Unleashed: Declan & Kara (Unleashed #1-4; Beg for It #1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

son’s
shoulder, one arm around mine.
    We’d taken one that
afternoon at the pep rally at school. Technically, spring sports were
track and softball, but they didn’t exactly draw the crowds. Our
football and basketball teams were a different story, though. Pretty
much the whole town turned out for their games, which I know wasn’t
saying too much for a town of 2,700, but we made the most out of what
we had. And we certainly knew how to party. Our football team had
made it into the state championships earlier that year and the whole
town was still high off of it. We kept making up excuses to cheer and
rally and bring the boys back into the gym, even if this time it was
in the name of finishing up the school year.
    That’s why I was in
my cheerleading uniform that afternoon. We’d bounced out into the
gym and gotten the crowd all hyped up, given everyone a chance to
scream and shout. But it wasn’t as if I was going to wear my
uniform out to the lake. I needed to change.
    I pulled up by the side
of the house pretty quick. The dust billowed out from the tires of my
truck. Daddy was always telling me to slow down, saying I was going
to break my neck one of these days. But I knew those old country
roads like the back of my hand and nothing felt better than ripping
around on them, windows rolled down, wind in my hair, tunes blasting
from the radio as I tapped on the steering wheel and sang my heart
out.
    As the dust settled, I
realized Daddy was standing out by the house. And he wasn’t alone.
    You know how I said
time was funny? Sometimes it speeds up real fast but other times it
stretches out slow as molasses. Well, when I stepped out of that
truck and got a good look at the man standing next to my father, time
just about stopped.
    He was long and lean,
slim hips and strong shoulders, so sexy and rugged. He stood with one
hand in the pocket of his jeans, watching me underneath the brim of
his cowboy hat with heavy, low-lidded eyes. There was something about
him, some kind of dark and powerful magnetism that made me forget to
breathe.
    I’d probably seen one
too many old movies. My dad and I loved to stay up late with a bowl
of popcorn and watch black and white classics. When I looked at him,
I saw James Dean in a black leather jacket, a cigarette hanging out
the side of his mouth. I half expected him to have a motorcycle
nearby. He’d straddle it, look over his shoulder and give me the
nod to come along. I’d jump up next to him, pressed in close in a
hot second.
    “Kara, when are you
gonna slow down?” My daddy waved his hand through the air, real
theatrical over the dust.
    “I was going the
speed limit, Daddy.” For the Interstate. I batted my eyelashes.
    “Don’t you give me
that innocent look.” But he was smiling at me. I had him wrapped
around my pinky finger. But I didn’t take advantage of it. Much.
He’d had it rough, losing my mom in childbirth with me. We were all
either of us had, so we took care of each other. And I sometimes gave
him a splitting headache with my music and acted like a pain in the
rear staying out too late. But I was a teenager, after all. It was
practically written into my contract to be a problem every now and
then.
    “Come on over here
and meet Declan. He’s going to be helping us out through the
summer.”
    I walked toward them
and he watched me, leaning against our house with one big boot up
against the shingles like he owned the place. Under his gaze I walked
unsteady on my feet in my own yard. I felt so excruciatingly
self-aware, my bare legs, the tiny skirt of my silly uniform. I
wished I’d already changed before I met this guy. It seemed so
juvenile, like I’d been caught playing with my old Barbie dolls.
Cheerleading suddenly seemed so… high school. He looked like he’d
traveled to faraway places I’d never heard of and though he didn’t
really look that much older than me he seemed like he already
understood more about life than I ever would. Somehow he