Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 139803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 699(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 699(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
She beat on my chest until I pulled back from her. When I finally released her, she reached up and slapped me so hard my face swung to the side. I laughed humorlessly as I stepped back from her, my cheek stinging. “That’s your warning, baby girl,” I told her quietly, yanking her phone from my pocket. I tossed it onto one of the sun loungers. “I fucking want you, and I’m not letting you go that easily. I’ll fight you on this every step of the way. You’re mine.”
Her chest rose and fell at a rapid pace, her fuckable lips swollen and slightly parted as she stared at me with those mesmerizing, green eyes.
With that, I turned on my heel and walked inside, a smirk tilting my lips.
She was mine, and I planned on making sure she and everyone else knew that.
Especially that mother fucking rapist.
If he came near her again, he’d never breathe another breath of fucking air. I wasn’t the one to fuck with, and I was damn good at hiding dark secrets.
* * *
✶ ✶ ✶
* * *
Meghan
* * *
What in the hell did Julian think he was doing?
He had to be out of his mind.
There was no way he wanted me enough to verbally stake a claim on me.
I stared after him in bewilderment as he went back inside. I didn’t know how to feel. Being with Julian would be something else entirely; I knew that. Fuck, sex with him was out of this world. But a relationship? Jesus, he had to be out of his mind.
There was no reason I could think of for us to start a relationship. Sure, we’d had amazing sex, but that didn’t mean we were compatible enough for a relationship. Besides, he was going to become a pro football player. I was going to become a dancer. Our worlds were never going to work together once we graduated.
Vincent stepped outside and made his way over to me. “We need to talk,” he told me quietly.
I sighed as I dropped into a lawn chair, my mind running rampant. I just wanted to be left alone. First my fucking rapist—I flinched—and now Julian.
It was all almost too much to handle, to be honest.
“Meghan, what happened yesterday?” Vincent quietly asked me as he took a seat next to me on the other lawn chair.
I swallowed thickly, that old fear settling back into my veins. Snatching my phone up from the lounger Julian had tossed it onto, I pulled up the text message on my phone and handed my phone over to Vince.
“He showed up at the studio not long after I received this message,” I said softly. I swallowed thickly, feeling tears burn at the back of my eyes. The urge to rub my skin raw burned through my fingers as my skin crawled. “He’s out, Vince.” The image of his grimy fingers touching my chin pulsed through my mind, and I reached up, rubbing at my jaw.
Vincent cursed as he set my phone aside and pulled me into his arms right as I burst into tears. Those walls I had been holding up all day came crumbling down, turning me into a wreck in his arms. “He’ll never touch you again, Meg,” Vince soothed as he held me tightly. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“Vince, why doesn’t the feeling go away?” I brokenly asked as I rubbed at my clothed arms and legs.
He gripped my wrists in his hands. “Don’t,” he commanded.
“But I still feel him touching me,” I cried. “I want it to go away, Vince.” I cried. “Please make it go away,” I begged.
Suddenly, I was lifted into familiar, tattooed arms. Julian cradled me against his chest. “I’ll make it go away, baby,” he promised as he softly kissed me. “Will you let me make it go away?”
I nodded as I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing my lips to his again. He carried me past everyone in the living room and to the stairs, his lips working with mine, wiping my mind of what had happened to me, instead replacing it with everything him.
7
Julian laid me on his bed, his lips never moving from mine as he followed me down, his body covering me from head to toe. I tangled my fingers in his hair and angled my head to deepen the kiss. Julian groaned as his tongue slid with mine. I trailed my fingers from his hair and down his back, moaning when he pushed his thigh between my legs and pushed up on my core.
Sitting up, his legs straddling my hips, he grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled it over his head. I drank in his tattooed body hungrily. His eyes darkened as my tongue flicked out over my lips.
With hungry eyes, he pulled my shirt over my head and unsnapped my bra, tossing both items to the floor. He gripped my jaw and turned my head, his lips descending on my neck as he hungrily nipped at my skin.