Whiskey Girl Read Online Free

had, Ausha found herself tensing. For some reason she couldn’t
understand the niceness of his touch. It made her paranoid. She couldn’t help
but wonder what it was he wanted from her.
    His lips were a breath away from hers when
he finally spoke. “It’s because I sympathize with your loss. I want to help
you.”
    He wanted to help her? The mere thought was
so off-the-wall funny she actually laughed as she pulled away from the warmth
of his hand. The sound was far from joyous, and from the look on his face, Doug
was very aware of how much his words angered her.
    “I don’t need your help any more than I
want your pity. Things are fine. I’m doing great.”
    This time when he crowded her, invading her
personal space and damn near stealing the air she breathed, there was nothing
nice about it. The look on his face was born of sheer stubbornness and
determination.
    The palm of his hand didn’t stop to caress
her check. Instead he buried it in the hair at her temple, the opposite hand
doing the same. He held her head still when she would have looked away. Their
position forced her to look at him and really, really see him. The only other
alternative was to close her eyes. It was a way out, but Ausha couldn’t bring
herself to do it.
    “You are so far from doing great it isn’t
even funny, little lady.”
    His words hurt. A lot. It had taken a hell
of a lot of strength and time but she had managed to move on, to make it
through every single mother-fucking day she was unlucky enough to wake up.
Fierce anger ripped through every inch of her flesh. She wanted to tear the
vile man in front of her to shreds.
    “And just who the fuck are you to judge
me?”
    Ausha attempted to extricate herself from
the hold Doug had on her hair, from the heavy press of his hard body against
hers. Somewhere in the back of her mind she half expected Jeff to come to her
rescue. Almost hoped he would. Something deep in the pit of her stomach was
starting to feel warm and alive, and she didn’t like it. Anger was what would
keep her safe. She needed to hold on to it, to wrap it around herself like a
shroud in order to keep the rest of the world out.
    “I’m your tough love, that’s who I am.”
    A shift in his position caused the warmth
to spread, releasing along with it a sense of panic. The feel of his leg
nudging hers wider made it nearly bubble over. When he moved so one of his
thighs rested between hers, his hips against her lower belly, Ausha put more
effort into getting away. He was too close, too warm and smelled way too damn
macho and manly for her to process.
    “Stay still and listen.”
    The growled words were low and deep.
Combined with the instant sting against her scalp as he tightened his hold, and
Ausha knew she was going nowhere.
    “I’ve been there. Not with the loss of a
child,” he added as the hold on her hair loosened and became more comfortable.
“I’ll tell you about her sometime, but right now all you need to know is I
spent a few years staring at the bottom of a bottle. I wasn’t living any more
than you’re living now.”
    Ausha could hear the anguish of memories in
his voice. She didn’t want to know about it. She had no desire at all to know
what type of loss he’d been through, and yet, for the first time in a long
time, she felt the need to comfort someone else. It scared her.
    As if sensing her growing unease, Doug
leaned in, and running his lips across hers, kissed her gently. “It took
someone to put a boot in my ass to force me back into the real world. I’ll
forever be grateful, but I won’t lie, I was a mean son of a bitch at first. I
plan on being the boot in your ass, Ausha. I’m going to bring you back to this
world if I have to do it with you kicking and screaming the whole way. You
deserve to live happy again.”
    The man was for real. Ausha didn’t even
need to speculate if he meant what he said, she knew he did. Not once did he
crack anything even resembling a smile. The crinkles at