“I want you to be yourself.”
Myself? Really? That was the direction he was going with?
“You want me to stab you in the eye with that pencil?”
I’d been watching it roll around on his dash and wanted nothing more than to reach out and grab it. It was right there, just waiting to be used.
“Yes!” Preston barked, then scrubbed a hand down his face and sighed. “Look, you can play pretend when we’re around Micha and others, but when you’re with me, I want you to be exactly who you are.”
Was it wrong that I found that kind of sweet?
“I don’t want your fake fucking smiles.”
That made my brow raise.
“Do you want any smiles?” Cause he wasn’t going to get them.
His hand was in my hair, pulling me over to his side of the car before I could blink. My arm swung as a burn tore across my scalp.
“Let me go!”
The really fucked up part came when he sat me on his lap, and my core clenched.
“How’s that butt plug?”
My face dropped. “Great, I can’t wait to shove something up your ass.”
Preston opened his mouth to say something but was cut off when the front door was thrown open.
Ava Whitley came rushing outside with what looked like a flipper in her hand. I cocked my head as she started smacking a thick tree trunk like she was trying to chop it down.
“What the hell is she doing?” Preston grumbled.
I shrugged. Who knew? It wasn’t the strangest thing I’d seen her do.
“Hurry, get inside,” she yelled over her shoulder. “I can’t hold it back much longer.”
Okay, that was pretty strange.
“Is she talking to us?”
Preston let out a breath and shook his head. “Don’t eat the cookies.”
The word cookies never sounded more ominous. I wasn’t about to ask. I didn’t even want to think about what that statement meant. But I sure as hell wasn’t touching anything baked in that house. I may give up baked goods altogether.
Things didn’t get better when we went inside.
I barely made one step through the door before I was engulfed by a pair of arms and smashed into the solid chest of Dean Whitley.
“Logan was right. You are cute.”
Great, Logan Hudson referred to me as cute. All my dreams had come true, and I could die any time now.
“You found a good one, son.”
Dean’s hold tightened to the point where all I could cough out was, “Can’t breathe.”
And yet, he continued to hug me.
