Read Online The Duality Principle by Rebecca Grace Allen - Free Book Online
Authors: Rebecca Grace Allen
Ads: Link
life that didn’t look like his father’s.
A life that included a girl like Gabby.
What he’d told her about his first months in Portland had only been the tip of the iceberg. He was a mess when he got here, even more so when he realized his mother wasn’t coming back. He started tenth grade at South Portland High angry and defiant and eager for a fight. Word about who he was and where he came from spread fast, but at the time, Connor didn’t care about the bad rep. He mouthed off to his teachers and wore his detention slips like badges of honor. He got a tattoo just for the hell of it, got into fights with the football players and had their cheerleader girlfriends whimpering out orgasms behind the bleachers. One night his senior year when he got tired of walking into town for parties, he stole his grandfather’s car. Only after he was pulled over and brought back to their house in cuffs did he discover what being grounded was like.
It wasn’t fair to treat them like that when they’d done nothing but support him, but Connor guessed that when you grow up without any limits, you’re constantly trying to find out what finally crosses the line. There was no way in hell he wanted Gabby knowing about all that.
Connor drew his legs up to his chest and hugged his knees. After that night, his grandparents told him he was on his own if he didn’t get his act together. That as soon as he turned eighteen, he was out. The idea of losing the only family he had left in the world terrified him, and he’d done his best to cut the crap. He started studying, started getting better grades and avoiding brushes with the law. He got into SMCC and spent his days working at the shop and his nights going to class. He stayed on there after he got his degree, building up his skill with bikes while reading books on coding and making a couple of low-budget websites on the side. He managed to leave most of his rebel past behind him, but it wasn’t as easy to change his habits with girls as it had been with everything else.
While drugs and empty promises may have been Travis’s way of luring a woman in, seduction was Connor’s. Somehow he’d figured out the right way to smile, learned how to talk softly and look at them in a way that would make their pupils dilate and their nipples hard. He knew what to whisper in their ears, words just dirty enough that they would follow him anywhere. They’d hide in the dark with him and gasp in surprise at the lewd things he liked to do, crying out that no one had ever made them feel so good or come so hard.
And that’s where it always ended. After the last panted breath was where Connor cut things off. He’d never asked a single one for her phone number. He had no desire to spill his soul, to tell his whole sorry story and see the pity in their faces. He didn’t want to become someone’s project or to try to make sex turn into something more. He had no clue how to be in a relationship. How could he, considering his parents’ shitty example? But being with Gabby made him want to figure it out.
It was a shock to realize just how much he wanted her around and not just for a little while. Opening up to her came easy. There was no judgment in the way she looked at him with those big, gray eyes. No, he saw a familiar kind of pain there, something he recognized but couldn’t quite put his finger on. He wanted to know her, to have a chance to be with her, not just have a fling that lasted until summer was up. His only hope of success was hanging on whether or not he could pull off being the Connor he was trying to channel, the one that didn’t have a reputation with the authorities. The Connor that built computer programs instead of engines and didn’t try to get into his date’s pants up against a pier. If he kept acting on his impulses, he was going to lose her. But how the hell was he going to avoid that when she kept tempting out the parts of him he was doing everything possible to rein
A life that included a girl like Gabby.
What he’d told her about his first months in Portland had only been the tip of the iceberg. He was a mess when he got here, even more so when he realized his mother wasn’t coming back. He started tenth grade at South Portland High angry and defiant and eager for a fight. Word about who he was and where he came from spread fast, but at the time, Connor didn’t care about the bad rep. He mouthed off to his teachers and wore his detention slips like badges of honor. He got a tattoo just for the hell of it, got into fights with the football players and had their cheerleader girlfriends whimpering out orgasms behind the bleachers. One night his senior year when he got tired of walking into town for parties, he stole his grandfather’s car. Only after he was pulled over and brought back to their house in cuffs did he discover what being grounded was like.
It wasn’t fair to treat them like that when they’d done nothing but support him, but Connor guessed that when you grow up without any limits, you’re constantly trying to find out what finally crosses the line. There was no way in hell he wanted Gabby knowing about all that.
Connor drew his legs up to his chest and hugged his knees. After that night, his grandparents told him he was on his own if he didn’t get his act together. That as soon as he turned eighteen, he was out. The idea of losing the only family he had left in the world terrified him, and he’d done his best to cut the crap. He started studying, started getting better grades and avoiding brushes with the law. He got into SMCC and spent his days working at the shop and his nights going to class. He stayed on there after he got his degree, building up his skill with bikes while reading books on coding and making a couple of low-budget websites on the side. He managed to leave most of his rebel past behind him, but it wasn’t as easy to change his habits with girls as it had been with everything else.
While drugs and empty promises may have been Travis’s way of luring a woman in, seduction was Connor’s. Somehow he’d figured out the right way to smile, learned how to talk softly and look at them in a way that would make their pupils dilate and their nipples hard. He knew what to whisper in their ears, words just dirty enough that they would follow him anywhere. They’d hide in the dark with him and gasp in surprise at the lewd things he liked to do, crying out that no one had ever made them feel so good or come so hard.
And that’s where it always ended. After the last panted breath was where Connor cut things off. He’d never asked a single one for her phone number. He had no desire to spill his soul, to tell his whole sorry story and see the pity in their faces. He didn’t want to become someone’s project or to try to make sex turn into something more. He had no clue how to be in a relationship. How could he, considering his parents’ shitty example? But being with Gabby made him want to figure it out.
It was a shock to realize just how much he wanted her around and not just for a little while. Opening up to her came easy. There was no judgment in the way she looked at him with those big, gray eyes. No, he saw a familiar kind of pain there, something he recognized but couldn’t quite put his finger on. He wanted to know her, to have a chance to be with her, not just have a fling that lasted until summer was up. His only hope of success was hanging on whether or not he could pull off being the Connor he was trying to channel, the one that didn’t have a reputation with the authorities. The Connor that built computer programs instead of engines and didn’t try to get into his date’s pants up against a pier. If he kept acting on his impulses, he was going to lose her. But how the hell was he going to avoid that when she kept tempting out the parts of him he was doing everything possible to rein
Similar Books
