Out of Control (Untamed #2) by Jinsey Reese, Victoria Green Read Free Book Online

anymore.
    That was my parents’ world—as long as you were willing to pay enough, you could just snap your fingers and get a list of wishes fulfilled in a single day. Any problem could be solved in the time it took to sign a check. Hell, with my father’s money, he could even make the problems vanish. Like that .
    He’d even done it with things I didn’t necessarily consider problems.
    As if on cue, the pocket of my jean jacket shuddered as my phone vibrated. I didn’t even bother looking at it. I knew what awaited me. There were a couple of texts from Archer—the closest friend I had, but most of the buzzing was due to the countless voicemails I hadn’t listened to yet—every single one from my parents. I’d left a parting note for them that explained my intentions for the summer, packed my bags, and gotten into a car to the airport. No goodbyes. Nothing.
    They never would have let me leave if I’d told them what I was doing, that I was choosing my own path for once. They would have found a way to blackmail me into staying. They always did.
    Right now, the only way to truly make it was to do it on my own, using my own money. And it looked like I was going to have to do this the hard way—one single, slow day at a time.
    “Cecily Annabelle Edwards,” a woman’s sharp voice cut into my thoughts and I looked up to see a mother and her three children coming out of a fenced-in schoolyard. The two older ones crossed the sidewalk in front of me and marched straight into the Bentley waiting at the curb, but the smallest girl had frozen at the sound of her name. The woman gripped her arm and pulled, causing the child’s face to twist in pain.
    “A lady does not ever sit on the floor, Cecily.” She spat out the words as she dragged the child toward the open car door, the little blonde girl’s perfectly polished Mary Janes scraping the pavement as she tried to keep up. “What will people think? Only the homeless sit on the ground.”
    “I was just playing, Mama.”
    “I couldn’t care less what you were doing. Your father and I do not pay good money for you to attend a prestigious American school and embarrass us by acting like some uncivilized degenerate. When will you learn?” She pushed the girl into the car, stepped in herself, and shut the door.
    Chills ran down my back. The woman had been coiffed to perfection. Her clothes were expensive and immaculate. Her tone cold and harsh. She was my mother. A carbon copy.
    I watched the car pull out into traffic, saw the little girl’s face—heartbroken, ashamed—as it went by. She looked at me with big doe eyes and I smiled sadly, hoping she’d know that someday it would be okay.
    Someday. Yes.
    But someday could be a lifetime away.

    After a full afternoon of traversing Paris and taking note of a few possibilities for Sabine’s gallery, my feet ached and my bruised knees were sore.
    And I still had to unpack all my stuff in my new apartment.
    When I’d come out of the bathroom that morning, cooled off and calmer, I’d found Dare in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee. He just looked at me as I stood in the doorway, not speaking, not offering me anything. Not even a cup of tea.
    Once upon a time he would have had a steaming mug waiting for me.
    Obviously, the fairy tale had ended. Without the happily ever after. And I was stuck standing in the doorway still pissed, but needing his help.
    Fuck. Me.
    “Okay,” I’d said.
    He raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.
    “I want the apartment.” What I really meant was, I NEED the apartment. But part of me didn’t want to admit just how desperate I was for Dare’s help. Not after the way he’d acted. I crossed my arms and noticed his gaze flick to my chest. Which just made me think of last night and spawn a whole new set of knots in my stomach. I did not want to be thinking about last night. Ever, if I could help it. “So who do I need to talk to?”
    He put his cup down on the counter and motioned for