Love & Hate (Book Two: Love) by JJ Dorn Read Free Book Online Page B

sigh and relax. Holden and I head out to the parking lot. He busily chats about his favorite parts of the movie. I feel bad I didn’t enjoy it more. I give Holden my best pretend smile and continue our chatting.
    When we get to Holden’s SUV he opens the door for me but he doesn’t move out of my way enough to let me get in the car, he just stands there smiling at me.
    “ Thanks for coming with me tonight, Paige.” He beams.
    “ I had a really wonderful time Holden. Thank you for inviting me.”
    “ It’s still early, do you want to go home or would you like to come over to my house for a while?” Oh geez. What do I do?
    “ Oh uh…”
    “ No pressure. I just thought since Millie didn’t really want you to come home until late we could kill sometime at my house.” Damn Millie!
    “ Okay, sounds good to me.”
    “ Great.”
    I watch Holden run around the front of the car and hop inside next to me. We pull out of the parking space and out of the corner of my eye I notice something reflected in the side mirror. I catch a stoned-faced Cutter Daniels standing in the darkness watching our car move away from him. His hands are fisted at his sides and his shoulders are bowed forward in anger. My mind begins racing, wondering if he had heard Holden and me talking. Did he hear Holden invite me back to his house? And worse did he hear me agree to go home with him? A heavy pang of guilt washes over me as I watch the landscape outside stream by. I’m at an important crossroads here and if I choose poorly there will be no going back.

    Holden’s house is your typical frat live-out. The living room is scattered with random items and empty beer bottles. It looks like they found their furniture at a garbage dump. The couch is a hideous floral pattern that I swear my Grandma had in her house at one point in time. There is a couple reclining chairs in the corner that literally have duct tape holding them together. But the topper is on the coffee table where there is a plethora of nudy magazines.
    “ Nice reading material.”
    “ Sorry. I didn’t really think this out I guess.” Holden is a lovely shade of maroon.
    “ Hey I get it; this is a house full of boys. I will consider myself lucky if that is the weirdest thing I see.”
    Holden lets out a laugh. “Yeah that is true. Do you want to see my room?”
    “ Uh sure.”
    We climb the old wooden staircase to the second floor of the house. When we reach the top I notice there are only two doors. Holden takes out his keys and opens the door. He steps out of the way to let me go in his room first. What I see shocks me.
    Holden’s room is nothing like the rest of the messy house. His room is like an oasis in a desert. His bed is huge; it takes up the majority of the room. It is framed by a beautiful black leather headboard and it is made up in dark charcoal bedding. The walls are painted a light gray adding to the beauty of the bedding. Across from the bed is a wonderful desk that looks like something a lawyer would have in their office. Holden’s room is immaculate; there is nothing out of place.
    “ Wow.” I mutter as I take in my surroundings.
    “ Not what you were expecting?” Holden follows me inside his room and quietly shuts the door. Maybe that should have scared me, but I was too engrossed in the splendor of the room to care.
    “ Definitely not what I was expecting.”
    “ Well I’m glad you like it.” He grins at me.
    “ I’m impressed. I’ll be honest I was a little curious at what I would find in here after seeing downstairs.”
    “ Yeah I bet. Do you want to watch some T.V.?”
    I hadn’t even noticed the sleek large television mounted on the wall across from his bed. “Um sure.” Oh crap that leaves only one option for where we will be sitting.
    “ Cool. I’m just going to run downstairs and grab my phone charger. Make yourself at home.” Holden says as he motions toward his huge and intimidating bed.
    I kick off my shoes and stack up some