Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Could still feel the rattle of the oath I’d made.
Nine years older than her, the guy who’d sworn to be nothing more than her protector.
But more than that? It was who I was. Who I’d become in that grief and contempt that would forever rage inside me.
I was the last fuckin’ guy to deserve Raven Tayte.
Hell, that cum-stain Tanner was better than me, even though I wanted to tear my hair from my head when I thought of him touching her.
When I thought of anyone touching her.
Thoughts spiraling, I forced myself to head into my room. I didn’t know if it was any safer in there with all of Raven’s things around. My bed made to perfection with a giant fluffy white pillow in the shape of a heart sitting against the headboard. The old mirror I’d given her years ago safely stowed on the nightstand.
Her shoes in my closet.
Her fuckin’ birth control pills sitting on the counter in the bathroom.
Nearly came unglued when I saw a pair of black lace undies just sitting on the floor.
I tried to block the visions but it was impossible as I stepped into the spray.
And I gave myself over.
Letting the fantasies of her invade.
Her spread out on my bed, all naked curves and delicate flesh. Me exploring every damned inch of that beautiful body.
Adoring and devouring.
Fuck. The ways I would have her.
I gripped my cock with my hand, stroking myself hard and fast as I thought of her out in the kitchen. What it’d be like to go up behind her the way I’d always wanted, toss the skirt of that dress up around her waist and pull her underwear aside.
Drive into her deep and desperately.
Take her the way I was dying to.
But I couldn’t have her.
I wanted so much more for her than this. A good, simple life. Someone to adore her the way she deserved to be adored. Someone who wouldn’t keep her chained to the darkness. Someone who didn’t devolve into depravity.
Leave it to me to be the fool who wished I could be every single one of those things as I ate dinner with her.
Except I knew I could never be when I walked out the door and into the wickedness that was waiting in the night.
TWENTY-FOUR
OTTO
I drove the entire fucking night. Guts in a tangle as I traveled beneath the stars that blinked like beacons from above, guiding me to my disgraceful destination, giving way to the cover of darkened clouds that sagged over the earth like a shroud the closer I got to my target.
Eight hours to the slum buried deep in the city.
I’d ditched my truck a mile away, taking the rest of the distance on foot. Adrenaline rushed as I crept along the run-down street, keeping my footsteps light as I slinked through the shadows, dodging motion lights as I ducked between the forlorn, weathered houses, half of them barely standing.
My heart thudded at high speed as I eased up to the side of the derelict house at the end, breaths scraping like barbs from my lungs as I hopped over the short chain-link fence without making a sound and slipped unseen along the wall to the door in the back.
Daylight would be coming in less than thirty minutes, and I pressed my back to the peeling white wood, my spirit screaming and coating my tongue with vengeance as I searched the threadbare night for any movement.
When I was sure I was in the clear, I inhaled a tremulous breath before I spun toward the door and quickly picked the lock.
Bastard without a clue that I was coming for him as I felled the single deadbolt in less than thirty seconds.
The hinges creaked as I slowly pushed open the door, boots squeaking on the sticky linoleum floor as I crept through the kitchen that was rank as fuck, dirty dishes caked with rotted food piled in the sink.
Sickness coiled, hitting me on all levels as I craned my ear to make sure I remained undetected.
Silence echoed back.
Thick and tacky.
I made sure the fucker lived alone. My wrath only meant for him.
I leaned my back up against the wall and peeked around the entryway and into the living room on the other side.
I froze when I heard the rattling breaths coming from somewhere close.
It was just this side of pitch, a single wedge of light from the moon coming in through a crack in the drapes and illuminating the space.
Holding my breath, I scanned, taking it in.
Bottles littered a coffee table and the lid to a pizza box was left open to the half-eaten pizza inside.
The monster hadn’t even hauled his ass to his bed. He was passed out on the couch, shirtless but wearing jeans. One arm was lifted over his head and one leg had fallen off the side where he was sprawled out.