Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 104403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
As she reached the front hall and grabbed her purse, the door swung open. Jason stumbled through, making a racket. He bounced off the doorframe, then staggered into the apartment, missing the table as he tried to deposit his keys. They fell to the tile floor with a jarring clatter.
Jason managed a salvage yard owned by his uncle and often knocked off early on Fridays to grab a few beers at a nearby dive bar. It annoyed her to no end how he came home drunk by five in the evening nearly every Friday, but tonight, even his inebriated state couldn’t fully deter her good mood.
“Hey, Jase,” she said as she twirled around, arms outstretched. “What do you think?”
She beamed as she waited for an assessment of her outfit. When they’d first got together nearly a year and a half ago, she’d loved dressing up for him. Jason would always tell her she looked beautiful. He’d had no shortage of compliments and praise, making her feel special and desired. As time went on, those words faded, and eventually, ugly, berating remarks took their place.
Tonight, her confidence was higher than usual, and she couldn’t wait to wow him with her dolled-up look.
He paused, halfway bent to retrieve his keys, and stared at her.
Her grin grew.
Speechless, she’d take it.
Then his eyes narrowed, and his expression turned to stone.
The air in the apartment seemed to thin.
Beth’s stomach plummeted to her feet. “Never mind,” she said quickly as she dropped her arms to her sides. “I’m just being silly.”
“What the fuck?” he said, voice low, menacing, and slightly slurred.
A warning.
“Um… I…”
He straightened to his full height, then strode toward her with heavy, booted steps that had her backing up on instinct. Every thud against the tile reverberated through the quiet apartment.
“What is this shit?” he shouted, grabbing the thin strap of her sundress as he reached her. The pop of threads snapping combined with his aggressive approach had her jolting like she’d caught a live wire. “Benny and Grant will be here in five fucking minutes, and you’re prancing around half naked.”
Stale, beer-laden breath exploded across her face as he invaded her space.
“You hoping one of them will notice? You gonna try to fuck one of my friends right in front of me in my own goddamn apartment?”
Her jaw dropped. “What?” Never in a million years. She shook her head so hard the room spun. “No. God, Jase, how can you even say that to me?”
Words tumbled out at a rapid clip, fear pushing them faster than she could think. “I’m not even going to be here. It’s Rylee’s birthday party. Remember? I mentioned it to you the other day. I told you her friends were having a little party for her at La Rosa Roja.”
The slap came so fast and so suddenly that shock overrode the pain. Her head snapped to the side, and the copper taste of blood flooded her mouth. She froze, blinking twice before the sting made itself known, blooming across her cheek in a fiery blaze of pain and humiliation.
Her ears rang.
Her chest constricted as a sob lodged in her throat.
“You telling me you’re going out looking like this? Dressed like a fucking slut?”
“N-no.” She could feel the side of her face swelling, and a trickle of blood running from her lip where his palm had smashed it into her teeth. “I-it’s just a sundress.”
Wrong thing to say.
He slapped her again. This time, she felt the agony on impact and couldn’t keep from crying out.
“Just a sundress?” Jason shouted again, grabbing her strap. This time, he yanked, severing the material in half. “Look how fucking easy it is to rip this shit off you.”
He grabbed her upper arms and shoved her against the nearest wall so hard her head hit with a loud thunk. Bright spots exploded behind her eyes.
“There’s only one reason you wear a dress like this, and it’s to get men fucking hard. You fucking around behind my back, whore?”
“No. No!”
This had escalated so fast and gotten so out of control that she could barely process the bombardment of shouting, pain, and fear. Her brain scrambled to keep up, throwing thoughts like lifelines she couldn’t catch. “I just… I just wanted to look nice. For the party. That’s all.”
Her voice shook.
Her hands shook.
Everything shook.
Wrong thing to say, again.
He lifted his hand, and she flinched with a whimper. “Please don’t hit me again.” A choked sob left her as his palm slammed into the wall next to her head instead, close enough she could feel the rush of air against her ear.
“Shut the fuck up and don’t even think about telling me what to do right now. No woman of mine is going to go out looking like a damn streetwalker.”
Her heart raced, and she trembled against the wall as she shook her head. “N-no. Of course not. I won’t go. I’m so sorry. I-I don’t know what I was thinking.”