. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
I tugged her forward a fraction, leaving an inch of space separating us. My voice was a hushed roar as I muttered, “You and I both know it wasn’t nothing, Charleigh. If you’ve been runnin’ all this time, then you’ve been runnin’ for a reason. You can trust me with that, too.”
I dragged the pad of my thumb up over her cheek and gathered the glittering moisture. “There is no shame in fear, Charleigh. There’s no shame in trying to protect yourself. You’ve been carrying this on your own for a long, long time, but you need to know that you don’t have to do that any longer.”
“I don’t want to. I don’t want to be scared any longer.” She whispered it before she reached out and curled her fingers in my shirt, nails scraping through the thin fabric like the lick of flames.
This girl with the power to burn me to ash.
“I don’t want to be this way any longer. I want to live, River. I just want to live.”
In grief we must live.
“You are, Charleigh, you are. And I’m going to see to it that you continue to. That you don’t have to live this life afraid. Promise you, I won’t let you go until you’re flying free. Until you’re no longer looking over your shoulder. Until we’re sure you’re safe.”
Issue was, I wasn’t sure I was ever going to want to let her go. This thing she’d lit in me was something bigger—something more powerful—than I’d ever felt before.
I could almost see the words form on her tongue, a confession, before she retracted them and instead leaned forward and set her cheek on my chest.
And she just…breathed me in.
Like I was her peace.
Her solace.
Fuck, how desperately I wanted to be.
I gently ran my hand up and down her exposed neck, lifting chills on her delicate skin.
My voice splintered when I told her, “I can handle your truth.”
The problem was I could never give her mine.
I dropped my lips to the top of her head. “Don’t need you to hide. I can handle your burden.”
When she only tightened her hold on my shirt, I murmured, “Whenever you’re ready, you say the fuckin’ word, and I’ll end this.”
Knew I was exposing more about myself than I ever had before. But I wouldn’t keep it from her. Not if it could set her free.
A shudder rolled through her, the woman getting the meaning, only she pressed herself closer, shifting so she was burrowing her face up into my neck.
She took in the deepest breath, like she was trying to draw me in, bring me closer.
Fuck, I was already there.
“Going to take you to my place now.”
She jolted back, and she was instantly shaking her head. “That’s not—”
I had her back in my arms in a flash, plastering her against me, my mouth at her jaw. “Please don’t fight me on this, Charleigh. No fuckin’ way could I send you back out on your own after this.”
She peeled herself back so she could stare up at me. “I’m not your responsibility.”
I dipped down until my lips were a breadth from hers. “Yeah, baby, you are. The second you ran through my door? That’s what you became. My responsibility. So, thank you, Little Runner, for runnin’ to me.”
TWENTY-SIX
CHARLEIGH
I tried to get my bearings, to steady the world that was whirling and whipping, canting to the side.
My foundation no longer felt like my own.
River gripped me by both sides of the waist and rumbled, “I’ve got you,” as he lifted me from the desk to place me onto unsteady feet.
“You good?” he asked, trying to keep the aggression out of his voice, but there was no mistaking it. The way his big body vibrated with that same ferocity I’d felt in him when I’d come in here the first time.