Read Online Damaged and the Bulldog by Bijou Hunter - Free Book Online

was being an asshole like my dad. One day, Lark told
me if I didn’t want to end up like Larry then I needed to make real changes. If
I had your life, I’d likely be a monster, but you’re not.”
    “I don’t think you’d be a monster.”
    “You don’t know, Winnie.”
    As my fingers caressed the palm of his hand, I needed
to know he still wanted me. “I have a good family now. I go to therapy every
week. I feel safe because of Dad and the Reapers. I try to be strong, but my
instinct is always to run. When I get scared, I run. When I feel overwhelmed, I
run. If I don’t know what to do, I run. With you, I feel all those things and I
have to fight the urge to run because I don’t want to lose this chance with
you.”
    “I want you, Winnie,” he said with too much intensity.
“I have liked girls before, but what I feel for you isn’t like that. It’s not
attraction. It’s not anything I’ve felt before. Being patient is killing me. I
feel like you’re mine and I just want to take you and make you mine. Fuck
waiting, but that’s just the asshole in me talking.”
    “You’re not an asshole and you’re very patient.”
    “Trust me that I’m an asshole. I behave with you. Not
lie exactly, but I keep my mouth in check like I don’t with other people. With
most people, I don’t care if I piss them off or scare them. Maybe I should, but
I don’t. With you, I need you to be happy, so I’m patient.”
    I placed his hand against my cheek. Dylan immediately
caressed my lips with his thumb.
    “If you come over like this, we can talk alone and
have more privacy. Would you be willing to do that this week, so we don’t need
a chaperone?”
    “I’ll jump through any hoop as long as I land next to
you.”
    I smiled and Dylan shared it.
    “I was scared to tell you about the baby. I didn’t
want you to think I was ruined.”
    Dylan lost his smile. “If you knew how I saw you,
you’d never worry about that. Like how you look at me and don’t see asshole, I
don’t see the things you think. Though I am an asshole and you’re not ruined,
but you know what I mean.”
    “I’m going to hug you now. I feel a little weird and
want to run, but I think hugging you will feel better.”
    “Patience,” he whispered to himself as I leaned my
body against him.
    Relaxing to the sound of his rapid heartbeat, I smiled
at how good his arms felt around me. Even knowing about the Vandals and Jonah,
Dylan still wanted me. He saw me the way I wanted to be seen, rather than how I
saw myself.
    So despite the urge to run and shower, I wrapped my
arms around Dylan. Desire terrified me, but with Dylan, I would learn to
embrace it.

Chapter Ten ~ Dylan
    Winnie was likely sporting a hickey on her neck, but
her father’s irritation was worth it. I loved the noise she made when I sucked
at the flesh. Something between a moan and a gasp, the sound remained in my
thoughts all evening and the next morning.
    I knew she was torn between desire and fear. As we’d
kissed, Winnie both pushed me away with one hand while gripping my shirt with
another. A few times, she yanked away and sat with a panicked expression on her
beautiful face.
    At first, I’d wanted to talk about her feelings. I
also considered sitting in silence while she worked things out. Instead, I
babbled about my favorite TV shows and what movies I liked as a kid. I shared a
story about the biggest fish I’d ever caught and how I was hit by a car and
broke my leg when I was ten. As I babbled as if nothing was wrong, Winnie had
the time to deal with her fears. Soon, she’d relax and move closer.
    Before I left, I noticed a few pictures on the wall of
a boy at different ages. Winnie said the couple who adopted Jonah sent her a
picture each month. She kept most in an album, but those were her favorites.
    With sun bleached hair and icy blue eyes, the boy
looked nothing like his birth mother. Yet in one of the newer pictures, Jonah
gave the camera a shy smile that was all