Total pages in book: 174
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
She was talking about then.
Pain splintered through the middle of me, and my heart stalled in my chest.
A shattering of my spirit.
“You don’t owe me anything.” It clawed up my raw throat, and I turned and stalked around the island to the kitchen sink.
Hands shaking, I tossed the dishes in. Silverware and porcelain clattered and clinked, my breaths heavy heaves as my pulse thundered through my veins.
Images blipped and flashed as my mind tried to drag me back to that time.
My chest nearly caved, and I grabbed onto the edge of the sink and bent in half, so close to succumbing to a panic attack.
It wasn’t like I didn’t always live there anyway.
On the brink of collapse.
But with her here?
I sucked for air, desperate to draw oxygen into my aching lungs.
Warmth washed me from behind.
Overwhelming.
So perfect and right.
So utterly misplaced.
A soft hand curled around my bicep.
Energy streaked up my arm and a need I couldn’t feel twisted my guts.
Her voice was gentle. “I do, Cash. I owe you everything. I wouldn’t be here without you. You saved—”
I whirled out of her hold.
The action cut her off, and surprise slashed into her brow.
Old rage seeping around the barrier, I angled in her direction. “I destroyed everything. Everything.” The words were low and gritted. “You might have forgotten, but I haven’t.”
Then I weaved around her and stormed down the hall toward my office, trying to ignore it when Eva called, “Guess he don’t want no coo-kies.”
I couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t do anything but lie on the couch, staring at the vague, ambiguous shapes on the ceiling. The shapes curling into vapors and ghosts.
Guts bleeding out with shame.
I’d been a total prick, lashing out at Daisy like any of this was her fault.
I hated it.
Hated hurting her.
But that’s what I did.
I hurt again and again.
I sat up on the side of the couch and scrubbed my hands over my face. Darkness reigned as heavily as the silence that covered the house.
I inclined my ear, listening to the stillness that echoed through the walls.
Though where there was once emptiness, there was now a fervor that wisped and called and filled the space.
Their little spirits dancing through the motes and molecules, infusing them with life.
Blowing out the strain, I stood from the couch and shuffled into the kitchen.
Dim light shined from beneath the cabinets.
I grabbed a glass, filled it with water, and chugged it like it might stand the chance of putting out the fire that raged inside. Like the coolness might bring forth a peace that had been demolished years ago because of one single choice.
A path set. One I never could have imagined its destination.
Then I froze when I felt the presence emerge from behind.
That soft glow that she always emitted.
The energy rushed over me like an embrace that I would never deserve.
Her voice came like a whisper injected directly into my soul. “I need you, Cash.”
EIGHTEEN
DAISY
“I need you, Cash.”
His bare back went rigid at my words.
In the muted light, I couldn’t fully make out the designs that he had tattooed over the expanse. Couldn’t fully make out the distorted horrors he had written there.
But what I could see was the bulky muscle flexing and undulating beneath the shapes.
He only had on light gray sweats, a meager covering for the magnitude of his enormous body.
His thighs were thick, and his ass was round, as if he spent half his life doing dead lifts in the gym, though I was pretty sure he hadn’t stepped foot in one in years.
His shoulders were so freaking wide he nearly took up the entire expanse of the window that he stood in front of.
Every inch of him was a coiled canvas of rippling strength.
Did it make me a horrible human that I couldn’t do anything but stare? It wasn’t like I was sleeping this time.
I was lucid.
Aware of every choice I was making.
But God. I’d missed him. Missed him like crazy, even though I tried to convince myself that I was over him.
But the fantasies always infiltrated.
And those fantasies hadn’t come close to doing him justice.
How many times had I tried to picture what he would be like now?
Years gone.
Clearly my imagination was lacking.
Sorely.
My notions were boring and dull since this man was a depiction of dark perfection. All glowering brutality and surly viciousness.
That was the part that I hadn’t expected, but I guess I should have been prepared after what he had been through.
Cash seemed to war as he remained facing away before he finally inched around.
There was no stopping my eyes from traveling down his front, as beautiful as the back. Maybe more so because those hazel eyes I would never forget stared back at me through the dim light of the room.
“I told you I was going to take care of you, Daisy. Whatever it takes. I’m going to find that motherfucker and put an end to him. You don’t have to be afraid.”