Total pages in book: 206
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
We pulled back onto the farm and he drove right up to the barn, stopped, and stepped on the kickstand. I got off the bike and he took my hand after unlocking and then opening the doors. Instead of going back to the Jeep, he led me into one of the stalls where a narrow staircase led up to the second floor of the barn.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“We’re spending the night,” he answered.
Up there the hayloft had been transformed into an apartment. It wasn’t fancy, but it was spacious and furnished. There was a double bed, a couch, a kitchenette, small round white Formica table with two chairs, and I spotted a bathroom. I wandered in to wash my face and scrub some soap on my mosquito bites to see if it’d help take the itch out.
When I came out of the bathroom, Tommy was climbing back up from below with a large cooler and slung over his shoulder was the strap attached to a picnic basket.
“Nita packed us a picnic for tonight,” he said. “Are you hungry yet?”
I shook my head. I wanted to ask him about this place and why we were up here instead of in the farmhouse, but I was still broody. I didn’t want to talk. I didn’t want to be trapped here with him. I couldn’t even begin to process my feelings about what he’d said about my father back there, not to mention what he’d said about how he felt about me. I knew that I’d lashed out because of that but I also knew that everything I’d said was true. He had done all those things to me. He was responsible for all of it because he’d agreed to accept me as payment and because he’d laid a claim on me from the start, playing with me like I was a toy.
But I wasn’t being honest about the acting. I had started warming up to him. But I was also confused about those feelings, too. Did I have Stockholm Syndrome? Was I just a stupid little girl falling for my crush despite who he really was because of Mexico?
I wasn’t sure how to walk the fine walk on eggshells with him. I wasn’t sure how to proceed at living in a world where you could be shot at any moment, in your own home, in your own bed, while you were having sex with someone.
And I’d thought about the fact that if I hadn’t leaned over at that exact moment to kiss him a bullet might’ve hit me. So did that mean embracing this relationship was the right thing? That it was what would save me from losing my life and maybe my mind?
Maybe I’d let him closer to me in the last few days because he’d rescued me from a fate worse than him and because of how I’d crushed on him when I first saw him. And because of the things he did to my body. I was so frustrated right now. I just wanted time alone to think, to process. But that wasn’t an option here in a hayloft in the middle of nowhere with him. He wasn’t easy to ignore.
“Why are we here, really?” I asked finally, sitting on a plush rust-colored three-seater sofa that had definitely seen better days.
He lay on the bed and crooked his finger at me, beckoning. I shook my head.
He let out a sigh. “I wanted us to get away from things for a day, have time alone. No one knows about this place. It’s mine, my safe house. We’ve all got them. I’ve never brought anyone here, but I wanted to show it to you.”
He got up and walked the length of the hayloft to the back doors and opened them wide. It was just a set of doors that I guess was for farm equipment to pull up to and lift hay bales inside, so it opened up to a straight drop. Straight ahead, though, was a huge field of wildflowers and a large pond, “When it gets dark, the sky is beautiful here. Amazing sunsets. Clear and starry. I thought you’d like it.”
“You brought me here to seduce me,” I muttered.
He chuckled. “I wanted to share this with you. I knew I’d get lucky, sure; we both know you can’t resist me. After the craziness of the last few days I thought we’d spend the night, get to know one another better. Get our relationship moving in the right direction. Let my people work on the house, on erasing what happened this morning.”
As if it could be erased.
I sighed. How could I keep my armor up with scenery like this and words like that? Not to mention those bedroom eyes. He lay back on the bed and he crooked his index finger at me again.