Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 22898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 114(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 114(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
“So you’re close with your family?”
He gets the stove burning, and starts chopping everything up, and boils water for a box of noodles. “Absolutely. We’re a bit fanatical about weekly family dinners.”
“Fanatical?” I arch a brow at him.
“Yeah, alright, bad term. Not fanatical like that. But all the kids try to keep in close contact with our parents and one another. Even as life tries to pull us apart with our own concerns, we try to remember how we got here, and try to use one another for sources of support. It keeps us grounded.”
I sink back down into a kitchen table chair. “Must be nice to have a family that loves you and doesn’t just look at you like a bargaining chip.”
He doesn’t turn to face me, focusing on cooking up a storm. Whatever he’s making smells damn good. “Your parents still love you. In some sick, twisted, fucked up way, I’m sure.”
“If their love involves locking me in my room and refusing to let me be a human being, I don’t want it.”
“Yeah, I didn’t say how they love you is right. But if they’re mixed up in a doomsday cult, they probably thought they were protecting you.”
“Ugh. Point is, I’m not going back.”
“And I won’t let them take you back,” he says, looking at me from the stove. There’s an allure to him, and the way he looks at me. I’m fascinated. I’m feeling things for him that I don’t think in a million years I’d feel for Gregory.
We keep talking as he serves me dinner. A teriyaki stir fry dish. It’s fantastic, way more flavorful than anything my mother could have ever dreamed of making. And he cooked so readily too. Most of the men at the compound view cooking as women’s work, and think men doing so is part of what’s leading society to civil war. It was absurd to me when I lived there, and it’s especially absurd to me now.
“…and then Lemon actually shows us all up. Her first shot with the compound bow and she takes out a full-grown buck. When she realized what she did, she burst into tears, and didn’t get why the rest of us were so impressed.”
Mac’s been telling me all about his huge family over dinner, and I love how close they all seem. How loving they are.
“I’m guessing that’s why she’s not here with you on your hunting trip?”
“One of the reasons. A shame, she’s got a dead-eye aim, but it’s her call. We wouldn’t force her to do anything she doesn’t want to, even if she could be some sort of goddess of the hunt. The second coming of Artemis or some shit.”
“That’s a very educated reference for a mountain man such as yourself, Mac.”
“Nothing about being a mountain man means you gotta be stupid. Mom put that Greek myths and fables book on the shelf here for a reason.”
I laugh, feeling nervous because he’s so sweet. I broke into his house and he just turned around and started treating me like a princess. It’s the last thing I ever expected to happen to me and I’m still in utter disbelief that it did.
“Your family seems very close and tight-knit, Mac.”
“You think?”
“I know, I’m stating the obvious. I’m just thinking about how my family technically is too. Was. I don’t know. I saw them every day. We ate dinner at the kitchen table every night. But it didn’t feel right.”
“Every Rough wants to be at the family table. From the sounds of your family? It was the last place you wanted to be. Makes a hell of a difference.”
He stands up and collects the dishes, setting them to soak in the sink. He stares out the window, a beautiful sunset in the distance. I’m soon right next to him, enjoying the sight of it. His arm drifts, coming to my shoulder and pulling me close. Those butterflies inside me kick into overdrive.
He’s done so much for me in such a short time, not to mention that he’s incredibly hot.
I want to be my own woman. I want to be in control. I want everything that my family tried to deny me.
My passions get the best of me. His face turns toward mine, and I lean in and kiss him right on the lips.
It’s absolute magic.
And absolute dread.
What the hell did I just do?
5
MAC
Goddamn, this girl knows how to kiss.
But it’s all too brief.
I pull away, shaking my head. “Aren’t we the excitable one?”
“Sorry, I...” She’s redder than a beet, and sweet as one too.
“You know just because I’m being nice to you it doesn’t mean that I want anything in return. Sometimes people are nice for the sake of being nice.”
“It’s not that. Not that at all. I’m just establishing my independence. It’s not something I had before, you know.”