Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 82112 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82112 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
We had already discussed her lack of a social life, and I got that she had to work to help her family, but, damn, how had some guy not made her a priority yet? I liked knowing I was giving her a break from a life that, so far, sounded like fucking hell. I also loved making her smile.
A pleased expression tugged at my lips, and I tried not to grin like a damn fool, thinking about what I had planned for tonight. It had taken some work, but I’d managed to make it happen. If I could have just asked Blaise to make a call, it would have been simpler, but I wasn’t ready to tell anyone about Haisley. Even if I no longer had to worry about Trev Hughes, my best friend, taking all her attention from me. He might as well be fucking married. Trev’s days of flirting were over. The guy was in love. Which made that threat one I didn’t have to consider. But I still wanted time with just her. No one else. No questions. Nothing.
“Did you decide which springs we are going to?” she asked.
Last night, I’d still been trying to pull this off, so I hadn’t told her where yet. This afternoon, I’d gotten the all clear from a friend of my dad’s who had helped me. Camping at Ocala National Forest wasn’t difficult if you had a reservation. However, I hadn’t wanted to use the regular campground for tonight or the overpopulated springs that closed too early. Getting to put up a tent somewhere, unauthorized, and using smaller, less populated springs after it was closed had taken some work.
“Yes,” was the only answer I gave her.
She laughed. It was a fucking musical sound that I was getting addicted to. “Are you going to tell me?”
I shook my head.
More laughter. “Okay, I guess I’ll have to trust you.”
I glanced over at her. “It’s a little late to be thinking about trusting me. You agreed to go camping overnight with me. If you didn’t trust me, then that would have been a bad decision on your part.”
She shrugged. “Maybe I was foolishly blinded by the way you look.”
This time, I laughed. “The way I look, huh?”
“Don’t act like you aren’t aware of how you look, Saxon. We might not have gone to the same high school, but even girls at my school knew who you were.”
She’d admitted this before, and it had honestly surprised me. I expected everyone to know Trev. He was the son of the wealthiest, most powerful man in the southeast, probably the entire South. But I hadn’t expected her to know who I was.
“I’m thinking that had nothing to do with my looks, but who I was associated with,” I told her.
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You know you’re beautiful.”
“Beautiful?”
Those insane violet eyes locked on mine. “Sexy, handsome, gorgeous—pick a word. Whatever description you like best.”
Damn, this girl.
I turned my eyes back to the road. “Exactly how sexy?” I asked, unable to help myself.
“Do you need your ego boosted?” she teased.
I smirked, flicking my gaze back to hers. “No. I just like knowing you think I’m sexy.”
She dropped her gaze and started biting that bottom lip again.
“Haisley.” My voice sounded deeper when I said her name. “Stop biting your lip. All I can think about is how bad I want to suck on it again.”
Releasing it from her teeth, she shot her eyes back up to look at me. The flush on her cheeks told me all I needed to know. She wanted me too.
Five
Haisley
The past two weeks, I’d been on edge, afraid of my shadow, thinking Levi would come for me and follow through with his threat. But I hadn’t seen any of them. Except when I slept at night. Most of the time, Saxon appeared in my dreams. Those were times I didn’t want to wake up. It was the nightmares Levi and the blonde tattooed guy appeared in when I woke up in a cold sweat and on the verge of a panic attack.
Today was the first time I could relax and believed I was safe. They weren’t coming for me. It was a relief.
After getting off work, I bought a box of spaghetti noodles from the dollar store on my walk to Milly’s apartment. Thankfully, her apartment was only one mile from the hotel. At least the December weather was bearable.
Once I arrived, the apartment was empty. I was always nervous that Milly wouldn’t be there, but Rog, her boyfriend, would be. He looked at me in ways that made me uncomfortable. With both of them being gone, I changed out of my scratchy uniform and into something comfortable, then went to make my dinner. I was tempted to boil the entire box of noodles and eat them all. I was starving, but I needed this box to feed me for at least four meals.