Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 104185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
I tried to sit up, but he pressed me back into the seat.
“Sleep,” he reminded.
When he moved to lie down on his tender back, my gaze traveled down to below his belt.
“You don’t look like you want to sleep.” It was hardly a whisper.
For a moment there was no reaction, no change in his intense expression. Then he gave a lazy smile. “True, I don’t want to. But I need to. It’s safer this way.”
I turned on my side toward him, the exhaustion taking hold now that he’d released the tension. As I set my hand on his chest, I wondered what exactly he meant.
23
JASON
I woke much later than I would have liked. We’d have to stop for more supplies when we got close, and also dinner, which meant we’d arrive near sunset. It’d make it more difficult to check that the cabin was secure.
I grimaced when I brought the seat back to its original position. Sleeping in the tiny car had done nothing to recharge me, and my ribs ached with every breath. I’d wanted to sleep on my side and off my back, but the steering wheel was in the way, making that impossible.
Also making it impossible was the girl still asleep in the passenger seat, her wavy blonde hair covering one side of her face. She looked fragile and unassuming now, but I knew better.
Laurel wielded an inexplicable power over me, the ability to destroy any rational thought.
She didn’t stir when I started the car, and I tried not to recall what we’d done together before she’d fallen asleep. It had helped her but made sleeping more uncomfortable for me. It took forever for my hard-on to go away.
We hadn’t taken off our clothes, and she hadn’t touched me. And yet I’d never been so turned on in my life. I’d wanted to take her shirt off. I’d wanted to take her pants off. But what I didn’t want to do was have sex in the cramped, piece-of-shit car.
My resolve not to let that happen would have crumbled into oblivion if she’d done anything more than hint at that possibility. I wanted her so badly, kissing her was no longer enough.
We weren’t on the road for long before she woke. If she was irritated I hadn’t woken her up, she didn’t make a comment. As far as I was concerned, she could be as rude as she liked. She deserved the sleep.
She rubbed her eyes, sat up, and fished the bottle of maximum strength pain relievers from a plastic bag.
“Your head?” I asked.
She nodded before taking the final sip of her water to wash the pills down. “How much farther is it?”
“An hour, but we’ll need to stop and buy some stuff. Like food and clothes.”
Or she could wear no clothes the whole time. I’d be okay with that. If I had my way, she’d probably never wear pants.
It was a crime to hide those legs.
“Where are we going?”
“My brother owns a cabin near Tomahawk, Wisconsin.”
“Is he okay with us coming?”
“He won’t be there, and he doesn’t need to know about us.” The statement hung awkwardly. Us. I quickly added, “He shutters the place for the winter.”
“Oh.” She looked like she meant, Oh, shit. Three days in a secluded cabin, just the two of us. She realized how dangerous that might be.
“In case we come across anyone, I don’t want you to use your real name. You should pick something similar, like Lisa or Linda.”
“Okay.” She fell silent for a while. “Are you and your brother close?”
“No, not really. Other than our parents, we have hardly anything in common.”
“Older or younger? Any other siblings?”
“Shawn’s three years older, and no.”
She probably didn’t like my short answers, but I wasn’t quite prepared to get into everything. It would happen soon enough, and I wanted to avoid it as long as possible. Every mile that brought us closer to the cabin brought me closer to the conversation I rarely had.
Not even Bill knew.
“Why are you making me feel like I’m interrogating you?”
“I’m not trying to. I don’t really like talking about family stuff.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s complicated.” It came out forceful and she bristled at my tone.
“Families usually are,” she said, turning her gaze out the window.
She had no idea.
24
LAUREL
When we pulled into the parking lot of a big box store, Jason handed me a few hundred-dollar bills and said it’d be faster if we shopped separately.
I found several tops in my size before heading to buy some underwear and socks. At first, I breezed right past the sexier stuff and picked up a pack of simple cotton underwear, but when a pair of pink lace panties in a clearance bin caught my eye, I tossed them in my basket.
I shopped for toiletries next and hesitated when I passed the condoms.
Earlier, I hadn’t wanted to go any further with Jason, at least not in the front seat of a crappy car in broad daylight. Plus, I didn’t usually sleep with someone on the first date, and we certainly hadn’t had one of those.