Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 28711 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 144(@200wpm)___ 115(@250wpm)___ 96(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28711 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 144(@200wpm)___ 115(@250wpm)___ 96(@300wpm)
"Oh, that's messed up. Her own daughter?"
"It's horrible," I agree. Chloe deserves so much better. She's one of the sweetest people I've ever met. Some people don't deserve to be parents. Chloe deserves for someone to fight for her the way our adoptive parents always fought for us. She's been trying for so long to get someone to listen to her about her mom, but they all brush her aside. They'll be forced to listen if we find evidence she's sleeping with and passing a student, especially one who was dating her own daughter just a few months ago.
"How are you going to prove it?" Gemma asks, not trying to talk me out of it. She may not be a troublemaker like me, but Gemma follows her heart, and her heart is full of empathy. She hates to see anyone hurt or taken advantage of, or treated unkindly. She loves people. And people love her.
"I don't know. But Ryker worked for the CIA. Maybe he can help." I blow hair out of my face. I just have to work up the nerve to ask him and convince him not to tell Razor, his twin brother, why I need his help. And avoid Xavier. And hope no one else in town spots me.
Trying to stay one step ahead of literally everyone I know is exhausting.
Gemma sighs heavily. "I'll help with Mom and Dad," she says reluctantly. "But if they find out before you tell them, I'm pretending I knew nothing."
"Deal," I agree, and then hesitate. "Hey, Gemma? Do you think they ever regret adopting us?"
"Charlie," she whispers. "You think they regret adopting you?"
"Stupid, right?" I'm twenty. I should be over feeling like a little girl, one bad decision away from having everything ripped away, and yet… Well, I guess we never outgrow some trauma. Some tiny part of me still worries that they'll change their mind about me someday and decide I'm not worth the trouble. I have this constant ball of anxiety in my stomach, telling me that I'm going to end up alone again. I've been trying to outrun that little voice since they adopted us, but I've never been able to do it.
"It's not stupid," Gemma says, her voice soft. "Love is never stupid. I don't remember life before Mom, Dad, and Garrett became our family, so maybe I see things differently than you, Heidi, Leia, and Adalynn do. But I know there's nothing any of us could ever do to make Mom or Dad regret adopting us. They love us, Charlie. No matter how many crazy things you do, they'll never stop."
I really, really hope she's right.
"Kitten," Xavier growls from behind me.
Oh my gosh.
"You have got to be kidding me," I groan. I didn't even see him in the parking lot! He's like a freaking ninja. "How did you—oof!"
He hits me from behind, sandwiching me between his hard body and the driver's door of my car. A shiver rips through me, heat plunging deep into my center. All night, I thought about him. I felt like a jerk for running off the way I did yesterday.
"You're lucky we're in public, or I'd be turning this perfect ass red right now," he growls. The stubble on his jaw abrades the sensitive skin of my throat as his erection digs into my bottom. "You. Ran. Off."
"Clearly, I didn't run far enough," I mumble. "How did you find me?"
"My two-year-old niece hides better than you do. You parked in plain view."
"Oh." I grimace. I didn't think about that. Actually, I didn't consider that he'd come looking for me after I spent a full hour driving every backroad I could find trying to make sure he hadn't followed me in the first place.
"You want to tell me what you're running from?"
"You mean other than you? Nothing."
He nips my throat, making me whimper. He smells like sin and sounds even better. He feels like heaven. Every inch of him is rough and hard as if he were cut from granite.
"Isn't this illegal? I feel like this is illegal." If the things he's doing to my body aren't illegal, they should be.
"Which part? The part where you lied about your name, lied about not having a license or insurance, convinced me not to file a report after you hit me, and then fled the scene of an accident? Or the part where I worried about you all fucking night?" he growls against my skin.
"I'm sorry," I whisper, trembling against him as bolts of desire race through me.
His hand slides down my body, gripping my ass. "I dreamed about this all night too."
"Xavier," I moan.
He swats my ass before caressing it. "You lied to me, Charlie."
He knows my name. Oh, this is bad.
Please, keep touching me.
"I-I'll pay for the repairs to your rental."
"I don't care about the rental. Never did," he grunts, tipping my head back with his hand around my throat. Our eyes meet. Mine, dark and needy. His, hard and molten, yet still somehow so soft, as if he's looking at something priceless. I forgot just how devilishly handsome he is, but good grief. The man is sexy. "You owe me a date."