Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97195 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97195 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
“Oh, my God,” I huffed, but I couldn’t deny that my panties were soaked just thinking about him taking me again, even if we would get arrested—especially fucking in his car in broad fucking daylight.
“So sweet and innocent—I love it,” Christian whispered in my ear.
Meghan grabbed my other hand in hers, tugging me away from Christian. Christian pouted, but she only shrugged at him. “You’re hogging her,” she told him, sticking her tongue out.
He rolled his eyes as Julian laughed. “She’s my woman, Meghan. I think I have the right to hog her.” My entire face turned red.
His woman.
I really liked the sound of that.
“Not when she’s supposed to be shopping with me,” Meghan retorted. “Julian, keep him entertained,” she ordered her husband.
“Trust me, bro, it’s just best to do as she says,” Julian told him. “Meghan and Ally can literally shop until they drop,” he warned.
Meghan led me a little further away from them. “I haven’t seen you this happy—well, ever,” Meghan told me as she smiled at me. I blushed. “He’s good for you, Ally. And he doesn’t look like the kind of man to give up on you when you lose yourself in your darkness.”
I subconsciously rubbed at the scabbed cuts on my arms. “He…” I drew in a deep breath. “He took care of me,” I told her quietly. She squeezed my hand in hers. “When he came to my dorm yesterday—God, there was so much blood. On me, on the floor.” I looked up at her. “He didn’t freak out. He didn’t make me feel like a shitty human being. He just begged me to stay with him, begged me to be his moon.”
Meghan gently squeezed my hand again, encouraging me to keep talking. “And then he took me home with him, and he helped me get cleaned up, and he made me forget about all of the pain for a little while.” Tears burned in my eyes, but I wouldn’t let them fall—not here in front of a bunch of random strangers. “And he didn’t judge me when I told Dr. Gresham about the voices in my head.” I looked at my best friend. “He understands me, Meghan.” I reached up to rub my chest.
“He cares about you—deeply. It’s okay to lean on him, Ally. I know you’re going to have a lot of days still where it’s really dark and you feel like you’ll never crawl out of it to see the light again, but he’ll be there to hold your hand, to walk you out of that darkness. He’ll never let you push him away.”
“It feels like it’s moving so fast with him—too fast,” I told her. “But I can’t bring myself to want to slow him down.”
“Because he’s the one for you,” Meghan said with a shrug. “If it gets overwhelming, tell him. I know he’ll understand. But otherwise, just hold on to him as you go along for the ride. He won’t let you fall off.” She glanced over her shoulder at the two men behind us before she looked back at me. “I’m pretty sure that man is already in love with you, even if he doesn’t realize it yet. He’ll always take care of you, Ally. I can sense it. Let him.”
I sighed. “Is it really this easy?” I asked her.
She nodded at me. “I used to always question how easy it was with Axel and Julian,” she confessed. I frowned. They always seemed to have it worked out. “I don’t know how many times I tried pushing both men away from me. It felt too easy—too simple. Everything in my life had always been so complicated. But they held me with them—didn’t let me push them away. They fought to stay with me. They’ve both helped me out of so many dark holes—like last night. Each time, I try pushing them away. I always feel like I’m too dark, too tainted for them. They’re so perfect, and I’m not.”
“They love you, Meghan. Julian and Axel have always loved and cared deeply about people that are close to them,” I reminded her. “And you’re the most important person in their lives besides Holden and Lana.”
“I know,” she said quietly. She looked at me. “Which is why I’m telling you—urging you—to let Christian take care of you. Because the way that man looks at you? Right now, you’re the most important person in his life. Let him hold you with him, Ally. He’ll be your light when everything around you is so black and dark that you can’t see anything else.”
I squeezed her hand in mine. “I’ll try,” I promised her.
She smiled at me. “That’s all I’ll ever ask of you, Ally. All women like us can do is just fucking try because, at the end of the day, that means we never gave up.”