His Ballerina Obsession: An Age-Gap Instalove (His Obsession) by Gia Bailey

Author:Gia Bailey [Bailey, Gia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Elena

I was a mess. Blundering from one hot emotion to another was exhausting. Rafe admitting to being one of the infamous Luciano family like it was a regular job was messing with my head. Going to the bathroom and getting a threatening text from Hugh revealing that he knew where I lived was too much. I was done.

I observed the man opposite me. Was there anything wrong with giving in and letting him take care of me? I needed help, and I sure as shit didn’t have anyone else. Rafe was too hot for me to handle, that was for sure, and the fantasies that I’d been indulging in were clearly one-sided. He was older than me, richer, and powerful beyond measure. I was a washed-up twenty-one-year-old virgin without health insurance.

The gap between us felt like a chasm. He probably pitied me. The thought made my stomach clench. If there was anything that growing up on the breadline watching my mother beg and borrow money for my lessons had instilled in me, it was how deeply I hated being pitied. We’d survived off charity from our well-meaning but sometimes condescending neighbors when I was growing up, and now, I was fiercely independent. Being paid for and coddled because a sexy, experienced older man had sympathy for my pathetic broken dreams wasn’t my style, but I was all out of choices.

break

Later, I lay in the same bed I had escaped only this morning and watched the shadows move across the ceiling as the hours of night ticked by. What was I going to do if my ankle didn’t heal correctly? Even if it did, there would always be the faint muscle memory of the injury. It would haunt me. I should go and see mum, I thought, turning over and burrowing into the covers and wishing I could disappear forever. The sheets smelled like Rafe. Odd for a guest room.

I sucked down the scent like nectar. I didn’t judge Rafe for his line of work. You couldn’t pick your family. I didn’t worry that he busted skulls, or kneecaps, or whatever for a living. I’d lived in plenty of sketchy places with gangs, and Rafe’s job was a step up from that. He seemed to be top of the heap in criminal terms, and I respected the work ethic needed to get there. Hard work was hard work, and if Rafe dealt with men like Hugh, then I didn’t care. Scary, dangerous men who dabbled in dark things should answer for their actions. It might be the only time a man like Hugh James, with all his rich privileges, had answered for anything.

The thought warmed me enough to fall asleep.

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