Read Online Step Submission (Billionaire Bareback Steamy Taboo Romance) by Nikki Wild - Free Book Online Page A

keeping you sane for six years.
     
    Kennith’s hand on my shoulder startled me, but a moment later, the warmth from his palm eased my nerves as well. I looked over at him for the first time since he’d picked me up from the facility, his big brown eyes still and deep like hot whiskey.
     
    “Your old room’s still available,” he said, his gaze never faltering from mine. “Or you can pick a new one. Whichever you’d like.”
     
    I felt my muscles relax. So, it was just the two of us. That was better than the alternative.
     
    I looked again at the house that haunted so many of my dreams. Even my waking thoughts easily stole back to this place, with its windows like empty eye sockets and pillars like bleached bones standing on end. They bordered a gaping maw of a door, and despite Kennith’s assurances, I felt that prickling sensation roll down my spine again.
     
    “Come on,” he said when I didn’t move. He opened his door and scooted across the seat, taking me by the wrist and forcing me to follow.
     
    The world seemed cripplingly expansive. There was so much air out here, so much room , a far cry from the building I’d spend half a year in. Even the outdoors had been confined back there. I’d forgotten how big the world was outside of those walls, and now it was overwhelming.
     
    I stayed close to Kennith’s side as he led me up the front steps while the driver hung back to retrieve my bags from the trunk of the car. I hadn’t carried much with me to the rehab facility—there hadn’t been much time to gather my belongings, and anyway, there wasn’t much I really wanted other than the sweet taste of liquor and the man who had driven me to it. In those last months, I’d spent more time in the arms of vodka or whiskey than I had in Caleb’s, and I found its embrace far more comforting than his, anyway.
     
    And yet, in many ways, Caleb was also an addiction. Being with him was being high, so high that there was nothing but a void and him and me. He was the twinkling stars, the shining moon, the atmosphere far below. But he was also the lack of air, the crushing cold of dead space, and the weightlessness that let me know if I were to let go of him, even for an instant, I’d drift into nothingness forever and ever—or come crashing down to Earth again, burning up on impact, my ashes scattering over the world we’d left behind.
     
    That was exactly how it felt now. It felt like I was floating, alone in the dark, not knowing if I would go on forever like this or if I would someday get pulled into orbit and fall, fall, fall…
     
    Kennith stopped at the door. He smiled at me. His brown, soulful eyes seemed sad, though, almost like he didn’t know who he was looking at anymore.
     
    “Things have… changed while you’ve been gone,” he said at last. “The house looks different.”
     
    I scowled, even though I didn’t want to. “I’m a big girl. I won’t shatter into a thousand pieces just because you’ve rearranged some furniture.”
     
    “I know you won’t,” he answered with a soft frown. “I just didn’t want you to be shocked. That’s all.”
     
    I nodded, drawing in a deep breath through my nose to quell the inexplicable frustration inside of me. There was no good reason for it. Kennith had been nothing but supportive for my entire stint. He’d called me whenever he could, even on the days when I couldn’t bear to call him back. He’d arrived on visiting days, even the ones where I was too pathetic to do more than sit and watch the community television with him. And he’d picked me up and brought me here to the home we’d grown up in, a home I supposed was now his, judging by its emptiness.
     
    “Evie,” I muttered, her name floating back to me through the haze of time. “Doesn’t she live here with you?”
     
    Kennith shook his head. “That ship has sailed. I keep forgetting you’ve been away for so long. Come on inside, and I’ll help you catch up.”
     
    I