Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 129323 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 647(@200wpm)___ 517(@250wpm)___ 431(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129323 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 647(@200wpm)___ 517(@250wpm)___ 431(@300wpm)
My head is buried in my hands as I try unsuccessfully to push down the stress consuming me.
It feels like I’m drifting in the ocean, but I can’t swim because the weight of the world weighs me down like an anchor. The need to get out of here presses against my chest, making it hard to breathe.
I’m almost eighteen, how is this my life?
Every day, I’m surrounded by kids my age with a world of opportunity, but not me.
I’m so close to my dreams but still stuck here because she won’t let me leave.
Sitting here at the kitchen table, my hands tremble as I try to focus on my homework.
It’s pointless.
I don’t know why I bother.
The sound of my mother’s steps has my back going ramrod straight.
I brace for her ridicule, knowing full well that whatever barb flies from her mouth will cut me like a sharp knife. Turning over my shoulder, I meet her gaze, and there’s a disapproving frown already etched on her face despite me not even speaking.
But that’s not what has her on edge. She’s watching me…work.
Cringing over the kitchen being spotless. Because it is, not counting the makeshift desk I’ve set up on the kitchen table.
She’s fuming over my assorted pens. The things I can’t stop. The things she wants me to.
“You’re such a mess, always obsessing over the smallest things,” she sneers, her voice dripping with disdain. “Why can’t you just be normal?”
I clench my fists under the table, my heart sinking with each word she utters. I know she couldn’t possibly understand the constant battle that wages inside my mind.
I don’t want to be this way. I don’t want to need to have everything the way I do…
I want to defend myself, to explain it isn’t a choice, that it isn’t something I can just turn off.
But I can’t.
The last time I tried to argue, she threatened to send me away.
Until I’m eighteen, I’m not safe. I need to apply to college. I need to get in, get a scholarship…
I’m stuck until I’m an adult. I can’t risk her wrath.
Nobody realizes how hard I worked to get here. The obstacles I had to overcome.
“Wow,” Cassidy says, taking a few steps into my place and turning in circles.
It’s a top-floor penthouse with an open floor plan. A wall of windows lines the back and gives a perfect view of the town below.
Off to the left is the hallway leading back to my suite and the two guest rooms. One has been set up already with Cassidy’s things. I allow very few people into my home, and none of them are there for long. One woman who was vetted by Mike. She cleans once a week, not good enough, in my opinion, and delivers food that she’s prepped for the week when I’m in town. She also picked up and dropped off my laundry and, on this one occasion, prepared a room for Cassidy.
Now that I have an executive assistant, I can let her go, which will allow me more privacy in my own home. Not that she’s ever here when I am. That’s always been the rule. She’s in and out before I get home. I’ve never met the woman, and that’s the way I like it.
Mike says she’s trustworthy with my things, and that’s had to do, given my schedule. The fact is, I need help. I don’t ask for it much because of the lengths I have to go to in order to reel my quirks in, but that’s why I have Mike. He takes care of that shit for me.
He certainly nailed it with Cassidy.
Thoughts of the first night. Her crawling to me and the way she moaned as I touched her circulate on a loop, and I can feel my cock hardening beneath my jeans. I have to adjust myself without being seen, and it’s not lost on me that I’m a grown-ass man who should be able to control his dick.
The idea of fucking her again is always there. This woman does something to me, and it’s throwing me off-kilter. I’ve never had the urge to sleep next to another person, and right now, I’m having that urge with her.
Watching her twirl in circles, taking it all in, does crazy things to me. I’ve never wanted someone to see this place. To love it like I do. But it was important to me that Cassidy would. And she appears to, which makes me happy.
Yep. I made the right decision to keep this professional.
“This place is fantastic,” Cassidy marvels, drawing me out of my thoughts. “I don’t know what I expected, but this… suits you.”
My place is incredible, in my opinion, but considering I’m one of the highest-paid NHL players, most would consider this underwhelming. Her genuine reaction makes me wonder what her background is. People who came from money wouldn’t think much of my space, but Cassidy isn’t proving to be like other people.