Total pages in book: 188
Estimated words: 179812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 899(@200wpm)___ 719(@250wpm)___ 599(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 179812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 899(@200wpm)___ 719(@250wpm)___ 599(@300wpm)
I turn away and start rushing out, cutting through the crowd and making for the hallway in the back where the exit is. I push the metal door open and come out into the dark parking lot. The area is surrounded by a chain link fence and there’s a metal gate in the far back. I start walking toward it when I hear the door open again, followed by thudding footsteps.
My heart jumps into my throat, and before I can think it through or even confirm if it’s really him behind me—but I know, I know it is—I start running. My breaths are coming hard and fast and my heels are clacking on the asphalt. Chills are racing down my spine that only grow when he starts to run as well. I hear his thudding footsteps, giving chase, and oh God, I think I’m going to pass out from fear. I’m going to pass out from the thrill.
From this confusing set of flutters in my belly and goosebumps on my skin.
A second later, he grabs me. And when I say that, I really mean it. He puts his arms—both of them—around my waist and picks me up off the ground. My back crashes against his wildly breathing chest and the air gets knocked out of my lungs. I shriek, short and loud, but it doesn’t deter him. He keeps me pinned to himself, carries me a few steps to the right before putting me down. He spins me around and pushes me up against a vehicle.
“Get…” I try with panting breaths, my sweaty hands slipping on the metal I’m stuck to. “Get away from me.”
He leans over me instead, doing exactly the opposite, his broad shoulders cutting off the light in the parking lot. He goes ahead and puts his hands on the roof of the truck he has me against too, caging me in as he growls, “I will when you start acting like you mean it.”
“I do mean it. I—”
“Because so far, you haven’t been very convincing.”
My heart is pounding so hard, it’s going to burst out of my chest. “You’re the… You’re the one who followed me out here.”
“Because you wanted me to.”
“I literally ran away from you.”
“So I could catch you.”
“Oh my God, you’re delusional.”
“No, just an expert at reading your mind.”
I breathe out sharply, my heart still trying to fly out of my body. With clenched teeth, I say, “Get away from me. Just get away from me, all right? I didn’t want you to follow me. I didn’t want you to catch me. I want nothing to do with you. Not after how big of an asshole you were that night. Not after—”
“So this is about that night,” he cuts me off, his jaw pulsing.
“You—”
“I guess what they say is true then,” he goes on. “No good deed goes unpunished.”
“What good deed?”
He leans closer, his biceps bulging with the action. “I warned you, didn’t I. To get some goddamn fucking sense and stay the fuck away from me. That’s the most good I’ve done for someone in a long fucking time.”
“You call that a good deed? You were—”
“But instead of a nice fucking thank you, I find you jerking that asshole off with your tight little ass.”
“What? I wasn’t jerking him off.”
“Then what the fuck were you doing?”
“Dancing, you asshole,” I snap, getting all up in his face. “It’s called dancing. With my date.”
He draws back slightly. “That fuckface was your date.”
“He’s not a fuckface,” I protest. “His name is—”
“You say his name,” he growls, his voice low and threatening, “and I’ll hunt him down and make him forget yours.”
I shiver at his threat. And just like I knew back there that he’d follow through on it, I very much believe him now as well. I know he can do it. Because I think he already has.
“You had him fired,” I breathe out.
“What?”
My breath turns into a hiccup as I say, or more like accuse, “My catering boss. From that night. You had him fired, didn’t you?”
The official statement was that he had to leave because he got another job. But I’m not an idiot. I know he had something to do with it. The famous Wrecking Thorn, my asshole stepbrother. They’d do anything for him in this town, including fire someone at his demand. And yes, it did feel good that my boss wouldn’t be there to hit on me and make my job difficult, but I still don’t think he should’ve gone behind my back like that. Especially after how he behaved that night.
“He was harassing you,” he replies.
“I never said that,” I retort.
“You didn’t have to.”
“You’re not really a mind reader.”
“No, not a mind reader. Just your mind reader.”
“I could’ve handled him.”
“And I did handle him.”
Something warms in my chest at that. That he actually went out of his way to help me. But I can’t really negate the fact that so far he’s been an asshole to me. So I exhale, less angrily though, before saying, “Okay, now can you let me go, please?”