Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 49393 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49393 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
“Please tell me your friend had some sense and told you he was a creep and to stay away,” I said. She shook her head.
“She said, ‘oh, Chris? I’ve seen him around and he’s hot you’re so lucky.’ And then she told me how you’re supposed to moan and pull on your hair and act like you’ve been shocked by electricity so he thinks he’s amazing in bed, and that boys like it when you…” she trailed off, “Maybe I’ll skip this part.”
“Okay,” I said, trying to keep from screaming because I wanted to go back in time and save her from this asshole.
I could see Jasmine, sixteen years old, hair in a ponytail like she sometimes still wore it, unsure of herself and still a kid, vulnerable and afraid that a grown man wouldn’t think she was good enough when he spent weeks grooming her to get in her pants. It sickened me, consumed me with a desire to find him and destroy him slowly piece by piece. Before she went on, I cupped her face in my hand and made her look at me.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I said. “You didn’t deserve any of that, and he targeted you, a lonely kid, and manipulated you. None of it is your fault. You were so innocent. He wanted that, got off on taking your innocence and tricking you and controlling you. Look at me. You survived him, Jasmine. You are so brave and so amazing. He doesn’t even deserve to know your name.”
Tears leaked from her eyes as she tried to blink them away. I rubbed my thumb across her lips softly, dying to kiss her, holding back. I let myself kiss her cheek and whisper to her, “You deserve to be loved by a man who sees you, who knows you’re smart and tough and funny and capable and so damn beautiful. It makes me sick that he hurt you, but I swear he’ll never hurt you again.”
She gasped, turned her head just a touch and brushed her lips over mine. It was so light, just shared breath, a heated brush of our lips between heartbeats, and the joy and desire that speared through me should have been enough to send me straight to hell.
Yearning gripped me and out of desperation, I caught her in my arms and hugged her, just to keep from kissing her seriously, from doing everything I could to take away her pain and make her feel as gorgeous and magical as I knew her to be, right on the couch in the lobby of the firm. I would reach the end of my control eventually, but I would not let it be today, not when she needed her friend to comfort her and listen. She hugged me back before sliding away to curl up in the corner again as if she too knew it wasn’t a good idea to be so close to me physically right now.
“Long story short,” she cleared her throat, “I went to his place, we had sex. It hurt but it was over fast, at least,” her cheeks flushed red, “but he acted like it was so great and said he loved me. That soon. And told me he wanted me to move in with him, that he didn’t care what people said about our age difference. He wanted me in his life and that we belonged together. I finally said I’d talk to my mom about moving in with him just to get out of there. I should have known then, when I was willing to give in if it would get me away, that it was a bad idea. My mom hit the roof. She said no way in hell was her little girl moving in with some grown-ass loser. I had to finish school and wait till I was eighteen and see what else was out there. She didn’t want me getting stuck in that town like she did when she got pregnant in high school. That made me feel worse, like I was what ruined her life. She was so strict with me and said she wasn’t going to let me go near him. So that night I snuck out with a bag of stuff. Some clothes, books, my toothbrush, and I took my blanket from my bed. At school, my little sister came and cried once in the girls’ bathroom and begged me to come home. She said she heard scary stuff about Chris. I told her he wasn’t like that and she should come meet him but she said Mom wouldn’t let her.”
“So he isolated you from your family and probably told you that no one understood that you belonged together and that it was the two of you against the world,” I said grimly. She nodded.