Climbing the Ladder Read Online Free PDF Page A

pretended to be her friends.
    “No. No, you just don’t understand.”
    “I don’t understand what? That I’m a stupid girl who listened to my crotch instead of my
    head? I know. They know. Everybody told me.” In fact, that information had been clearly passed to her when she’d told them she’d eloped.
    Kody looked so hurt. Like he had a right to be, in fact. It was maddening.
    “Look, you want Kody, right?” When Mesa nodded, she did too. “Good. Take him. I’ll
    go home. Simple as that. Have a nice life. Don’t call me.”
    “So you won’t even fight for him?” Mesa raised a brow. “You really care, huh?”
    She’d loved Kody more than she’d believed she could love anyone, not that that mattered
    right now.
    Kody bristled, bumping chests with the big guy. “Mesa, that’s enough. She’s the innocent
    one here.”
    She stood up, refusing to cry. “Get out of my way. I need to pee.”
    “I’ll take you.” Mesa glared at Kody, shook him a little. “There’s no guilty party here,
    baby. No one has done anything wrong.”
    “I will not go with you.” She was going to throw up, her head hurt so bad. “Get out of my
    way.”
    “No.” Kody moved, and Mesa touched her arm. “You’ll come with me.”
    She shook her head, a weird pressure inside her. “Don’t…”
    “Just breathe, Sam.” He met her eyes, his dark and serious, somehow mesmerizing.
    “Come with me.”
    “Kody?”
    “It’s okay. He’s not going to hurt you. I swear.”
    “My head hurts.”
    “I know.”
    “I’m just going to keep you safe, Sam. I promise. No one will hurt you.” Okay, she could
    see how this guy had convinced Kody to make with the kissing. He was convincing.
    “I have to go.” Now. She was starting to get a little hysterical.
    “Come on.” Mesa pulled at her, took her outside. All she could hear in her head was,
    don’t run .
    How stupid. Of course she should run.
    She should.
    But she didn’t.
    She went behind a set of trees, peed, cried a little, thought very hard about throwing up.
    “No puking. Come on, Sam. Come talk to us.”
    “I just want to go home.” Have a glass of wine and a hard cry into her pillow.
    “Me, too.” He sounded so wry.
    “Okay. It’s a deal. You go, I’ll go.” She wanted to lick her wounds a little, in private.
    He laughed a little, and the sound shivered right down her spine. “Come on, Sam.”
    “Look, just be straight with me. Are you two planning on killing me or something?”
    “What?” He seemed genuinely surprised, actually stepping back a bit. “No. God, no.
    Kody is just freaked out, and you have no idea…” He ran a hand through his shock of dark hair.
    “No one is going to hurt you.”
    She didn’t think that last was true. She was pretty hurt already. “Okay.”
    Mesa moved closer, his hands on her shoulders. He kissed her forehead, his lips warm in
    the cool night air.
    It was like a jolt of electricity, straight down her spine. “You…”
    “Shh. There’s so much you have to learn, love. Just breathe, remember?”
    “You kissed me.” She blinked at him.
    “I did. I’d like to do it again, but Kody is waiting.”
    “You can’t kiss me. I’m married.”
    “So is Kody.” He squeezed her shoulders. “Back to the tent, Sam.”
    “No. No, I don’t want to. I need to go home.”
    Kody came out, sniffing as if he had a cold. Not that she cared. “Sammy? Please. Just
    listen?”
    She stepped away from both of them, that headache pounding on her. She didn’t let on,
    though. She crossed her arms and stared. “So? Talk.”
    “Mesa and me, we grew up together in the Clan. We were pups together, in each other’s
    pockets. When I became an adult, I had to get away. I couldn’t stay there any more and just wait to…I don’t know. I just don’t, but the universe was calling to me, telling me to find you.” She arched an eyebrow, but Kody kept going. “No, really. And I did. I left. I came all the way here for you. Then Mesa