Series: Stacey Espino
Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 23564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
“My gym?”
She swallowed hard. “April told me to wait for her downstairs. She’ll be right back.”
“It’s not April’s house.” He folded his thick arms over his chest. There was the glare. The one she was convinced he reserved just for her.
“I can leave…”
“Then April will be upset. I can’t choose her friends for her. She must learn from her own mistakes.”
Now she was a mistake?
“I’ve never done anything bad to April. She’s my best friend and I love her.”
He scoffed. “Big words for a little girl. All I know is she must have learned her behavior from someone. Before you came along, she wasn’t bringing a new boy through here every couple weeks.”
She shook her head. “That has nothing to do with me.”
“I don’t want my daughter associating with an easy girl with loose values.”
Her jaw dropped. “I never—”
“I know where you live, Clara. Why are you friends with April? You using her for her money? Why else would a girl living in the ghetto on a scholarship befriend one of the richest girls in college in the first week?”
Tears pricked her eyes. “We’ve been best friends for three years. I never knew she was rich or—”
“She may be blind, but I’m not,” he said. Grayson approached her, step by step until only a breath away. She could smell his cologne, the same one she bought to spray on her pillow at home. He was taller than she imagined when so close to her. Larger than life. “Be careful, Clara. I won’t have you destroy my family.”
She wanted to cry and stomp her feet, to demand he listen to her story. Clara was innocent, not a single bad intention in her mind. Yes, she’d been struggling for years, ever since her father died, leaving her and her mother on their own with nothing. No one had prepared for his death because healthy men weren’t supposed to die so fucking young.
The more Grayson pushed her away or tore her apart, the more she craved his approval. It was unexplainable, some flaw in her psyche, but she needed to prove herself. Wanted him to accept her, believe her, and even more—desire her. Right now, he made her feel like a problem, trash to be taken out to the curb. How could she change his opinion when he had such deep-seated opinions about her? He refused to listen whenever she attempted to defend herself.
“Ready?” April came around the corner, not a care in the world. She hooked arms with Clara and led her into the basement.
****
As soon as the door closed, Grayson ran a hand through his hair and exhaled. How could they still be friends after all these years? April had already graduated and was planning on moving out on her own soon. Yet, she managed to stay friends with Clara, the one friend he wished would disappear from their lives.
He remembered the first day she’d come to their house three years ago. She’d only been eighteen, a college freshman. And Grayson had been instantly addicted. Her long blonde hair nearly reached her ass, falling in soft waves he craved to touch. Those big blue eyes were pure innocence, innocence he craved to snatch away from her.
But it was more than just raw physical sex appeal.
She was different than April’s other friends—thoughtful, more mature, sweet, and perfect. If there was such thing as a soulmate, he definitely felt that connection. He swore she could too.
Clara had invaded his waking thoughts. Even at work, he lost his focus.
He couldn’t fall for an eighteen-year-old girl. It was wrong in so many ways. She was his daughter’s fucking best friend, for God’s sake. So, he put up his walls and pushed her away. Any relationship with a girl over two decades younger wasn’t something he’d ever contemplate. Besides, she was young and likely fickle. He’d had enough of that from his ex. April’s mother decided life as a wife and mother wasn’t what she expected. She craved her freedom and ditched them when April was only six months old. He’d never trusted women since.
Over three years had passed, and his original problem remained. April was still friends with a girl who made his cold heart race. It pissed him off that there was no hope of anything happening between them. Never in his life had he felt such intensity being near another woman. But it only fueled his need to push her away for both their sakes.
It seemed the crueler he was to her, the more she pushed back. Maybe she had Daddy issues. He didn’t trust easily, and his wealth had to be protected, so he’d done a complete background check on her from day one. She lived alone with her mother in a sketchy part of the city. Her mother was drowning in debt and Clara went to school full-time on a scholarship and worked almost every extra shift she could get at a donut shop.