Knotted (Trails of Sin, #1)

by Pam Godwin

She’s the nexus of my world. A world that goes beyond sex and wedding bells and riding off into the sunset. I’ll ride east, if that’s where she’s going. I’ll drive a sedan, if that’s what she wants. I’ll wear fucking loafers, if it makes her smile. Hell, I’m so in love with her I don’t even need feet. I’ll just float on the high I get whenever she’s near.

No sound. No fight. She’s either too exhausted or too broken. They’ve been hurting her for a while. Violent tremors attack my muscles. Anguish spills from open veins. I bleed helplessness and drown in horror.

928 miles. Two years. It’s not so far, even though it seems like it. Will Lorne forgive me for not visiting? Will Jarret still love me? Will Jake wait for me? Pulling out my phone, I cue up a Rascal Flatts song. Ear buds in, I shut out the world and let the chords of What Hurts The Most carry me forward. It hurts to go to a school so far away from home, but I’m going. It hurts to endure my dad’s drunken temper, but I’m enduring. It hurts to miss Jake with every breath I take, but I’m doing it. I’m missing him and still breathing, and that hurts the most.

I did the only thing I could to protect her. I broke her heart, because I love her.

How strange to engage a man without eye contact or conversation, but it’s better this way. It’s intimate, without making it personal.

My stomach hardens, and I clench my hand, fisting the scar. It’s summer break. Classes don’t restart for two months. I could leave school for a few weeks. How long does it take to kill a man?

She drives a fist into my ribs, and I bite down on my smile. She punches me again, and my dick jerks. Pissed off and worked up, with her eyes glaring and her arms swinging, she’s never been more insanely gorgeous. It’s unreal being this close to her, smelling her and feeling the shape of her curves. My smile breaks free, and boy, does that make her hit harder. Which makes me harder. Christ, I’m a sick son of a bitch.

“I’m not broken,” she whispers. “You don’t need me to fix you. You need me to sit with you in the sadness.”

“The one who believes he doesn’t deserve me is the only one who does.”

I’m more in love with the woman in my arms than my memories of her.