Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 32618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 163(@200wpm)___ 130(@250wpm)___ 109(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 163(@200wpm)___ 130(@250wpm)___ 109(@300wpm)
More than likely, she saw him as the man who’d been married to her mother back in the day. Because of that and because of the relationship they’d had, the “parental” responsibilities he’d had toward her, she would never see him as what he really wanted.
But despite that, he couldn’t stop what he was doing, couldn’t make his desire and emotions for her any less real or intense.
Once he arrived back at his place, he shut the front door and looked around the barren existence of his life. He was fucking exhausted, had been up for the last twenty-four hours because of work and making sure Gillian was okay, but he knew it would be a bitch to fall asleep.
On a good day, he got four hours of sleep, and the rest of the time … well, insomnia was his companion.
Walking over to the kitchen cupboard and getting out the bottle of vodka he kept on hand, he didn’t even bother with a glass. Instead, he went to his room, shut the door, and got undressed. Lying on his bed against the headboard with only his briefs on, staring at the ceiling, and drinking straight from the bottle of liquor, he focused on a small crack in the room's corner.
David had thought about just coming clean with Gillian many times. To explain his desire for her, the lengths he’d go to make her safe … to make her his in all ways. But he’d always stopped himself, wanting her in his life, even if that meant he had to be in the shadows.
Would she understand why he did what he did? Would she understand that after her attack something in him had changed, shifted? It had been that moment that changed everything for him.
Although before then, when he saw the beautiful, intelligent woman she’d grown into, he’d fallen for her. But it hadn’t been until he saw her being hurt—forced—that a switch had gone off in him.
He tipped the bottle back, taking a long pull from it, and scrubbed a hand over his hair. He was too old for this shit, to be following a woman around like a fucking asshole.
Where it concerns Gillian, there are no lengths I won’t go.
That voice played in his head, far stronger than even his common sense and rational thought. He was fucked, but the dark part of him wanted to be covered in those shadows.
Chapter
Two
“Come on, Gillian.” He grabbed her wrist forcefully and yanked her forward.
She’d only had two beers, but she felt like she was drowning, like the world was turning and she couldn’t grasp on to anything.
“Leave me alone,” she said, but her voice sounded slurred even to her. Blinking back the dizziness, trying to get her vision to clear was pointless. In fact, it made it worse. Placing her hand on the wall to steady herself, she tried pulling her hand free from Brian’s hold. He was so much stronger than she was, or maybe she was just too fucked up?
Either way, struggling was only making her feel worse.
“You know how long I’ve wanted you?” Brian said, his mouth right by her ear now; his hot, humid breath brushing along her cheek.
She shook her head, squeezed her eyes shut, and tried to push him away. “I don’t want this, Brian,” she tried to say clearly. “This isn’t right.”
“Oh, it’s right, baby.” He pulled her even harder against him, his arousal for her unmistakable and disgusting, and her fear rose.
“No, Brian.” She placed her hands on his chest and pushed him away. But Brian obviously didn’t care if this was consensual or not.
“This is the length I have to go to have you.”
She didn’t know what he meant by that, but before she could question him, she was spun around and tossed onto the bed. She went to stand up, but he pushed her back down.
“I hate that I have to get you like this, but you kept turning me down, Gillian.” Brian sounded urgent, desperate. She knew where this was going, and as much as she wanted to fight him, to stop the assault, her arms and legs felt so damn heavy, her mind foggy and confused.
He drugged me.
That realization had her blood running cold.
Her cell phone dug into her from her back pocket, and trying to focus, she saw Brian was busy getting undressed, his side to her. She reached for her phone, and after the second attempt, she pulled it out of her pocket.
Dialing someone’s number was harder than she thought, but it was David’s name that came up first. She knew if anyone could help her, it was him.
Pushing the send button on his contact, she glanced up at Brian and saw he was about to face her. She tucked the phone to her side. Gillian didn’t know if David would be up at this hour, but she hoped and prayed he was.