Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 138588 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138588 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Even though it had sucked to leave Wyatt and Sawyer early, knowing Dad cared enough to come get her had warmed her heart.
“Because no one ever did it for you before,” Elisa said with a sigh. “Because Mom would have told you to suck it up, but Dad would never leave you alone if he had the choice.”
“And I’m not his biological child.” Yet he’d accepted her so easily. Far more easily than either of her bio parents.
“I don’t think that means much here,” Elisa pointed out. “What I’ve found is Bliss is a place where people go when they need something different. Where blood isn’t the only way to make a family. Where we can be who we are, and as long as we’re kind we’ll be accepted.”
It was why she loved it here. “Yes. It’s kind of like paradise, though sometimes the locals don’t understand what a good thing they have.”
A laugh huffed from her sister. “We’re back to Sawyer.”
Yep. They were back to Sawyer. “I understand so many things about him, but not this. Why does he think people don’t like him? I guess the better question is do people like him?”
Elisa thought before she answered. “From what I’ve been told, Nate didn’t understand the reasons he was in the MC before. Nate used to be a DEA agent, and he spent years embedded in an outlaw MC. It was rough on him, so when he found out Sawyer was a former member of one of the worst clubs he had to deal with, Nate wasn’t exactly friendly.”
Sawyer did seem hesitant around law enforcement. Wyatt oddly didn’t. “And now?”
“Now, he’s had a couple of years to calm down, and Sawyer’s helped on some cases,” her sister explained. “He also helped out one of the former deputies, Marie’s son, Logan. He got into trouble a few years back. I think it was serious, and Sawyer came through for him. Nate won’t talk about the specifics, but he thinks Sawyer is a solid guy now. And Nate thinks Wyatt is a goofball who had zero business being in an MC in the first place.”
“He didn’t have a choice.” Sabrina wondered how he’d survived a couple of those years. He told her he’d been initiated at eighteen, and it had gone downhill from there.
“We all know that.” Elisa sat back, crossing one leg over the other and regarding her sister seriously. “But you should know the past comes back and bites us in the ass when we least expect it. Be ready for it, and know you have a family around you. We’ll be there for you no matter what.”
Which was why this could work. “I know, and it’s why I’m following my instincts.”
“Is your instinct to take no from Sawyer?” Elisa asked.
It wasn’t. When she sat with the problem and asked herself what she should do, she went back completely on everything she’d said before. That had been her fear speaking. What did her hope think about the situation? “My instinct is to fuck the man until he can’t imagine not being in my bed.”
Elisa grinned her way. “And that’s a problem, why?”
Sabrina wasn’t the only one doing a one eighty today. “I thought I was too delicate to have a simple sexual relationship with a man.”
“I did not say that,” Elisa announced with a shake of her head. “I said I thought you were too emotional to want nothing but sex from a man. Sex isn’t all you want from Sawyer. You like him.”
Sometimes she wished she didn’t. He was complex. He was going to be such a hard nut to crack, but here she was. “I do. I’m surprised, but there are layers to the man I didn’t imagine, layers that go so well with Wyatt’s. He’s practical to Wyatt’s dreamer. He’s oddly artistic. He’s grumpy as hell, but I think it’s because he expects to be alone for the rest of his life. His grandfather was. His grandad lost his wife and then his only daughter, and he had to raise three teenaged boys alone. But I can see so plainly Sawyer wants more. He just doesn’t know how to get it. Or if he’s willing to let himself have it.”
“So give it to him for a while and see if time and proximity can change his mind,” Elisa offered. “Tell him you’re willing to sleep with him and date Wyatt, and he doesn’t owe you anything more than a good time in bed.”
Sabrina felt her eyes widen. “Who are you?”
Elisa chuckled. “I’m a woman who is learning to trust in her sister’s seemingly endless strength. I’m sorry I was so…like our mom the other day. I was worried about you getting your heart broken, but I forgot how you can’t feel joy if you don’t also feel sorrow. Mom thought she wouldn’t have to feel grief or loneliness if she never loved or needed anyone. I think the only thing in the world worse than grief is emptiness. Go after what you want, Brina. Be ruthless if you think you’re good for him. And if he breaks your heart…”