Bitter Hearts (A Southern Loving Book 3) by Ava Thorn Page A

shattered overnight,” he said, intertwining his fingers with hers.
    “Yep,
I moved away from there to get away from everyone, including my parents.” She
scooted closer to his heated body.
    “Why
them…I wish every day that I had my mom.” He lifted her chin up to meet her
eyes. “You only have one mom and dad.”
    “I’m
not good for anyone, I put this happy expression on my face but truthfully the
day my heart was broken bitter toxic poison worked it ways into my veins.”
    “Don’t
let it cripple you.” He planted a light kiss on her lips.
    “Shouldn’t
you be mad?” she asked, sitting up in bed. “We both had a knife stabbed in our
backs by people who said they loved and care about us.  I refused to allow that
happen to me again.”
    “For
weeks I allowed myself to think about their affair, wondering if they slept in
my bed.  I tortured myself with details of their intimacy. I’m choosing to
forgive them but I cannot continue to let resentment and anger consume my
life.” He kissed her again. “You shouldn’t either.”
    “Maybe,”
she mumbled. “I don’t wanna be hurt again.”
    “I
know.” He wiped the tears that fell down from her eyes. “I won’t hurt you,” he
promised.
    “That’s
what you say,” she said, moving away from him.
    “You’re
so fucking cold,” Hank said, getting out of bed.
    Kari
watched as he put his clothes on in a hurry. “We agreed no emotional attachment.”
    “So,
you’re okay with being a piece of ass that only serves one purpose?” he said.
    “I’m
proposing that we be friends with benefits,” Kari said, storming to the
bathroom.
    Hank
stopped putting on his clothes. The shower turned on in the bathroom. Rebound
sex echoed in his head. If Kari was going to give him something to ease his
mind without the hopes of commitment, who was he to turn it down.
    Stripping
his clothes off, he strolled into the large bedroom, opening the glass door he
stepped into the shower that could fit ten people. His arms snaked around
Kari’s waist and pulled her to him.
    “You
decided to stay,” she said in a low voice.
    “Friends
with benefits only,” he slowly pushed into her.
    “Nothing
else,” she moaned before they started round two in the shower.
    ***
    The
next evening Kari was about to pick up the phone to call the Chinese restaurant
down the street, when a knock sounded at her door. 
    “Well
Mr. Jackson, you’re thirty-minutes early and I haven’t even called to place the
order,” Kari said, with her hands on her hips.  She tried not to lick her lips
at the fine specimen standing in front of her; wearing his signature blue jeans
and plaid button up shirt.
    “I
thought we could go on a date,” He held his black cowboy hat in his hands. “I
already ordered our food, we just have to pick it up.”
    Kari
leaned against the door with her arms folded. “We were supposed to have dinner
here,” she said.
    “Have
you ever been spontaneous?”
    “Fine,”
she conceded. “Where are we having dinner at?”
    “On
the back of my pickup truck,” Hank replied, as she gathered her purse. He
laughed when Kari put her belongings back down. “Don’t worry; we’re going to
have fun…the keyword for tonight is spontaneous.”
    “Okay.”
She turned the lights off and followed him out of the house.
    An
hour later, they were sitting on the back of the pickup truck, underneath the
stars, eating delicious Chinese food, and listening to a slow country tune over
the radio. Kari was surprised by how Hank had planned everything out, right
down to the tea candle that flickered in the night air.
    “I
never had this,” Kari confessed, playing with the chopsticks in her hands.
    “Chinese
food?” He smiled, struggling to use his own set of chopsticks.
    “Experiencing…
this…it’s kind of romantic.” Kari stared down at her shrimp fried rice with her
sudden embarrassing confession. When she looked up into his gorgeous grey eyes,
she swore up and down she was lost