Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 138683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
I eased back, trying to keep my cool at her sitting there, the way she had her head angled toward me and her cheek pressed to the seat.
That fiery hair blazed around her precious face, and those ocean eyes swam with a million things. “Mad love, Milo. Mad, mad love.”
Her smile was soft.
My heart flailed in my chest. I stared at her for a beat too long before I murmured, “Yeah, Tessa, mad love.”
TWO
TESSA
Faint rays of sunlight bled through the edges of the drapes that covered the window, nudging me from sleep. My senses spun, touching on my foreign surroundings.
The cozy bed I was in and the quiet energy that hummed through the space.
Peace and safety.
It was so quiet, I could hear my pulse in my ears, could count each one, as if my heart were reminding me I still had a chance at a life I’d never believed I’d have.
I floated in it, trying to get my bearings, to rein my thoughts that immediately wanted to spiral out of control.
That was the thing about waking up to a new reality. You hadn’t quite taken hold of your direction.
Your new purpose remained hazy, and fears of pushing forward through the unknown to find a better destination tended to run rampant.
Knowing I’d made a decision that was going to change everything hadn’t been so easy to sleep on.
My sleep had come in fitful spurts.
Rife with a worry so intense that Bobby’s face had chased me into my dreams.
Still, there’d been a part of me that’d felt…light. A burden that had been eating me alive lifted.
How could my soul be so heavy but still feel as if pieces of my heart had been unchained?
Guilt at the choice I’d made threatened to consume, but I had to accept I’d come to a breaking point.
For years, my meaning in life had been my brother’s comfort, but last night, it’d become clear I couldn’t remain with Karl.
He’d always landed somewhere in the middle of being a petulant brat and a manipulative tyrant.
That I could handle. Bobby was worth it.
But when he’d struck me?
I’d seen something I hadn’t seen in Karl before, and I could feel that things were getting ready to splinter.
Then who would be there for Bobby?
There had to be another way. There had to be.
Blowing out a sigh, I pushed up to sitting.
The room spun, and a dagger pierced through my brain.
I rammed the heels of my hands into my eyes.
Freaking martinis.
They were dirty, all right.
But my nights out with Eden were my escape. My reprieve. My joy.
Karl didn’t get to ruin that anymore.
Tossing off what looked like a handmade, patchwork quilt, I sat up, fighting a blush when I realized I was wearing a giant T-shirt that swallowed me whole.
It smelled of him. Like the deep, dark woods.
Pine and cedar.
My palm slipped over the black cotton fabric.
I hadn’t been wearing a bra last night, and the only thing I had on underneath the shirt was a slip of satin that could barely be considered underwear.
Heat bloomed across my flesh as memories bounded.
Milo had insisted on taking me home with him when he’d found me in the Absolution parking lot after I’d been unsure of where to go. I had been drawn back there because within its walls had been the only people I could trust, though it’d turned out I’d been too upset to face them.
I remembered him placing me in his truck, and I’d barely stirred when he had carried me in after I’d fallen asleep—okay, passed out—in his truck, barely coherent when he’d pulled me back into his arms and rumbled all those reassuring words to the top of my head.
“It’s okay.”
“I have you.”
“You’re not alone.”
I bit down on my bottom lip as I remembered him changing me into his shirt.
The care he’d used.
The caution.
He’d slipped it over my head and fully covered me before he’d slid off my dress.
I was pretty sure I’d also mumbled something about him being beautiful.
Awesome, Tessa.
But he was. I was pretty sure in every way. Even though I’d done my best to ignore the fact since I’d met him. But there’d been something about him that’d been there in an instant. It was the type of attraction I’d never felt before, which had only made me feel guilty. I mean, it wasn’t like my heart had held any sort of devotion to Karl, but still…
Faint rustling echoed outside the room, and my thudding heart pounded harder. I slipped off the edge of the bed. My bare feet hit the hardwood floor, and I eased over to the door and pressed my ear to it, listening to the subdued shuffling and the quieted clanking of pans.
My senses were impaled with too many sensations.
Coffee and bacon and the man.
My stomach rumbled, and I took a steeling breath before I carefully turned the knob and cracked open the door.