Page 58 of Broken by my Bully
“You’ve never been up Earl Avenue before?”
“Not past Lookout Point. Thought there were only hunting lodges up here.”
I grimace at the thought. I went once, with my dad and uncle, but that was years before the remaining Lees fled Agony Hollow. I didn’t have a choice, and God, I wish I did.
“Not a big hunter. Noted.”
I huff, smiling a little. “You wanna talk about cruelty?”
“Debating the topic of my thesis with a freshman. Hm…” The little hum he makes is both sexy and condescending. “I guess, since we have nothing better to talk about…”
“Jerk!” I punch him on the arm before I realize what I’m doing.
But thank God he only chuckles as he turns off Earl Avenue onto a much smaller street that cuts through the firs covering these hills. The angle of the road changes, inclining even more than before.
We’re leaving civilization behind.
As the trees close in around us, I realize how truly alone we are. No houses in sight. Nowitnesses. Just me, alone in a car with a man who studies cruelty for a living.
The thought should terrify me.
Instead, I press my thighs together and try to stop thinking about the way he grabbed my hand earlier.
“If I see you headed for a hunting lodge, I’m jumping out of this car,” I say, my voice wobbling a little.
He laughs. So wild, so beautiful, it makes me blush. Or maybe it’s the fact that I could make a mature, intelligent man like Bastian Rooke laugh.
“You think I could be that cruel to you, sweet girl?” There’s still laughter in his voice, but he stiffens and throws me a quick glance. “My apologies. That was…inappropriate.”
Sweet girl?
Those words, coming out of that mouth, make my pulse sing in my ears.
He seems to regret it.
I don’t. That was fucking hot.
I’m starting to sweat again. I wish I knew how to turn down the heat in this car. I could ask Bastian to do it, but I’ll stammer or blush. Probably both. So I just turn to look out the window again, trying to concentrate on the glimpses of Agony Hollow peeking through the trees.
Again, my professor seems to read my mind.
Bastian rolls down his window, turns his face into the cool wind that surges inside, and inhales a deep breath.
“I love that smell,” he murmurs. “If they could bottle this stuff, I’d swim in it.” He leaves the window open, and I silently thank him for how it cools the Tesla’s interior.
It’s shocking how quickly the temperature has dropped since I got in.
There’s a definite chill in the air. If you can’t handle the cold, move down to Riverside. Some days the woods felt more like a jungle.
I wonder where Kai lives now. We sent a few letters to each other after he moved out of Riverside, but I’ve never been to his house before. I was too busy working at the convenience store, and my dad couldn’t afford bus fare to get me all the way across town. Kai only got a car late in high school, and even then, he was too busy with his sports or his school work to come visit me.
Except for that one time?—
“Have you lived here all your life, Haven?”
I like the way he says my name. It sounds so smooth and eloquent on his tongue. Not at all how Kai drawls when he says it, like he’s mocking me.
“Uh, pretty much. You?”
