Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 85682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
The fact that I’d wanted to so badly was what made me stop.
I watched him, though, as he walked toward me. He hadn’t seen me yet, so I drank my fill, remembered how hard he’d been, the want that had been a current between us.
It took me a minute to realize he was holding the woman’s hand, their fingers laced together in the way you did with a lover.
She was talking to him, and Sam was listening, smiling at whatever she was saying. White-hot anger rushed through me, a wildfire scorching everything in its path. I knew he was closeted, but I didn’t know this—that he had a girlfriend who maybe loved him and thought he could love her while he planned to spend his weekends with me. There were a lot of things I could do, a lot of mistakes I had made in my life, but fucking a man in a committed relationship with someone else wasn’t on that list. I wouldn’t make exceptions, not even for him.
Sam’s gaze caught mine and hung on. He gave me that megawatt smile that always felt like the sun had lent him some of its shine, or hell, maybe borrowed from him. He stumbled. The woman holding his hand chuckled, saw the expression on his face, and turned to see what he was looking at. We reached each other, and I saw freckles across her nose and cheeks.
“Hey, look at this. I never see you out and about,” Sam said, still smiling at me like he’d win some sort of prize for it. When I didn’t reply, he turned his attention to Lydia. “How’s it goin’, Ms. Lydia?”
“Good. Just taking Emerson’s food donation to the truck.”
“Well, that’s nice of him.” Sam’s voice changed, this knowing lilt to it, and I knew this was something he would bring up later.
“It is. He’s here every weekend we have it, and in between, he often drives it out to the house himself or has someone bring things over. He helps keep the women fed, and if we don’t need it, we bring it out to Charlotte.”
When Sam’s eyes caught mine again, I knew I was fucked and this was going to become a thing. Well, it would if we kept doing this, which we wouldn’t because of the woman holding his hand. He kept staring at me the way he did, like he both knew everything about me and was trying to figure it out at the same time.
“This is Molly. Sam’s girlfriend. I’m not sure if the two of you have met,” Lydia said, confirming what was pretty clear to me already.
“Oh shit. I mean shoot. Yeah, sorry ’bout that. This is, um…Molly.” Sam shifted uncomfortably.
Even her name was sweet. It matched her freckles.
“Hi.” Molly held out her hand, and I shook it. “It’s so good to meet you. I’ve seen you around town, of course, but we’ve never… Anyway, I’ve heard so much about you.” If she’d heard about me, it had to have been from Sam, unless it was just people in town gossiping about the man from the city who didn’t fit in and didn’t socialize with anyone.
“Nice to meet you too. We should probably get going. I have to drop these things off and then head out.” I felt Sam watching me but didn’t allow myself to look at him. Molly frowned. I was sure Lydia thought I was rude, but that was me. Pretending otherwise didn’t change anything.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to keep ya.” Sam let go of Molly’s hand and stepped out of the way. I pushed the dolly between them and kept going. Lydia caught up with me but didn’t call me on being an asshole.
“Thank you again,” she said after we dropped the food off at her truck. I smiled, nodded, and was on my way, feeling disappointment I had no right to feel and like I’d lost something I never had in the first place.
I couldn’t sleep that night.
Why, Bent? Why did you kill me?
I woke up from dreaming of blood on my hands, and scrubbed them raw again. It didn’t matter that I knew it wasn’t really there; it felt like it was, and that was enough to keep me trying to wash it clean.
I made it until almost three in the morning before I logged on to Sam’s page for the first time since he’d eaten dinner at my house.
He’d taken down the request asking for people to film with. There was one new video, which had been uploaded tonight, and the description made it clear it was for me.
My dick’s been hard since I saw you. I was aching all day for wanting you. And I do, want you. Don’t run. We made an agreement, remember? I don’t know business like you, but I figure a man is only as good as his word, and you gave me yours. See ya soon.