Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Slowly, his fingers slid down to take her hand.
“I like you, too, Charity.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“I know you’re hard-working and that you’re strong.”
“You always said that,” she said.
“Because I mean it. You’re a strong woman.”
“Why were you here?”
“Believe it or not, I don’t live too far from here, and I wanted to make sure you were okay. Not by asking your parents. They don’t see the truth.”
“What truth?” she asked.
“That you don’t want to go to someone to talk about your damn feelings. Or that you couldn’t give a shit right now about going to the mall. Three months ago, you were taken by men who were going to put you up for auction. Sell you to the man who paid the highest amount for your virginity. What would happen to you after that, you don’t know. I don’t know, but I’ve got a pretty good idea that it wouldn’t be flowers or romance. They’d have used you. Fucked you until you were nothing but dead meat to them. That’s what animals like that do. For a short time that was your reality, and you don’t need to be constantly reminded of it by talking about your fucking feelings.”
He was so right it was scary.
Chapter Three
Charity ordered some pasta dish while Dwayne settled on the herbed steak and potatoes. He came here often enough to know what he liked. She looked different. He’d noticed that about her when he saw her coming out of school. Her head was downcast, looking at the floor. She didn’t pay attention to anyone or anything. She’d also lost some weight as well, which he didn’t like.
At first, he was only going to see what was going on with her. What was wrong. One look and he knew he had to talk to her. The giggling schoolgirls held no appeal for him. When he’d been a schoolboy they’d not held much interest then, but he’d been young and wanting to get off, so he used the girls that threw themselves at him. Never did he give any of the girls he was with ideas that it would be forever.
Charity kept looking around the room as if she was waiting for someone or something to jump out at her.
“You don’t have to be afraid.”
“I know.” She ran fingers through her hair. “Sorry. You could tell that I was checking everything?”
“Kind of hard not to.”
“I find public places difficult at times. I never know who is watching me.”
“You change your routine?”
“All the time,” she said.
He tilted his head to the side, watching her. “I heard you were taking self-defense classes.”
She blew out a breath and laughed. “Yeah, for what good they’re doing me.”
“You don’t think they’re helping?”
“I don’t know what’s helping or not, to be honest. We’ve done some moves that are supposed to work, but I’m not convinced.” She nibbled her lip, and his gaze was drawn to that action.
“Want me to help you?”
“Help me?”
“Defend yourself. My ways won’t be entirely conventional, but it will help you out if you need it.”
She nodded, and he saw that sparkle back in her eye. “Yes. Please. I’d like that.”
The waiter interrupted, and he wanted to shoot the bastard for making the shine from her eyes dull just a little. When it came to Charity he was having a lot of murderous tendencies, and he had to keep it under control before Beast or Caleb grounded him. Not that it would help. If they took all of his weapons off him, he still had his hands. His father had taught him long ago that if you had strength then you were a weapon.
He’d honed those skills well over the years, and now he was unstoppable.
The nightmare of every man’s dreams.
“Will you teach me how to shoot a gun?” she asked, her cheeks a shade of red and the excitement clear in her eyes.
“Do you think you’re ready for that?”
“I know I can’t keep living like this, and everything they teach us is about running away. I’m not a fast runner and I can scream, sure, but what if no one comes running? I screamed my head off when I got taken, and there wasn’t anyone around.” She stabbed at her plate, twirling her spaghetti. “I don’t want to be taken again, or even have that risk.”
He nodded. “The stuff I’ll teach you is not conventional. I’m not going to tell you to dodge and run or even to scream. First, I’ll make sure you can handle yourself so that if you are taken by surprise, you don’t freak out.”
“I don’t want my parents to know.”
He raised a brow.
“They’re … worried.”
“They want to protect you. I can understand that.”
She groaned, and he smiled. He found her so charming. It was strange. She was eighteen years old, had her whole life ahead of her, and he couldn’t stand girls that age when he was that age. She wasn’t a girl though. Charity was very much a woman.