Breathe Me (A 'Me' Novel) by Jeri Williams Page A

you.”
    “What were you doing?” I folded my arms across my chest, rubbing my goose bumps. The temperature had dropped with the late hour. I watched as he shrugged out of his jacket and slowly placed it around my shoulders, then looked me in the eye.
    “I think you know what I was doing, but if you want, I can show you again. In fact, I can show you all night if that’s what you want.” His eyes had a slight glint to them, and I was so ready to give him anything he wanted. The hot, sexy bad boy was back.
    “I don’t think so,” I said.
    “I do.” He took a step back and assessed me in his jacket. “It’s going to happen, sweetheart, trust me. The way you…” He shook his head. “Just trust me, it will happen.” He smirked like he knew this giant secret, and I wanted to punch and kiss him all in the same breath. A part of me knew he was absolutely right. Fucking Deklan. Even his name was hot. Why couldn’t his name be Eunice or Wilbur, something less hot?
    I was in so much trouble.

Chapter 8
    Deklan
    Fuck! I punched my fist into the wall, wishing like hell it was my brother’s face. He fucked my whole night up. Not that I thought Harley would be back here with me now grinding those nice-ass tits in my chest. No, she wasn’t like the usual piece of ass I would spit a few words to and fuck.
    She was raw, and innocent.
    And real.
    And Matty had to go and fuck it all up, his bitch ass.
    I could see it the first time I saw her. It was what made me turn up at that bookstore early this morning, hoping I’d see her again. After reading that book that hit a little too close to home and seeing her again in the morning, something about her stayed with me. Fuck, it was what made me lie to Matt, telling him I’d be another day due to car trouble, not that I gave a shit about lying to him. I had already swung by the house and saw Mom, who had been napping. I asked the home health nurse not to mention I’d been there. I didn’t want any family reunions just yet. I fucked about town, staying hidden, and went to that bookstore like a bitch with a habit. I went with the hopes she was working, but when I didn’t see her at first, I decided to go check out some books. I was two chapters into some book about a set of twins, one of which had a demon living inside of him—twisted shit—when Harley came in with her tight tank top looking distracted as hell and, though she tried to hide it, clearly upset about something.
    I thought I saw a flash of something in her eyes this morning, when she fed me that bullshit about sleeping wrong, and I sensed something was up. She looked like a sheep in wolf’s clothing. All badass and sexy, but her eyes gave her away. She was as innocent as I wasn’t, and I wanted to know what she was hiding, why she was hiding, and who she was hiding from. I made her nervous, I made everyone nervous, but with her it was more than that. Like she wasn’t used to talking to men and it flustered her. I guess that was why I wasn’t my normal, charming, some call it asshole, self.
    When she jetted out of the store and forgot her phone after I clocked her back—yeah, her fucking back—instincts told me to go after her instead of leaving it with the store for her to get later. I was glad I did; she was walking in a fucking shady-ass part of town that I used to frequent when I lived here. People went to that side to get lost or get into some shit. I didn’t want either happening to her.
    And just when I was about to give her what I knew she wanted, my cock-blocking brother and his loud-ass, perky girlfriend had to shut it down. It was all I could do not to pop him right then and there. And what was this shit about her being a slut? Yeah, I caught all that shade they were throwing her way. Fuckers. There was no way she was a grade A slut.
    No way.
    I smelled the arousal of someone innocent. It was heavy in the air between us when she handed my jacket back to me, and it made my dick stand up and pay