Bouncing Betty by Liliana Hart

Bouncing Betty by Liliana Hart

Author:Liliana Hart [Hart, Liliana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 7th Press


Chapter 5

I didn’t sleep that night.

Partly because of Graham. He continued to come to me during the night, and it felt like he’d always been in my life and in my bed. I’d heard sayings about relationships that burned hot and fast and that they eventually fizzled, but I’d never known anything else. It was the hot and fast that made life interesting. But with Graham, there was part of me that could imagine feeling his weight on the other side of the bed night after night. But I was hesitant to let myself get too hopeful.

I knew my relationship with James Walker had been wrong, but he’d made me feel…special. He gave me attention and doted on me and showered me with gifts. He hung on to my every word like it was the best thing he’d ever heard. And our flame had burned so hot and fast I hadn’t stopped to think what we might be lighting on fire along the way.

I’d had interest from men from the time I’d grown breasts, and I’d learned to flirt and pretend I was interested and impressed by what I saw in the opposite sex. My mother had been an excellent teacher in that regard. I’d perfected my techniques until I’d found a man who caught my fancy—a man who knew a thing or two—not a boy who’d be fumbling around like a fool. I’d enjoyed feeling special—even as short-lived as it had been—because I’d realized up to that point that I’d never felt special. And worse, I’d never believed I was special.

Growing up in Whiskey Bayou had been hard. Everything was lacking—from supplies to education—and I guessed I’d been lucky that I had a natural aptitude for numbers, otherwise I wouldn’t have spent a lick of time in a schoolroom or with tutors like most of the other girls my age. That had been the only thing I could think of that my father had done right. And even that, he’d done for his own benefit. I made him money, so I was worth something to him.

When James Walker had come along, he’d made the other men I’d let catch my eye seem like amateurs. But he’d ultimately been my destruction, and he hadn’t even bothered to say goodbye when I’d been so hastily put on the first ship to France.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to feel anything for a man after James. He’d broken my heart, and I’d vowed to never give that much of myself to another man again. But where James had been smooth talk and cool sophistication, Henry Graham was rough and tumble and unpolished. His brain worked at a speed I felt matched my own and he was quick-witted and sharp-tongued. While James had fawned over me and treated me as something delicate, Graham treated me as an equal. It was an entirely different feeling. And my feelings for him were entirely different than they’d been for James.

We hadn’t known each other but for days, yet I felt as if I’d known him forever.



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