Miles From Kara Read Online Free PDF

hoping a bottle of water would settle me back down.
    I closed my bedroom door and started for the kitchen, only to find the refrigerator already open, its light shining out in the darkness. “Oh, sorry,” Colt whispered from just inside the door. I edged around the counter and stopped. Oh. My. God. My eyes roamed over him like he was a tall glass of iced water on a hot summer day. He was naked, except for a pair of low hanging boxers and an easiness that made my toes curl with want.
    â€œHey, I was just . . .” I motioned to the fridge.
    â€œCan’t sleep?” He leaned back against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. I tried not to stare at his tattoos, at their intricacy. How the tattoo that swirled around the top of his left arm curved over his shoulder, spilling onto his pectoral muscle. And what a pectoral muscle. Sweet Jesus . . .
    I glanced up to find him watching me. “Do you have any ink?” he asked.
    â€œUh, no. No I don’t,” I said with a laugh.
    â€œWhat’s funny?”
    I eyed his arms. “Nothing. I just . . . I’ve always considered them, you know, tacky.” I cringed at my words. I shouldn’t have admitted to that.
    I waited for him to get offended or angry, but instead he burst out laughing. “You’re different, ya know? Whatever you think just comes right out. I bet you can’t control it, can you?”
    I thought about the question. “I’ve never really wanted to. My parents have always acted very different from how they truly felt. It’s so fake. I just try to be honest, when I can.” I looked away. There was plenty I was faking, too. I shouldn’t judge. I wasn’t so different from my parents. The thought made my chest hurt. I didn’t want to be like them.
    â€œWhy do you like tattoos so much?” I asked, moving the subject away from me.
    His gaze dropped to the tattoo on his right arm. It was the simplest of all, only a dove with the word SOAR above it. “I got my first when my mum died two years ago. It made me feel better at first, but then the bad returned, so I got another and another. It took me awhile to realize they weren’t going to bring her back.”
    I didn’t know when I had moved, but suddenly I stood mere feet away from him. An arm’s length. His gaze penetrated through me. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, the moment too raw to speak any louder.
    He shrugged. “She’ll be right.”
    â€œIs that why you moved here? To live with your dad?”
    His expression darkened and I could tell I’d crossed a line I didn’t know was there.
    â€œI’m sorry,” I repeated. “It’s none of my business. I just . . . sorry.”
    â€œNo worries. My dad’s just a wanker.”
    I nodded. “Yeah, I know the feeling.”
    Colt took a step in my direction. “Can I ask you a question, Kara?”
    My eyes drifted up to his. He was so close now, close enough that I could smell his woodsy scent. Most guys smelled like cologne or soap, but Colt was all earthy. All male. It was too much. “Maybe,” I said, unwilling to offer more.
    â€œWhy do you stay with him?”
    Of all the questions I expected to hear out of his mouth, that wasn’t one of them. It was the one question I couldn’t answer, even to myself. I drew an uncomfortable breath and shook my head, my gaze finding the floor. “What do you mean?”
    Another step. “You know what I mean.”
    â€œWhy do you care?”
    He paused, his arms still at his sides, his heart beating noticeably in his chest. “I don’t know.” Our eyes met, and in his gaze I saw the same war that brewed in my heart. This wasn’t right, yet I couldn’t keep myself away. The moment drew on, an electric charge building all around us. Every nerve in my body ached to close the distance between us, to see