Heartless (Chestnut Springs, #2)

by Elsie Silver

“Sounds like her loss, because you might be the coolest kid I’ve ever met.” She doesn’t use a sad voice, or a baby voice, she just talks to him like a normal human being. “Fucking hell,” I curse under my breath because she just practically hired herself.

All thick arms and broad chest and furrowed brow. Dirty boots. Muscular thighs. Cowboy porn with a frown.

I’ll take a boozy brunch with my bestie and a dirty book in bed by eight for a thousand, Alex.

Older guys. They’ve always done it for me.

I heave the suitcase out just in time to watch them walk hand in hand into my house, and for some reason, I stop and watch. Unable to look away. Lots of people have walked through that front door. But somehow this feels different.

“Beg.” “Pardon me?” “You heard me.” Her lips don’t even twitch. She’s not joking at all. “Beg.”

“Eaton. You grumpy motherfucker. You just laughed,” I blurt. “Yeah, Red. I did.”

“The joke’s on you though. I wouldn’t last ten minutes and just because you’d be quiet doesn’t mean I would be.”

“Life lesson, shithead. Careful who you pick a fight with. Someone insane might love them.”

Willa might be a bit of a psycho—after all, she did just push a child into the pool—but the more time I spend with her, the more I feel like she’s my psycho.

“Keep talking like that and I’m going to fuck the filth right out of your pretty mouth.”

“You heard me, Red. You keep barking at me like that and I’m going to put you on your knees, open those strawberry lips, and fuck your face just to shut you up.”