Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 34333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
“Thanks,” I say quietly.
We round a bend in the path, and I can see my dorm up ahead. There’s part of me that doesn’t want the night to end. That wants to hang out with Dawson for a while. It’s so easy to talk to him, and I feel more myself than with anyone else.
As we draw closer to the dorm, I stop in my tracks and feel the blood in my veins turn to ice.
“Oh my god.”
“What is it?” he asks.
Dawson follows my gaze, and I feel him tense up when he sees the man standing outside the front doors of my dorm.
“Is that him?” Dawson asks. “The guy who was harassing you at the bar?’
I nod, feeling numb. “Yeah, that’s him. That’s Zack.”
“And who exactly is this guy to you?”
I shake my head. “Just a guy I know from class. I mean, I was friendly with him, but I wouldn’t call us friends. But then he just started getting all weirdly possessive.”
“Okay, let me take care of this. I promise he’ll never bother you again.”
As he starts forward, I grab his hand and hold him back. The moment our skin touches, my body jerks and it’s like I grabbed hold of a live wire. He must feel it too because he turns to me with wide eyes and a look of surprise on his face.
We stand there, eyes locked, not speaking or moving for a couple of moments. I quickly pull my hand away, breaking whatever spell we were caught in, and laugh awkwardly, my cheeks burning furiously.
“Sorry,” I mumble.
“No, it’s all right.”
“I just… I’d rather you not go beat the snot out of him. Even though he creeps me out, I don’t want to see him get hurt.”
Dawson gives me a small smile. “There’s that good heart of yours in action again.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“So? What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know,” I say as my stomach roils.
I look around, trying to figure out what I’m going to do. It’s not like I have many friends outside the dorms, and to get to any of them, I’m going to have to pass Zack. And I rather not see him at all. I rather he not know I’m in my room because I’m afraid he’ll just keep bothering me all night until he gets what he wants. Goosebumps crawl across my skin as a tremor of fear passes through me.
“You don’t have anywhere else to go, do you?”
I shake my head. “I don’t.”
“Come on then,” he says. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“Where are we going?”
“I know we only met but trust me. I’ll get you somewhere safe.”
And that was the thing. We met less than an hour ago, and I didn’t know him. But I trust him. There’s something about Dawson Davis that makes me feel… safe. I have no real reason to believe it but I just know deep down that he’ll always protect me and won’t do anything to hurt me. It’s insane. But it’s something I know to be as true as my own name.
“Okay. Let’s go.”
We walk back to his SUV, and when I step up on the runner to climb into the back seat, I turn around and throw my arms around his thick neck, and lean forward. I don’t know how it happened, and if you ask me a hundred years from now, I’d still swear that all I meant to do was plant a kiss on his cheek. That’s not what happened.
Our lips meet, and my entire body feels like it exploded. Like electricity crackling through my every vein and filling me with an intense heat, unlike anything I'd ever felt before. It’s not even just a peck.
As he slips his tongue into my mouth, swirling it around mine, his big hands practically encircle my entire waist. I let myself melt into him, pressing my body against his hard, toned physique as our kiss deepens. My panties are so drenched, I’m half-convinced they’ll never dry out again. My legs are shaking so hard, I have to put my hand on his broad shoulders to keep from falling.
I slowly pull back and he strokes my cheek—a strangely delicate gesture from such a big, gruff man. But it makes my heart skip a beat all the same. Our eyes are locked together, and heat comes off his body. It’s hotter than the sun and makes me feel even weaker in the knees than I already do.
“Sorry,” I say. “I… I… That’s not something I normally do with strange men. And honestly, we only met an hour ago…”
I hear myself rambling and let my words trail off, my face burning with a heat I’ve never felt before. Dawson offers me a smile as he helps me slide into the back seat of his SUV.