Without Doubt Read Online Free PDF Page B

her poor, small hands against each other furiously. I grasp
both of her shoulders to stop her from pacing.
    “ I’m not finished,” she
states skeptically in a tortured voice, looking up into my eyes.
Tears are resting on the brims of her eyelids.
    “ Okay,” I whisper in fear
of startling her; she seems to be in a different world at the
moment.
    “ I live a life that you
wouldn’t possibly be interested in. I have responsibilities and
obligations that made me grow up way too quickly and I’ve adjusted
to that.” She looks away and pulls in a long breath. “Certain
circumstances keep me from having fun. I don’t party. I don’t have
friends; not really, anyway. I go to school and work around the
clock and I have…” She trails off for a minute, seemingly deciding
whether or not to continue. “I have other things that take up whatever time is
left over. Which, trust me, is not much. I don’t know what you’re
looking for from me, but I’m certain I can’t deliver.”
    “ I understand all of that,
Ava, but I very much doubt that you couldn’t deliver.” I slide my
hands up to grip the sides of her neck and allow my thumbs to graze
the bottom of her jaw.
    “ I’m serious, Declan. I
can’t and won’t bring you into a relationship that doesn’t suit you
and I’m definitely not the girl that hooks up. That’s just not me.
Even if I really wanted to just have sex with you, I couldn’t do
you. I mean do it. Dammit, none of that sounds right.” Her big,
round, green eyes are horrified by her confession, but stopping my
smile and laughter is actually impossible.
    Everything about this girl drives me
wild.
    “ You’re not helping your
case any, Ava Sterling. Every time you open up that beautiful mouth
of yours, I’m a little more attracted to you for several different
reasons.”
    Her shoulders drop and she lets out a ragged
breath.
    “ Can you at least let me
decide if some kind of relationship with you suits me or not?”
    She backs away from me before she starts her
short pacing again. “No, I can’t. If I do that, then you will have
me sucked into living a life that won’t last and the only thing
I’ll be left with is a broken heart.”
    “ Do you always say what’s
on your mind?” I hate the idea of breaking her heart, but love the
fact that she thinks I’m capable of owning that much of
her.
    “ Yes,” she says with sheer
confidence, and I know she means it.
    I go to her once again, but this time I wrap
her up in my arms without giving her a choice. She smells like
vanilla bean. It’s incredibly enticing; I want to bury my nose
beneath her ear and breathe her in. But again, I won’t.
    “ I can’t do this, Declan,”
she manages sadly. Softly. “You won’t want to once you know the
real me, all of me. There’s just so much that you don’t know. It’s
a deal breaker, I swear.”
    “ I bet it’s not, but why
don’t you tell me anyway? We can go from there.”
    “ Because it’s not
something I discuss with people.” Her voice is low and she rests
her head on my chest, her arms wrapped low around my
waist.
    I don’t know exactly where to go from here,
but I figure I may as well be just as honest. Maybe it’ll help
change her mind. “I missed you too, Ava. I hated not coming in and
seeing you on Thursday. I hated even more that I didn’t have your
number to call you. Want to talk about obsessive stalker
tendencies? I had to leave my phone in my fucking suitcase so I
wouldn’t be tempted to call the bar to talk to you.” I feel her
laughing softly and can’t help but love the feel of her body
rubbing against my chest and stomach.
    “ That’s not true,” she
whispers softly.
    “ Hell yeah, it is. Ava, I
got off a five-hour flight and drove straight here to see you. So
if you should be committed, then I should probably be
imprisoned.”
    “ Shut up.” She laughs
loudly, looking up at me.
    I’m about to renegotiate some dating terms
with her but just then Dustin, the