Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
He leans over and takes me in his arms, kissing my head as I softly cry, thinking of that night like it was just yesterday and not ten years ago. “Baby,” he says, and I push away from him a bit.
“I remember the rain. It’s funny, right? But I walked in after school, and my mother was passed out drunk on the dirty couch. I looked down and walked back to my room, locking the door after me.
“Early that night when I lay in bed listening to the howling wind outside, the handle turning made me look at my closed door, then the creaking of the door opening and there stood Brian. His yellow shirt, stained brown down the front. His light blue jeans, looking yellow from the dirt. ‘I sent your mother to the store,’ he said, coming into my room, and I remember my heart beat picking up a bit, then when he continued to advance, it got so fast, I heard it echoing in my ear,” I tell him, the tears now falling. “My mouth was dry, so dry it was hard to swallow. Almost as if I had cotton balls stuck in it. ‘Figured it would give us a chance to get closer.’” He came in, and my blood ran cold. Everything in me almost seized up. I was under my covers, dressed in black leggings and a thick sweater with Max’s name on it, socks pulled up on my leggings. I was dressed to my neck, and my body started shivering.” I shake my head, continuing, “It happened so fast, yet in slow motion. I saw him lunge for me, landing on me, the smell of him making me gag. One hand trying to grab my hands to stop me from punching him while the other hand grabbed my vagina and squeezed it, making me yelp out in pain. “‘Bitch,’” he hissed out when one of my knees came up, connecting with his leg and giving him a charley horse. I didn’t stop there; it took everything in me—all one hundred and five pounds—to fight off this man. ‘Teasing me all the time with your perky tits.”’ He kept slurring his words. He tried to kiss me, and I tried to head butt him. The pain made me see stars and stop fighting for a second, and it was the second he needed to get the upper hand. His hand went under my shirt, and the minute his skin came in contact with me, I just went ballistic. I bucked up, surprising him, and then brought my knee up again, and this time, I hit him right in the balls. He rolled over, groaning and holding his family jewels, and I rolled off the other side of the bed. Getting to my feet, I slipped on the flimsy non-grip carpet that was next to my bed. I grabbed my bag and ran for the front door. Grabbing my shoes and running from the house, I heard him yelling for me. I went left instead of going my usual right and hid in the alley a block from my house while I put on the Converse I had grabbed on the way out.”
“Oh my god,” he whispers.
“I made my way to Max’s secret home; he bought it after he signed his first contract, and no one but me knew where it was. He opened the door, shocked to see me. He didn’t have to ask me anything because I just collapsed in his arms as I sobbed, the fear finally leaving my body. He spent the night in jail after our mother called the cops on him for beating Brian up. He saved me, then and after,” I tell him. “He went to Doug, and he pulled strings to get me to live with Max where he put me through school and paid for everything that I could ever need. Hockey got him out of the hellhole, and he made sure my brains got me out.”
He pushes the hair from around my face. “You are so beautiful; you take my breath away,” he says. “From the first moment I saw you, I knew you were an angel, and this just showed me how right I was.”
“Zack,” I whisper, and then he leans closer.
“You have a light in you that shines so brightly it can’t be dimmed,” he says and then takes my face in his hand, and his lips find mine.
Chapter Twenty
Zack
“You have a light in you that shines so bright it can’t be dimmed,” I tell her, and I’ve had enough of not touching her. I lean over, my lips finding hers, ever so gently.
All day, I’ve been dying for this one moment right here. From the time I drove her to work, it was a countdown to when I would be able to kiss her again. I kiss her and then softly kiss her lips one more time.