Total pages in book: 150
Estimated words: 142818 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142818 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Elden folded his arms across his chest, shifting his weight as if he were cementing his feet to the floor, eyes narrowing ever so slightly, communicating that he was not going to let me be alone. He was going to force his company on me.
And I was glad.
The thought of being alone right now was utterly fucking wretched.
But Elden’s presence was something else entirely. It made me … ashamed that I wasn’t overcome with thoughts of what I’d done this week.
Of what my mother had been going through my entire life. Of my mother nearly fucking dying.
They remained in the back of my mind, but at the forefront was Elden.
I stood on unsteady legs, uncomfortable with the large pad between my legs … for the bleeding. Because the decision, the procedure and the walk through all those fucking protesters was not enough. I had to bleed heavily for days—it could be weeks, depending on the woman, they said—and not use a tampon or DivaCup because they increased my chance of infections.
That discomfort between my legs should’ve been enough to stop me.
It wasn’t.
Because of Elden’s stare. Because of the electricity between us that shouldn’t have existed under the current circumstances. Because of the booze and the weed divesting me of my inhibitions.
I stepped forward, and he went stock still. My hands clutched the sides of his cut, and I reveled in the worn leather of the vest.
He went stock still, but he didn’t push me away.
“Kiss me,” I demanded, my mouth inches from his. “I need to taste something other than cheap whisky and regret.”
His eyes flared in surprise and something else... The attraction that had been crackling between us since the moment we met.
The attraction he’d been fighting for a number of reasons. Because he was in an outlaw biker club where they took honor and brotherhood very seriously. And his ‘brother’ was going to be my stepdad. My very protective, over the top, stepdad. Technically, my only dad since my biological father was a man who had beat my mother my entire life, without me knowing, and had recently almost killed her.
He was dead to me now.
Which was neither here nor there, but I supposed it could’ve been one of the reasons why Elden was fighting the very obvious attraction to me. Or since he was chronologically old enough to be my father—only because my father had been a teenager when my mother had me.
I didn’t think I was so predictable as to be into the bad boy, but there I was, on a roof at a biker compound, smoking a joint, dangling a bottle of Jack between my fingers and asking a man almost twice my age to kiss me.
Elden—who had made it his mission to not be alone with me but who also lingered, presumably to make sure no other member was alone with me—didn’t move. It seemed like he didn’t breathe for a handful of moments. His eyes were glued to mine, and I watched thoughts rush through his mind.
It was reasonable that he was weighing how responsible it was to kiss the eighteen—almost nineteen—year old who was almost the stepdaughter of one of his best friends/brothers who would likely kill him if he found out about aforementioned kiss.
Worry and dread clutched my stomach then, at the thought that he might deny me—which of course, he was well within his rights to do—and I’d have to sit here on the roof feeling rejected on top of everything else.
I should’ve taken the words back, blamed them on the booze, my emotions, whatever.
But I didn’t.
I stared at him and waited for him to make the decision that would change both of our lives.
Chapter Two
I didn’t breathe until he grabbed the back of my neck, roughly, with all of the hunger and primal need he was communicating with his eyes. He yanked me so our mouths meshed together, both of us desperate, ravenous to make it last longer, make it deeper. It marked me, that kiss. In ways I wouldn’t understand until much, much later.
Because it wasn’t just the best kiss of my life—although it was that too—but it was both of us knowing that giving in to this attraction would be disastrous yet doing it anyway. It was both of us giving in to the most carnal parts of ourselves, knowing we couldn’t go back, regardless of whatever happened from here.
The kiss lasted a lifetime, yet also felt like it was over in a second. Over much too quickly for my liking. It was proof that whatever it was between us was something chemical, something outside of our control, and something even someone as badass as Elden couldn’t fight against.
“I’ve never been kissed like that before,” I murmured breathlessly, swaying on my feet.
Elden’s hands found my hips, steadying me, tethering me to this earth.