Page 144 of Boyfriend of the Hour

“You need to tell him,” he said as we both stood. “I’m not cleaning up his mess again, and you’ve got catastrophe written all over you. You’ll learn one thing quick about the Hunt family, little girl: we’re aptly named. When it comes to protecting our own, we shoot to kill. And we hit our marks every time.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

REASONS SHAWN VAMOS SHOULD WALK OFF A BRIDGE

#34 he dosnt take no for an ansewr

To my surprise, Carrick didn’t walk home with me, but instead veered down a side street in search of “more fun.” I wasn’t sure what he was looking for at this hour, but I had a feeling it would come with a hotel room. I couldn’t help being relieved that I didn’t have to continue our conversation. I had enough to think about besides trying to act at least a little competent in front of Nathan’s bully of a brother.

It was almost four in the morning by the time I rounded onto Riverside Drive. Across the river, the few lights glimmered off on the New Jersey side of the Hudson. They looked so peaceful. As if they were calling me to join them.

“Reminiscing about the good days, Sunshine?”

The voice startled me as I turned and saw Shawn Vamos step out of a shadow cast against Nathan’s stately brick building.

I stepped back. At this time of night—or early morning—the street was fairly empty. Riverside didn’t get much foot traffic, and while cars still flew by on the parkway, no one else wasaround to see our conversation except maybe the occasional garbage trucks getting to work.

Right now, it was just us.

Every tiny hair stood up on the back of my neck. “Shawn. What are you doing here?”

Shawn shrugged as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. “I wanted to make sure you got home safe. Since yourboyfrienddidn’t.”

I stepped back. Something in his voice didn’t sound right. His eyes didn’t look right either.

“You’re drunk,” I told him. “And probably high.”

Shawn barked a laugh, too loud and intense. “Brain surgeon over here,” he joked to absolutely no one. “What other gems you gonna point out, Sunshine? The sky’s blue? Grass is green?”

“How about you’re a dick?” I snapped.

“You already knew that one,” he said, making a sudden grab for my wrist and pulling me to him. “Never stopped you before. In fact, I think you liked it.”

“Well, it’s stopping me now,” I said as I tried to shove him away. “What don’t you get here? I don’t want you anymore. I don’t care about the tape or whatever else you have on me. I’m taken, and he won’t care about that anyway. You always said you don’t want another man’s sloppy seconds, so keep one shred of your dignity, and let me go.”

“I don’t think so.”

The duffel dropped to the ground as Shawn pushed me against the darkened wall, where he’d been standing before, hard enough that my head smacked the brick, and I saw stars. His hands roved all over my body as he pressed rubbery lips to my neck and mouth.

How I’deverbeen attracted to this, I couldn’t fucking imagine.

“No,” I said as I struggled in his grasp. “No!”

“You asked me what I want,” he slobbered into my ear. “And I thought about it. I said you belong to me, Sunshine. I think you need to be shown.”

“Get off!” I shoved him back, but it did no good. Shawn wasn’t a bodybuilder, but he was still stronger than me.

He shoved one hand under my coat, groping like a teenage boy while his teeth bit into my neck like a clumsy coyote. He smelled like cigarettes and cheap booze, and his breath rattled like it was trying to keep up with a heart beating far too fast. I struggled, tried to kick out, but it was no good. I was pinned with nowhere to go.

It hadn’t always been like this. In the beginning, he’d been sweet. Suave. Careful, even in the back of his car. Fingers that teased, a voice that crooned, convincing me that he was safe in ways no one else could be. That version of Shawn came and went over the years, but it was always in reserve, waiting in the wings to bring me back in after this version chased me away.

It had all been a game, this give-and-take. A ploy to manipulate a young girl the same way a charmer might hypnotize a snake.

And now it made me sick. And enraged.

“Get off me!” I shrieked again, this time directly into his ear.

I was quickly rewarded by a hard slap across the face.