Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 33998 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 170(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33998 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 170(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
She began to clean my wound; it burned like a mother fucker, but I stayed silent. A couple of minutes later, she began to stitch me up. I gritted my teeth and stared straight ahead at the back door while she worked. Another five minutes, and she was completely done, even my cheek cleaned up.
“Thank you,” I grunted. I wasn’t a complete asshole. I did know manners. She’d helped me when she didn’t have to. Hell, she’d helped me even when I’d been nothing but a complete dick to her.
“I figured I’d probably make it the neatest,” she told me simply. “No need to thank me.” And I could tell by her expression that she meant that. She did this just because she was kind—not for any other reason.
And fuck, that made me feel like a jackass.
I gripped her arm when she got ready to get out of the back of the van, and she swung her head around to face me, her eyes wide. I swallowed thickly, unsure of what the hell I was doing. I wasn’t sure of much anymore. But she was the only person who had remained solid outside of my club brothers, despite me being a raging asshole toward her.
“I’m sorry,” I quietly told her. It was rare I said those words, but I meant them. She had me all twisted up inside, but that wasn’t her fault. That lied with me because I couldn’t sort my own shit out.
A small smile tilted her lips. Reaching up, she patted my unharmed cheek. “You’re lost, Whiler. When you’re ready for me to guide you, you just let me know.”
With that, she slipped out of the back and into the front passenger seat. Blowing out a harsh breath, I leaned forward, bracing my elbows on my knees, ignoring the pulsing throb in my side.
You’re lost, Whiler.
Fuck, she was right about that. I was so lost, I knew I’d never be able to find my way back home.
I’d been lost for five goddamn years.
When we got back to the clubhouse, I snatched a full bottle of whiskey from beneath the bar and headed up the stairs to my apartment to shower, get a bit drunk, and crawl into bed. I already had the bottle uncapped by the time I made it inside my apartment and was already guzzling a mouthful when I shut the door behind me.
By the time I made it into the shower, I’d already drank a third of it, and it was beginning to set in, easing the pain from my bones. The shower hurt on my sore body, but I endured it, scrubbing the dirt and dust out of my hair and off my skin as quickly as I could manage before stepping out of the shower and drying off.
Cannon was sitting on my bed when I strode out of the bathroom. I paused, frowning at her, the bottle of whiskey dangling from my fingers. She was only in a t-shirt that oddly looked like mine, all of her clothes in a pile by the bed—including the shirt she had on a little while ago.
“Is that my shirt?” I grunted, nodding my head in the direction of her torso.
She nodded. “You want it back?”
Fuck this. I’d fought this for so goddamn long, and she had remained steady. She didn’t back down. She didn’t walk away. She continued standing there, waiting on me to let her save me.
Maybe it was fucking time I let her.
I dropped the towel around my hips to the floor and guzzled some more whiskey, letting it burn down my throat. I was drinking it like it was water at this point, but I didn’t fucking care.
“I’m a bit drunk,” I warned her as I set the half-empty bottle on my nightstand.
She shrugged, not caring in the slightest. “I know how loose your morals are, Whiler.”
I grinned at her and crawled onto the bed. She laid back on the mattress, and my face finally loomed above hers. She licked her lips, her eyes flicking over my face. Pleased with whatever she found, she sank her teeth into her bottom lip and smiled so fucking prettily, for a moment, I forgot how to breathe.
“If I stop fighting this, Cannon, you’re mine. No one else’s. No one fucking touches you. No one breathes in your direction. Every breath belongs to me. Every orgasm you have is mine. I’ll tattoo my name on your body and mark you as mine forever if I fucking need to.”
A shaky breath escaped her lungs, but the longing in her eyes for what I was promising was unmistakable. “You sure you’re ready for something like that, Whiler?”
I wrapped my hand around her slender throat, dragging her up until her nose touched mine, our eyes so close, I could see every shade of blue in her irises. “Don’t question me, baby.”