Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 101(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 67(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 101(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 67(@300wpm)
This is Katie I’m kissing, Mercedes’ daughter. I’m supposed to protect this girl, take care of her. Not corrupt her. She’s the one pure thing in my life, and I’m clawing at her like an animal.
I tear my mouth away and lift her off my lap. The loss of her is like losing a limb.
“Cam, wait—” she mews, but I shake my head.
“No. We can’t. This was a mistake—a mistake that can’t happen again.”
“You’re calling me a mistake?” she counters. Christ, she’s smart. Cunning. She reaches for my arm, but I jerk away like her touch might burn my skin.
“You’re barely eighteen, Katie. And you’re Mercedes’ daughter. I’m—” I cover my hands with my face, trying to find the words to describe myself.
Too old, too hungry, too damned…
“What?” she asks, challenging me in a defiant way that makes me want to snatch her up and mark her with my teeth so no other man can have her. “The only man who has ever truly looked after me? Ever really cared about me?”
“Stop.”
“The only man I have ever thought about in this way?” she continues.
“Stop!” I snap with a growl that causes her to freeze. My breath is heaving like I just ran ten miles. I am losing control. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You’re too young.”
“I’m old enough, Cam. I’m legal.”
I see her wearing my name, my mark, and it terrifies me.
I’m standing now, but Katie is on her knees in front of me, filling my head with a tsunami of dirty thoughts.
“Go to your room, Katie.”
“No.” Her eyes flare. So fucking sexy. Those lips, wrapped around my cock—
“Now,” I growl.
“Make me,” she counters, just like a little girl.
I could just throw her over my shoulder and carry her back into her room and show her just who she’s messing with. The thought alone has me so hard I’m about to explode in my pants.
Instead, I do the only thing left to do. I leave.
I grab my coat and am out the door before she can respond, through the night air and into my truck. As I pull away, I see her rushing outside after me, but I don’t stop.
Tomorrow I’ll have to find somewhere else to stay, do the right thing and put some distance between the two of us. But tonight, I’ll sleep at the garage and dream of all the things I desperately want to do to her.
4
KATIE
My kiss with Cam haunts me like a wonderful nightmare playing on repeat behind my eyelids. He kissed me, then he ran from me…
I trace my lips with my thumb and look at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, remembering the grip of his fingers as they tangled through my hair, the way he kissed me like a drowning man desperate for air. I felt like his salvation, but now I feel like his damnation.
My mom stumbles into the bathroom, nudging me aside. “Move,” she slurs, a bottle deep despite it being barely noon.
I step aside and watch her fumble with her makeup. It’s Friday, which means Tony’s, which means free drinks from scumbag guys.
“Cam’s working late again,” she grumbles, smearing on lipstick that’s way too bright. “Probably fucking another woman.”
I bite my tongue. I want to snap at her, tell him that he would never do something like that. But I also know the truth: that he and I were kissing behind her back just three days ago.
It’s wrong on so many levels, but can I really blame him? Can I blame myself?
“I’m going to Cheryl’s after. Don’t wait up.”
Cheryl lives two towns over, and when Mom goes there, she doesn’t come home until Sunday.
My pulse instantly skyrockets.
Two days alone in the trailer with Cam!? What am I going to do with myself?
Mom leaves at seven, and I watch from the window until her taillights are gone, then I start to get ready.
I shower, trying to think of anything but Cam. But all I see is his face in my mind. That raw masculinity, the sexy stare, the glare from his passionate eyes that made me feel small and important at the same time.
And deep down inside me, I feel my own hunger rising to the surface. This isn’t about escape from this life or rebellion against my mom; this is about recognition. About binding myself to the one person who has ever seen me for who I am and made me feel special.
I dress carefully in my own clothes—ones that fit my body just right, showing off my curves and making it clear that I’m not a little girl but a woman who understands her body.
His truck rumbles into the driveway around ten-thirty, not quite late enough to guarantee that I’m asleep. He’s slipping. But is it purpose?
I wait in the kitchen for him, my hands steady despite my heart pounding like an earthquake.