Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 123(@200wpm)___ 98(@250wpm)___ 82(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 123(@200wpm)___ 98(@250wpm)___ 82(@300wpm)
“Like this?” I ask, pretending to stomp his foot but landing just beside it. Gunnar chuckles, fakes a grunt of pain, and releases his grip on me just enough that I can slip out from under it.
“Just like that,” he replies. “Now that’s when you do something like take those girly nails of yours and claw my eyes out, grab my dick and twist it off, or spray me in the face with pepper spray.”
“I don’t have any pepper spray.”
“Well you need to buy some. Mace, pepper spray, a taser, a fold-up knife. Whatever. Go out with Riley and get yourself something to level the playing field a bit. I’m surprised your last boyfriend didn’t buy you some to put on your keychain.”
“Yeah, my last boyfriend…” I scoff.
Gunnar picks up on this and leans closer. “What was that?”
“Huh? Oh nothing.”
“No, what’d you say?” he presses.
I feel my face getting red. “Um, let’s just say I uh…haven’t had a whole lot of luck in the boyfriend department.”
“You?” Gunnar snorts. “I figured you’d have a whole line of suiters. What are you telling me? You’re like the Virgin Mary over here or something?”
“Um…I guess,” I reply, feeling like I suddenly want to disappear under Harry Potter’s Invisibility Cloak. Gunnar Jones must have had hundreds of gorgeous girls–actresses, models, celebrities–and here I am, the nineteen-year-old virgin who just got catfished by a predator on a dating app last night and assaulted. Talk about a difference in lifestyles.
“Don’t tell me you’re one of those man-haters, Nina,” Gunnar asks, looking me up and down like I just landed in a spaceship from Venus.
“No, I–”
“Or wait. You’re a lesbian?”
“No, I like men!”
“So what’s the problem?” he asks. “Are you like a super-dweeb who’d rather sit in her room watching those weird Japanese cartoons and writing Han Solo fan-fiction instead of going out and meeting real guys?”
“What?” I gasp. “No! I just went on a date last night!”
“Yeah, with a total weirdo who tried to assault you. Come on, Nina. You gotta start learning how to pick ‘em better. A girl like you should have a ring on her finger by now, or people are gonna start thinking there’s something wrong with you.”
I know that somehow this is supposed to come off as a compliment, but I’m having a hard time taking it as one. This is what I meant when I told Riley last night that Gunnar was abrasive and full of himself, and it feels as though things are already starting to go off the rails.
“Okay, um…aren’t you supposed to be teaching me how to defend myself?” I ask. “Because right now it feels as if this is a therapy session and you’re my psychiatrist. And no offense, Gunnar, but you are no psychiatrist.”
Gunnar actually cracks up and points his glove at me. “You know what, Nina? You are right about that. You have to actually graduate high school to get a shrink degree, so there’s no way they’d let me have one of those.”
“You didn’t graduate high school?”
“Hell no! Let’s just say my upbringing had its ups and downs.” He chuckles again to himself. “But you’re right. Let’s get back to it. What would you do if a guy did this?”
The next thing I know, Gunnar is sweeping my legs out from under me, and I’m pinned down on my back with him on top of me. His massive arms flank either side of my head, and his masculine scent fills my nose like an overpowering cologne.
Holy shit.
The thought leaps into my mind as my body reacts in a way I was simply not expecting.
Gunnar simply oozes masculinity and sexuality, and as he looks down at me, grinning with confidence and the knowledge that he has complete control over me, I feel something awaken inside of me that I didn’t even know was there.
This man could do anything he wanted to me, but I know he has restraint and will not. I know he’s holding back, and there’s something unbelievably sexy about that. I don’t know how I know, but I also know that if I were ever in any real trouble, Gunnar would protect me. And he’s the first man I’ve ever known in my life that I can say for sure I know that about.
“So, Nina?” he asks. “What would you do in this position?”
“This position?” I actually giggle. Jesus Christ.
Gunnar chuckles back when he realizes what he’s just said. “Yeah that does sound kinda bad, doesn’t it? Okay, Nina. What would you do in this…situation?”
“Um, I don’t know. Knee you in the balls?”
To my surprise, Gunnar actually nods, impressed.
“See? You’re learning. If I were a big, dumb asshole rapist, then you kneeing me in the balls would be a great first move. It wouldn’t work on me because I have a cup right now, but it would work on some asshole out in the real world. You know what’s also a great move?”