Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
“Spec will meet us outside.” She pulled Kelsie out the door into the warm night air, then stopped on the porch. “Look, we are a loud bunch, and we get carried away easily, but we mean well and love you lots. There is no pressure here. You can return to your room, and none of us will think any less of you. There is no pressure to do anything.”
She almost took the out. It would have been easier to run back to her room and hide away until the nerves passed and returned to her comfort zone.
But the more time she spent with the Handlers, the more she wanted what so many of them had.
A true partner.
Someone who loved her and she could love with her heart and body. That probably wasn’t going to be Ty. He’d made it clear he didn’t view her in that way, but she knew for certain he at least found her attractive. She’d felt the evidence when she’d climbed on him.
Most importantly, she trusted he wouldn’t hurt her and would stop if she asked.
So, even if she humiliated herself, maybe she needed to take this first step if she ever wanted to find something special like Liv and Spec had.
“No,” she said, straightening her shoulders. “I need to do this. For me.”
Liv squeezed her arm in a hug. “Proud of you. You’re one tough chick.”
“Doesn’t always feel like it.” Especially not when her insides were swirling like a summer storm.
“And yet you’re still pushing through. Strength.” Liv smiled, and Kelsie couldn’t help but return it.
Fifteen minutes later, Spec rolled his truck to a stop outside Ty’s house.
Kelsie sat frozen next to Liv, unable to open the door as she stared at the little house Ty kept so well-manicured.
“Hon,” Liv said in a soft voice that still made her jump.
“Sorry. I’m just…”
A smooth hand squeezed hers. “No worries. Our situations are different, but I understand fear and trauma.”
Kelsie turned her head to meet Liv’s gaze. Spec stayed quiet, letting his ol’ lady have the floor. “How did you get over it?”
“I wouldn’t say I’m over it. I don’t know if you ever get over it completely. But each day gets a little easier and a little brighter. Time helped, and my chosen family really made the difference.” She smiled at her ol’ man. “But mostly this guy.” She leaned back against Spec, who turned her way and wound an arm around her as he kissed her neck.
That. Kelsie wanted that so badly, and she’d never get it if she didn’t take this first step.
She gripped Liv’s hand in return. “Thank you for the pep talk.”
“Any time, sweetie.”
“He’s sitting outside in his backyard,” Spec said as he gazed at Ty’s quiet house.
Liv tilted her head up and frowned at her ol’ man. “How do you know?”
“Lights are on out back. He never leaves them on unless he’s out there.”
Kelsie faced the house. “Thanks.” If she knocked and he didn’t answer because he was in the backyard, she’d have probably left.
And cried.
“Here goes nothing,” she whispered as she opened the door and slid down from Spec’s tall truck.
“Give ’im hell,” Spec said while Liv just grinned.
Her pulse fluttered in her neck, making her lightheaded and almost giddy with nerves and anticipation. The second she slammed the truck’s door shut, Spec pulled away. Now, she couldn’t hop back in and chicken out.
She tried not to let her gait show how wobbly her legs felt as she walked around the well-lit side of Ty’s house on the stone path. The gate creaked when she pushed it open, making her wince—so much for the element of surprise. She’d be lucky if he didn’t greet her with a gun like last time.
“Someone there?” Ty called as she shut the gate with another screech. The damn thing needed some oil STAT.
“Asked you a fucking question,” Ty yelled.
“Um, it’s me,” she hollered back. “Uh, Kelsie. Okay, if I come back?”
“Kelsie? Shit. Fuck. Yeah, I didn’t mean to shout at you. Come on back.”
She smiled, and his deep and confident voice washed over her. Though her nerves hadn’t dissipated, she relaxed a fraction. Being in his presence gave her a sense of safety she didn’t have in any other circumstance, and she loved it.
She rounded the back of his house and found him smoking on a round, cushioned daybed. He hadn’t bothered with a shirt and wore a pair of lightweight gray sweats on the bottom. A white stream of smoke danced upward from the end of his cigarette—nope, that was a joint.
Interesting.
“Everything okay?” he asked, sitting straight and on alert.
She drank in the sight of him shirtless and sexy as hell. After not seeing him for days, she couldn’t keep her gaze from raking over his body from top to bottom. Those tattoos, the muscles, God, he was the whole damn package. “You’re so tan,” she blurted.