Restored by Kari Alice Read Free Book Online Page A

“I’m never drinking shots again,” she slurred as she faced the bricks.
    Miles helped her regain her upright posture. “Would you like to have a seat until the cab gets here?” he asked, and he pulled her toward the bench without waiting for her answer.
    “Miles, thank you for walking me, but I’ll be all right now.” His features were out of focus, though she could feel his breath on her face. He was too close.
    “I’d feel better if I stayed,” Miles said as he helped Lexi sit down on the bench under the streetlight and took a seat right beside her, occupying her personal space.
    Heat poured off of Miles as he held her tightly, though her protests were seemingly unheard. Cars slowly passed by the bar. Lexi shivered, unable to hold back the chill of the air any longer. Miles embraced her tighter. It was pointless to try and squirm out of his hold. It wasn’t that Miles was being forceful—it was that his touch was unwelcome. Lexi’s eyes distorted the lights of the cars that passed by, and she unintentionally leaned against Miles, her equilibrium noticeably impaired.
    “Lexi,” Miles muttered in a soft tone.
    Lexi tried to focus on him, and she thought it odd that his eyes were squinted and weird looking. Before she realized what was happening, his mouth pressed on hers. She gasped, his mouth still on hers. How was this actually happening? She pushed at his shoulders, which only seemed to arouse him more. Panic built when her attempts at pushing him off seemed futile.
    A vehicle screeched in front of the bar, and its tires squealed. “Lexi!” shouted a concerned voice.
    At the sound of the voice, Miles pulled away from Lexi, which only left her swaying.
    Lexi turned her head to see the source of the voice and was shocked to see Caleb running toward them. His face was flushed as he scowled in Miles’s direction.
    Miles shrunk away and looked afraid as he stood up and began backing away from Caleb.
    “I’ve got her,” Caleb said. It was clear that Miles was being dismissed. When Caleb touched Lexi, her entire body relaxed. He firmly gripped her as though she would slip through his hands like grains of sand.
    The notion crossed her mind that she was actually being handed over as if she were goods. Miles headed toward the bar’s entrance, looking weasellike as he crept back though the door.
    Caleb looked down at Lexi’s bare feet and grimaced. He scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the passenger side of his Lincoln MKC and helped her inside. She reached for the seat belt, but Caleb beat her to it and buckled her in as if she were a child.
    “I’ve got a cab coming. It should be here any minute,” she said, confused by the assumption that she was going with him.
    “No, you called me,” Caleb said calmly.
    “What? I don’t understand…” Lexi rubbed her temples in confusion.
    “Check your call history if you have to, but yes, you called me,” Caleb said, a hint of a smile in his matter-of-fact tone.
    At least she was safer with Caleb than she’d been with Miles, not that she wanted Caleb to chauffeur her at ridiculous hours, but his presence reassured her in a way she couldn’t explain or even voice out loud. It made no sense. Lexi conjured up the image of the elusive Corrine, or at least the image she’d created in her head, given she hadn’t seen her yet. Lexi looked out the window, dazed.
    “So you and that guy? Was I interrupting something?” Caleb asked, his tone unreadable. He turned to face her for a moment and then started the car.
    Why should she have to explain anything when he was the one who hadn’t been around in days? This was how a teenage daughter must feel when her dad found her making out with a boy, Lexi mused. Not that she’d ever known that feeling, since she’d lost her own father when she was only two years old. There was nothing to defend with Miles though. Whatever Miles felt was one sided.
    “Are you kidding me? He was just very insistent to walk me