Read Online Beautifully Used (The Beaumont Brothers Book 2) by Susan Griscom - Free Book Online

character as someone else. Of course, I had to be careful and not be too specific in the telling of the tale. According to my editor, nobody wants to read heinous acts like that in too much detail.
    Seeing Brodie standing there dripping with sticky vanilla milkshake only made me remember that horrible time in my life. God, how embarrassing? He must think I’m a complete nutcase. It had been so uncontrollable though. Like someone else had taken over my mind. I didn’t realize it had happened until Brodie was ordering me to look at him.
    The room lit up with a bright flash of light , and three seconds later, thunder boomed through the eerie dark night. I jumped at the sound and wished it would go away. I hated thunderstorms. And thunderstorms without rain? Now that was just creepy.
    The outline of the bed in the dark seemed to dominate the space, making the room seem daunting when the light flashed. The area was small, but I didn’t need much room. Most of my belongings were still in San Diego. All I had with me now were the suitcases I’d brought, and after emptying them, my clothes seemed dwarfed by the wall length closet they hung in.
    My eyes hurt. My head hurt from all the thinking , and it took me several minutes to realize the pounding in my head was actually someone knocking on the bedroom door. When I heard Brodie’s pleas to open it, I swiped away the rest of the tears that had dripped down my cheeks.
    “Gabrielle. Please open the door.”
    “Please go away.”
    “No. ”
    I squeezed my eyes shut. “Why?”
    “Because, I need to see that you’re okay.”
    “I’m okay. Now please leave me alone.”
    “No. I need to see for myself.”
    I didn’t want to open the door and see him without his shirt. It was too embarrassing. What was wrong with me? I’d seen men without shirts before. Lain with men without shirts before, but for some reason, the sticky mess on him brought back all the horrible things from my past that I so desperately wanted to be rid of.
    “Take my word for it.”
    “Come on, Gabrielle. Open the fucking door.”
    I stood up and dried my face on the towel hanging on the back of the door then pulled the door open. “Well, since you asked so nicely.”
    Not waiting for an invitation, he stepped into the room and looked around. The room was still dark since I hadn’t bothered with any of the lights. A couple seconds later, lightning struck out again, giving the room a momentary glow, and I flinched as the crack of thunder quickly followed.
    He walked over and turned on a small lamp that rested on the table beside the bed before he sat down on the edge of the mattress, lifting a couple of the pillows and tossing them to the other side.
    “Just make yourself at home , why don’t you?” I said and watched him look around as though he were looking for something. I realized I was wringing my hands together, so I stuck them in the pockets of my shorts. He had a shirt on, at least. So I was safe there. I don’t know why his nakedness affected me so much.
    “Where are they?”
    “What?” His question took me by surprise.
    “Where are they?” he repeated a little louder.
    “Where are what?” I asked, completely puzzled as to what he was talking about.
    “You know what.”
    “No. I don’t. What is it you want?”
    “I don’t want anything. I want to know where they are?”
    “Again, where are what?”
    “The fucking drugs.”
    “What?”
    “The drugs you’re on. Where are you hiding them?”
    “I don’t have any drugs. Seriously, you think I’m on drugs? Why would you think I had drugs?’
    “ There’s something up, whatever it is, it’s making you act weird.”
    “I’m not on drugs.”
    “Well.” He stood. “Gabrielle, something just happened out there in the hallway and you didn’t seem like yourself.”
    “I … I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “ Yes, you do. You went somewhere. You know it and I know it. You spilled a milkshake all over both of