Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 130924 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 436(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130924 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 436(@300wpm)
But Kat…Kat was my everything. She still is. I didn’t know if she’d accept me if she learned I’d been with another man. It didn’t matter that Pastor Ross was twenty-years older than me and I was only eighteen, I would be made the example of along with him. There was no sparing me for being younger. I would be shamed.
Leaving her was the hardest thing I had ever done. I wanted to tell her the truth. I wanted to ask her to come with me. I should have. Sometimes I think about her alone in that house with her mother and it fills me with fear. The minute I know that the magistrate is dead, I’ll head back to Sleepy Hollow and I’ll rescue her, take her with me to some place far across the country where her mother can’t get her.
But for now, I’m here. I’m here and I’m hiding.
Because there’s something out there that wants to bring me back too.
Something dark and dangerous and evil. It wants to possess me, drag me back to Sleepy Hollow and hold me there so that I can never leave. It’s hunting me down in my dreams, I see the shadows on the street, I see the eyes in every painting I pass following me, tracking my every move.
But how do I explain that to this man?
“You carry too much guilt with you,” Crane says, running his fingers up and over my shoulder blades. Soft as a breeze but carried with precision.
I swallow thickly, feeling anger flare inside me. “What do you know about guilt?” I grumble.
“More than one man should, perhaps,” he says gently. “I grew up with six sisters in a tiny house in Kansas, my father was the town pastor.”
So maybe he does know.
“I grew up hearing that sodomy was a sin,” he muses, his fingers tracing shapes on my skin. “The problem is, I’m so good at sinning.” I can hear him smile. “It took time to dissect what it all meant. My attraction to men being on the same level as my attraction to women. It can be terrifying living in a world that is primed to not accept who you truly are. Isn’t it?”
I find myself nodding. I want to tell him what happened with the Pastor but I want to leave Sleepy Hollow behind me for now. I want to be Abe, not Brom. I want to hide. Disappear. Become someone else entirely.
His hand trails up to my neck and wraps around it, holding me gently.
“I want you to sin with me,” he whispers, his voice raw with desire.
My cock immediately hardens.
Yes. Yes, I will sin with you, sir.
His grip on my neck tightens and he pulls me back down into the bed.
Chapter 1
Crane
After shooting Brom in the shoulder and stopping him from attacking Kat as the headless horseman, then consequently healing his shoulder and bringing back all his lost memories, the ride back to Sleepy Hollow Institute is bound to be interesting, to say the least.
I have Kat sharing Gunpowder with me, her body snug in front of mine and nestled in my coat. Brom and Daredevil are in the lead. I want him where I can see him, just in case the horseman comes into possession of him again. It’s not lost on me that the horseman I met in the library is also out there and could potentially attack us while we’re on the road. What would happen if the Hessian in his spirit form and Brom met face-to-face? Would the ghost kill him? Or could he take over Brom completely, merging their souls until only the Hessian remained in Brom’s body?
My gut churns at the thought and Kat stiffens.
“Are you alright?” I ask Kat as she’s cradled back against me. I press my lips on her neck and close my eyes to the feel of her soft skin against mine. “Cold?”
“Not with your coat,” she says quietly. “I’m just exhausted. And scared.” I barely hear the last part, her focus up ahead on Brom. The night is still and quiet, just the hoofbeats of our horses and the snort of their breath. Our conversation carries.
Don’t be afraid, I say to Kat using the voice. I’ve got you no matter what happens. And as long as Brom is Brom, he’s got you too.
I hope he doesn’t make a liar out of me.
She doesn’t answer. Instead, she leans against me, turning her face so that she looks up at me over her shoulder and meets my eyes. She’s been through so much tonight. I don’t know the specifics of what she did with Brom and what Brom did to her and to be honest every time I think about it I’m tempted to reload the gun and shoot him in the other shoulder. He may remember now, he may be the Brom that I knew, but as long as he’s possessed, this isn’t over.