Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
I scoffed. “Being happy is overrated,” I grumbled.
He twisted his neck from side to side, causing the bones and joints to pop.
“Being happy is the ultimate goal in life,” he contradicted me.
I didn’t really see the point in arguing with him.
He didn’t know my life. Didn’t know everything that had happened to me.
I was seriously cursed.
So unlucky in life that I gave up a long time ago.
“My wants and needs are flawed anyway,” I brushed him off.
His eyes narrowed for a long moment before he said, “Why do you say your wants and needs are flawed?”
“Because I only attract weirdos.” I shrugged. “Or cheaters. I think that I’m just broken.”
“You’re not broken,” he growled. “Who hurt you?”
He sounded like this question was important to him. That he wanted to know my answer because it was integral to his happiness.
So I shrugged and told him my life story.
I walked to the fridge, because it was always a necessity to drink beer when talking about the shit show that was my life.
I caught up a beer for myself and one for Hux—my brother’s contribution to my fridge—and handed him both.
He lifted his brow. “I can’t twist it off.”
He set one beer down on the counter and twisted the top off the other.
He handed me the beer and gestured at me to start talking.
“Do you want me to start at the beginning, when I first knew that my mother was a drug addict and that she was willing to sell the use of my body for drugs?” I asked. “Or do you want me to tell you about my shit show of a love life, and how I was stupidly the one to choose every single one of them?”
Hux became still.
So incredibly still.
I’d never seen anything like it before in my life.
“We’ll start with the men that broke your heart,” he ordered. “Then we’ll backtrack, and you’ll tell me about this mother of yours.”
“Hopefully dead mother,” I corrected. “She went missing three weeks ago.”
His eyes grew curious. “Did she?”
I nodded. “I only know because I like to read the online obituaries in our old hometown.”
He jerked his head toward my couch. “Let’s sit.”
I trailed along behind him, trying not to stare too hard at his ass encased in those sexy pants, and all but fell into my couch.
It was very comfortable, and after the day I’d had at work, I was ready to fall asleep.
But the intensity in Hux’s eyes kept me captivated as I started, “Long story short…”
He took another sip, and a drop of beer landed on his bottom lip.
I watched, fascinated, as he licked that drop off and leaned forward, his elbows planted on his knees.
My mouth went dry, but somehow I managed to tell him what had happened to me after my brother had been sent to prison.
“I’ve had all of three boyfriends,” I said. “The first one cheated on me in high school. He asked me to prom. Started dating me. Then he never showed up to pick me up.” I grimaced. “I was the wrong side of the tracks for him, plus, my brother was in prison and there was this stigma against me…so I understood. Went to prom alone to meet up with my friends, then found my would-be date with someone else. They were fucking underneath the bleachers. She got really angry at him when he called my name as he came.”
“Jesus.”
“The second boyfriend cheated on me as well. It was after Creed went to prison, and I was so adamant that I wouldn’t give up on him. He thought that I was doing too much. That I should just leave well enough alone. When I found out he was cheating, he said that I’d been cheating first. Not physically, but emotionally. With my own brother.”
Hux leaned back in his seat, shaking his head.
“The third and final one, I was out of town for a work conference. I had to get some continuing education done, and Sarasota was putting on a huge nurse practitioner conference. I went to get some hours, and around three that morning, I got a message from my smart scale telling me that someone had just weighed themselves at three in the morning. Someone weighing a hundred and twenty pounds.”
“Oh, Jesus.” Hux chuckled. “You were living with him?”
“Just moved in, actually,” I explained. “That was right after Necro—short for Necrophiliac—started to send me gifts. I thought it’d be better to be seen living with a man. But it just made me realize that the man I had moved in with was a little bitch. And would probably never help me if it came down to it anyway. Our breakup was ugly, and I ended up getting to keep his apartment. The landlady felt sorry for me. The landlady just so happened to be his aunt, too. His aunt that doesn’t like cheaters.”