Total pages in book: 176
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
I found myself gulping as the memory of our last fight played in my head with crystal-fucking-clarity as if it had happened only yesterday.
“Eventually, my father got it into his head to disown me even though I’d already moved out and was taking care of myself. He knew that, so he called himself changing the locks on me and banning me from the house.”
“What did you do?” Atlas whispered. The veiled horror in her voice told me she knew it wasn’t anything good. I hadn’t reacted well to being turned away at all.
I sighed and found myself hesitating—almost like I was ashamed of my actions for the very first time. “I kicked the fucking door in,” I grumbled.
“Owen.”
Strangling the steering wheel, I forced my grip to relax, only to clench my teeth, knowing that I hadn’t told her the worst of it yet. “My father was there, and when he confronted me, he told me I wasn’t welcome in their home as long as I was in the streets. I told him he could try to keep me out, but as long as my mom was there, he’d have to either deal with me or kill me.”
I heard Atlas’s sharp inhale. “What did your father say?”
I bucked my eyes as I glanced at her with a shit-eating grin. “He didn’t say shit. He just laid my ass out.”
A choked sound escaped Atlas. “He…what?”
“You heard me.” I was cackling now despite the bittersweet memories. “I was standing in my parents’ living room with my chest puffed out like I was the baddest thing walking when my pops started going across my shit.”
It had been the first time I’d gotten a taste of my own medicine in a fight. Whenever I threw a punch one way, my pops was already coming at me from another direction. It was like fighting a rabid pitbull and a tornado at the same time. Impossible.
“He was throwing hammers left and right, and I was throwing them back, but I was green to the man my father really was and no match for him and four years’ worth of aggression.”
My father had been a professional boxer and was just shy of a heavyweight champion when he ended his short career mere months after I was born. I guess he’d decided that he’d rather see his son grow into a man than chase a title. Maybe he even hoped I’d follow in his footsteps when he taught me everything I knew.
He’d warned me once that no teacher was ever as good as experience. I’d taken those words to heart and made him regret ever uttering them after I provoked as many fights wherever I went as I could.
“Wow.”
“Yeah,” I said as I pulled into the parking lot of the auction site. It was here that I bought most of the cars I rebuilt in my spare time, most of which I flipped for a profit, while others, like the Hellcat and Jailbreak, I added to my personal fleet. “He fucked me up, but I made sure that was the last time I’d ever lost a fight.”
“Is that why you fight like there are three of you?” she asked me.
I parked the car and glanced at her to see her brows raised as she shook her head.
Fucking beautiful.
“I still don’t know how you were stomping that guy out and punching him at the same time. Isn’t that like trying to pat your head while rubbing your stomach?”
“There’s a lot of things I can do with my hands and other parts at the same time, Dream.” I sank my teeth into my bottom lip as I imagined stroking her deep while using my hands and mouth to drive her crazy.
“Why do you keep calling me that? What does it even mean?”
“It means you smell and taste just like a Dreamsicle, so that’s what I’ll call you.”
Her response was immediate. “No.”
“Yes.” I smirked at the flare of irritation in her gaze.
“It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, Owen. Besides, you didn’t even know that when you came up with it.”
“You’re right,” I lied, remembering she hadn’t seen me steal a taste of her after fingering her in the storage closet. I sat up and pretended to look around to make sure we were alone. “Let me eat your pussy real quick.”
Her lips parted, but then she quickly looked away to hide her blush. She shifted in her seat a moment later, telling me just how deep my words had reached. “No thanks. I prefer not to make the same mistake twice in one day.” I was leaning against my door now as I watched her look around the lot before focusing on the small white nondescript building a short walk away. “What is this place? What are we doing here?”
Declining to answer her, I ripped the key out of the ignition before climbing out of the car. I felt her heated gaze on me as I rounded the hood to her side and saw the shock on Atlas’s face when I opened her door and held out my hand like the perfect gentleman. “Come on.”