𝘽𝙤𝙤𝙠 #1 𝙑𝙖𝙢𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝘿𝙚𝙨𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙨 •'¯'•»
Growing up on the rough streets of western Sydney, seventeen-year-old Helena Callahan has always been a fighter. Her philosophy was simple: be sly, agile, and never get caught doing something...
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Reed jumped away from me like I was diseased.
I wallowed in the thick, gooey feeling of pure rejection. What had I been thinking kissing a cop? He probably presumed that I would charge him. I should have known better. This would never work out.
I was just a whore.
A man like Reed would never want a girl like me.
My cheeks felt as though they had caught fire, but I remained perfectly still. I tried to remind myself that he didn't shiver away in disgust when I had first touched him. It had taken him a moment to do so.
I wasn't sure what made him hesitate so long before he pulled away, but I wondered if perhaps some distant part of him wanted to kiss me too.
"Helena, I'm sorry, I can't. . . ." he murmured. "I just—I don't know."
Looking at him now, he wasn't my usual type. Reed was 'the good guy' and he would probably be the ideal perfect boyfriend. God only knew how bored I would get of that. I may not have liked Troy or the way he treated me, but he definitely kept that thrill alive—that spark. Reed would never be able to give me what I wanted or satisfy my need to be promiscuous, let alone the fact that he was an officer of the law. Reed and I were simply too different.
"No. It's all good. I totally get it."
"I'm twenty-seven." He wore that disgusted look again. "Even if I wanted to," he held up his hands in a dismissive manner, "I can't. It's just plain wrong."
"It's only nine years. . . ." I pointed out. Troy was twenty-nine and, hell, most my customers were over thirty.
"Ten," he corrected. "And ten years would be fine if you were eighteen, or better yet, twenty-one." Reed pressed his fingertips to his temples.
"I'm eighteen in less than a week," I told him.
"Helena, you're a sweet girl, you really are, but—"
"But what?" I snapped. "But I'm a whore?"
With gritted teeth, I jumped out of his car and slammed the door shut behind me. I was shaking with anger as I stormed toward Troy's home in long, furious strides.
It was like déjà vu when Reed chased after me, calling my name. He managed to catch up and grabbed my arm in one rough movement, forcing me to face him.
"That wasn't what I was going to say," he told me sternly. His blue eyes blazed into mine with such intensity that time seemed to stand still.
