Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 88447 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88447 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
I can’t be seen with you.
His words haunted me, and my self-loathing used them as a way to sneak back into my mind. To escape the mental box, I’d locked it away in with the help of my therapist. I have some major issues with men and my birthmark. My first boyfriend wouldn’t leave the house with me unless I wore makeup. My second lost his erection if the lights weren’t off and he had to see the way my birthmark spread down my back. My third never even saw me without my makeup over the six months we dated. He had no idea I even had a birthmark until he stopped by unannounced one day.
The grimace of revolted disgust on his face when he got a good look at the monster under the mask still haunts me.
I understood Mark’s aversion. I was ugly, and he’d seen me without my makeup, so he knew just how hideous I really was. He knew that walking down the street with me would make him part of the freak show, that people would point and stare everywhere we went. I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to subject himself to the harassment I’d endured.
Kids could be very cruel. Once, when I was thirteen, a group of girls had thrown mud at me, claiming to give me a facial to get rid of my port-wine stain. There’d been a stone in one of the clumps of dirt that had cut my head open. When I’d been transported to the hospital, I had to endure the humiliation of explaining to a nurse that the mark on my face wasn’t an injury, just part of my face.
While kids could be cruel, adults could be worse. Either out of ignorance or malice, I’d had more than one asshole stare and whisper about me, obviously pointing while making disgusted faces. Things got better once I started wearing makeup to cover it, but I’ll never forget what it feels like to be gawked at like an animal in a zoo. Or a monster in a cage.
Stupid me thought Mark might be different. That he really did mean it when he said I was beautiful. That he did think I was smart, funny, and charming. And when he looked at me without my makeup on during our video chats, I thought for sure I’d seen no judgement on his face. No hidden revulsion in his expression. Now I knew he lied, and it hurt. I trusted him with my heart, and knowing how fragile it was, he crushed it anyway.
Curling up around Vali, I cried myself to sleep, vowing to myself that I’d never speak to Mark again.
Chapter 3
Mark
Six weeks later
Leo took a seat next to me on the massive dark brown couch in his den. Exhaustion deepened the lines in his forehead. “Caroline was asking about you again. She was disappointed you didn’t return her calls.”
“She’s called one of my burner phones over a hundred times this week.” I groaned and rubbed the back of my stiff neck. “And I still have no idea how she got my number.”
Caroline was the spoiled daughter of the very powerful and corrupt mayor of Phoenix, Sean Murphy. She was beautiful, arrogant, and fucking crazy. And she seemed to be fixated on me for some reason. I knew her reputation for being a girlfriend from hell, and I wanted no part of her drama. No matter how good looking she might be, in a blonde cheerleader way, I kept our interactions strictly professional, much to her disappointment.
It would be a lot easier to avoid her if Diego wasn’t interested in her half-sister, Selena. He allegedly dated Selena in high school, but she wanted absolutely nothing to do with him now. I didn’t know the backstory on them, but what I did know was I saw Caroline, along with Selena, at nearly every public function Diego attended. Since Leo had asked me to take over Diego’s protection detail for a couple months, I was stuck dealing with her wandering hands and coy looks.
Her determination to get me in her bed amused Leo at first, but over time, he found her almost as irritating as I did. “Maybe I should have a word with Diego.”
I snorted. “Like that’s going to do any good? The only thing he thinks about anymore is Selena. Don’t worry, I can handle Caroline. I ignore her, she goes away. Simple.”
Leo grimaced. “I don’t think it’ll be that easy. There’s something about her…” His dark gaze grew distant as his thoughts turned inward. “Like recognizes like. Caroline, despite her rather convincing act, isn’t the flighty socialite she pretends to be. There’s something fucked up going inside her head. The way she keeps popping up at places she thinks you’re going to be is starting to make the back of my neck itch. What if she shows up at the charity ball next week for the new sculpture garden at the hospital? What if your…baby bear is there? She’s got more than a few pieces in the hospital’s sculpture garden.”