Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 26976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Being inside her after so long was like coming home after a stint in the slammer.
Damn, I knew I missed her, though I wouldn’t admit it out loud for so long, but fuck, I felt a relief I’m not comfortable analyzing when she kissed me back. And then, when she guided my cock inside her body, it felt like the six years had vanished and it was just us, like the time apart never happened.
The chemistry was electric and crackling between us—our bodies in sync, coming together like we were made to do so.
The shock in her eyes when I ripped off her mask excited me. Her finally seeing who’d been watching her all this time. Shock bled into need, and I fed that ache, gave her what she’s been craving, missing all these years.
The past two days, all I’ve done is rehash how everything fell apart, but I did stop to think about her life now. Does she have someone in her life, a boyfriend…husband?
Fuck no. No way. Life wouldn’t be that fucking cruel. It’s dealt me enough blows already. The idea tonight was to talk to her to find out what the hell happened in her life to alter it so dramatically off course. But when she began dancing and stripped out of those panties, waving her ass and my tattoo at the glass, I nearly came undone. I had to be inside her. Feel her on my skin—on my breath—my cock. I’ve had her so many times before, but the memory wasn’t enough in the moment.
Leaning against the side of the building, I wait for her to finish her shift. The idea of someone else watching her almost has me barging back in and tossing her over my shoulder like a caveman. She saves me from myself when she appears from a side door. Head down, oblivious to everything around her, she takes off running toward a beat up old car. It’s the same one she had in college, a silver Honda. She named it Bubbles.
I don’t see the same freedom on her face she used to have, though. There’s worry and stress etched into her features.
As I approach her, she startles and holds her hands up as if to defend from an attack.
She pales, then sighs a relieved breath when she sees it’s me. There’s a lump and the starting of a bruise forming across her cheek. Black streaks smudge under her eyes from tear stains.
“What the fuck happened?” I demand.
Sniffling, she shakes her head. “You happened, Lucca. You fucking happened. And now I’ll be working the pole instead of the box because of you,” she snaps, tugging her jacket around herself to ward off the evening chill. “Why the hell did you come back here? To humiliate me? Watch me for God knows how long, then act all fucking crazy when I walk into the tattoo shop like you hadn’t been creeping on me for months?”
Mixed emotions crash into me, battling for the steering wheel in this conversation, and my usual shitty attitude shows its ugly face. “I didn’t know it was you. I can’t fucking see your face in the box, Autumn—or is it Summer?” I sneer, looking her up and down with distaste. “I didn’t come here to watch you, it was just a weird fucking coincidence.”
“You expect me to believe that? Like you wouldn’t recognize me because a mask covered some of my face, Lucca?”
“It’s the fucking truth! Your body has changed in the past six years and this is the last place I’d ever expect to see you working, like some fucking whore.” The slap comes fast. It rings my ears, burns a fire up my cheek. I deserved that.
“You don’t ever get to call me a whore,” she says, scarily calm.
The wad of cash I gave her in the box flutters around me like confetti as she yanks it from her purse and chucks it at me.
Grabbing her wrist, I stop her from throwing out any more. Her phone and lipstick have fallen to the ground, and she’s crying, but it’s not sorrowful tears, it’s red-hot anger.
“I didn’t mean to call you a whore, Breezy…” I implore.
“Don’t call me that either. I haven’t been her in a long ass time. You left, and she died when you did. My life was wrecked, and I had to pick up the pieces and do whatever I could to make it work.”
“You’re making no sense. What happened to your dream of becoming a teacher? How the fuck did you end up in here?”
Jerking her wrist from my grasp, she bends to snatch up her phone, shoving it back in her purse. Drunken idiots spill from the club, loud and obnoxious, making Autumn flinch and grab the lapels of her coat close around her again.