Read Online Pulled Within by Marni Mann - Free Book Online Page A

eyes, in my quivering lips, in my shuddering heart. Other than Brady and Shane, no one had seen me cry since the day I’d gotten my scar. And now Brady wasn’t even here to see this. To hold me. To save me.
    Back and forth .
    I didn’t need this apartment to remind me how alone I was. Brady’s boys were always around and available, but they were superficial. I needed someone much deeper. I needed Brady, and I couldn’t have him. And no one else was here, because people like me didn’t show their wounds easily. No one wanted to see this kind of damage. It was violent and disgusting, dirty and evil. It was destructive.
    It had ruined me.
    My face, my skin, and my soul.
    I tried to control my breathing, to stop the tears from seeping out of my lids by rubbing my eyes over the knees of my jeans. A black smudge from the liner had smeared across the fabric. Brady didn’t have detergent…he didn’t even have hand soap. But I didn’t have time to scrub it out, anyway. I didn’t want the landlord to start mouthing off to Hart because I was taking too long. I’d dragged him into this situation, and it wasn’t fair to keep him in it any longer than necessary. I wondered what he was thinking as he packed my shit into his pristine, gleaming Range Rover. I know what I thought.
    That I was trash, littering his perfection with my fear and my failure.
    Fuck.
    I uncurled my body and went into the bathroom. My eyes lingered in the mirror above the sink. I couldn’t stop staring. My mascara had dripped into my scar. The black mixed against the damaged skin, creating a deep, bruised purple. Like a storm gathering on the surface of my skin. It would have been perfect if this were Halloween. But this wasn’t a costume; I couldn’t take it off at the end of the night and return to the smooth, wanted face beneath it. My scar was permanent, a storm that would never pass. It glared back at me every day. It called out its existence whenever I touched my face.
    It haunted my dreams.
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
    “LET ME BRING this stuff to your new place,” Hart said, moving to the back of his SUV. “I don’t want you carrying it all by yourself.”
    He opened his trunk and placed the gas can back inside that he’d used to fill my tank. It gave me a second to think. If I agreed, he’d follow me to my new apartment and help me carry the two bags and suitcase inside. The problem was…there was no new apartment. And this was the second time he’d asked; the first happened just after he bought me the gas. I’d refused then, too.
    This time was no different.
    “I’ll be fine.” I glanced at the B&B again. It was going to make a perfect spa. It was horseshoe-shaped, which meant the whole backside would face the water. I remembered how relaxing it was to stare at the ocean from Saint’s boat. A vision passed through my mind—a dream, really, of me somehow working in the spa, doing something I loved, with the sea being part of my daily view. It would be a long time before this place was ready for anyone to work here. And even beyond that, I wasn’t willing to spend any more time with Hart than I already had.
    Stupid dream, Rae.
    “Thanks for your help,” I told him sincerely. “You made this morning suck a little less.”
    He sat on the edge of the trunk, his knees spread far apart. One of them brushed against the side of mine. It tingled. “The morning doesn’t have to be over,” he said.
    Sex drizzled from his mouth. He didn’t even have to try. The way his gaze took all of me in didn’t help matters. I knew if I spent any more time alone with him, I would be naked before noon. The tears I’d sobbed on the floor of Brady’s apartment and the fact that I was homeless would be forgotten…until I got back into my car and had nowhere to drive to.
    Spreading my legs for this man would just add to the day’s problems.
    That didn’t mean my desire for him had disappeared. There was a lot of it, actually. And I didn’t think I was