Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 155775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Ralen glanced over at Cash. “I’m going to have a shower. Then I’ll call up for some food and drinks.”
Cash nodded.
And then it was just him and Addie standing in the living room. He stared at the sofa bed. “I’ll take the sofa. You go take the last bedroom.”
“Oh, I thought . . .” she trailed off.
He stared at her for a long moment until he realized that she wasn’t going to say anything else.
“What did you think?” he asked gruffly.
Her face grew red. “That you’d maybe stay in the bedroom. With me.”
He shook his head. “Not a good idea.”
“Oh.” Her gaze lowered and he hated that. Her shoulders curved in as though she was trying to make herself smaller.
And he hated even more that he was the one hurting her.
“That’s okay. I get it,” she said. “You don’t want to be in a bed with me yet.”
“It’s not that,” he said.
Her head rose, her eyes hitting his. “Then what is it?”
“Jesus, baby. You don’t think I want you? I want you so much that it hurts. And that’s why I should sleep out here. I’m not myself right now, and I’m not going to be myself for a while. I’m someone else. I’m who I need to be when there are things to do that I need to get done and don’t want to think about. I shut down the rest of me to do those things. I’m not a nice guy right now. I’m not your Daddy or your Cash. I’m the Cash who operates on the wrong side of the law. Get me? And I’m trying to protect you from that Cash.”
“But what if I don’t want to be protected from you, Cash?” she said. “What if I want to know all sides of you?”
He shook his head. “I can’t guarantee that I’ll keep my hands off you. And I’m not taking you for the first time like this. Is it your first time, baby?”
She grimaced. “Yes, but it’s not a big deal.”
Cash raised his eyebrows. “How is that not a big deal?”
“Because I just don’t think it is. I think it’s embarrassing to get to my age and never have sex. Mind you, I could hardly ever talk to men, so it’s no surprise. Who wants someone who can barely speak?”
“I don’t know. I think you’d be surprised by how many people would like that.”
Was he making a joke? Was he coming back to her?
Relief filled her. It wasn’t that she’d been scared of dark Cash. It was just, well, she didn’t want him to be like that all the time. Mostly, she was scared for him.
Addie held out her hand to him. “Please come sleep with me. We can just sleep if you want.”
“That won’t be happening if I come into that bed with you. Go have a shower, baby.”
Disappointment flooded her, but she nodded and walked away.
Cash took a gulp of his beer as he sat on the balcony of the hotel room. He’d grabbed a quick shower in Ralen’s bathroom while the other man had been making a call. The sliding door opened and Ralen stepped out.
He had a beer with him. There was also food on the table, but the girls hadn’t made an appearance.
“What are you doing out here?” Ralen asked. “Why aren’t you in with Addie?”
“Need some time to come down,” Cash said. Or maybe it was come up from the depths of hell he’d sunk to. It wasn’t that he felt guilty over what he’d had to do tonight. That guy deserved it. However, that didn’t make it easier, and he still had to set aside the part of Cash that was a brother and a friend and a Daddy, and become ruthless Cash. Tonight was worse because he hated that Addie had been tainted by that part of him.
They’d left Limpy with a friend of Butch’s, and he hoped like hell the guy was trustworthy. That he didn’t betray them. But Butch had backed him, so it was going to be on him if he did.
They paid him enough not to, anyway.
“Best thing I ever found to come back into myself is sex,” Ralen told him.
“Yeah, well, that’s a certain type of sex, isn’t it? Wouldn’t trust myself right now with Addie. She doesn’t deserve that. We’ve barely even kissed. She’s not experienced. I’m not going to risk harming her.”
“Yeah, I guess I get that.” Ralen glanced behind him into the huge living area of the penthouse apartment. “But it doesn’t mean that she doesn’t need you.”
Cash turned to see her standing there in an oversized T-shirt they’d picked up at a tourist shop on the drive here. Dotty had run in and grabbed a few things with Ralen so they’d have something to sleep in.
All of the tops had Las Vegas written on them. Addie’s was a charcoal gray. It was so long that it came down to the middle of her thighs. But Jesus, that left the rest of her legs bare. He hadn’t paid much attention to her legs before, and he could feel his cock pushing against his jeans.