Free Insomnia (Sexual Misconduct Volume I) by Bethany Bazile

amazing.”
    “Well , I had Ellie as a motivation.”
    “ Who’s Ellie?”
    “She ’s like my sister or daughter, depending on how you look at it. We were placed in the same foster home, and I took care of her.”
    “Didn ’t you have any family to take you in?”
    She shook her head. “No. My grandparents were all dead, and I had an aunt, but she had too much going on to take care of me.”
    “How old were you?”
    “Fifteen.”
    “I ’m sorry you were left alone. That had to be hard.”
    She shifted around, looked at me, and shrugged, a slight sadness in her gaze. The stark contrast of her red hair against her piercing blue eyes got to me every time. I swallowed back whatever it was she made me feel. If I could, I’d purge myself of it. She reached out and ran her fingers over my eyebrow, down my face, and over my jaw.
    Her heavy-lidded gaze fell on my lips as she leaned in. Her lips were soft and pliant, her tongue gliding against mine aggressively. I moaned. I couldn’t fucking wait to get her tongue wrapped around my cock. If kissing her was any indication of what she could do with her mouth, I’d be shooting off down her throat in record time. She broke the kiss and gave me the same expression she always did. Shock and amazement with a huge side of turned the fuck on .
    “Xander?” she asked quietly.
    “Yeah?” I brushed my fingers through her silky hair.
    “What are we doing?”
    “I have no fucking idea what’s happening here,” I admitted before I dove back in, devouring her mouth with the intensity that matched the fire burning between us. If she hadn’t pulled away, I would’ve fucked her right there in the back of my truck, under the moon, with the city lights as a backdrop. But I hadn’t come there for that. I was trying to do something with her that didn’t involve sex. It went against every fucking thing I believed in, but I was building a relationship.
    So I pulled a blanket over us and we spent the next two hours talking about everything except that day . She didn’t seem to hold anything back, and I was convinced she was exactly the person I thought she was.

Who He Is
    Avery
     
    In the two weeks since I’d shown up at Xander’s door, we’d become inseparable. No matter how many times I woke up in the morning and said I would take an off day from him, I’d end up in his bed.
    He opened up to a certain extent. He told me what it was like growing up as the mayor’s son. How much he really missed his dad, and that he was close to his brother until he left town. He talked about his mom like she was the world to him, and he spent most of his days with her. He told me about moving to California and how it took him four years to get a part in a small movie, and from there everything took off for him. He even talked to me about rehab and dealing with the press.
    Xander opened up about everything in his life. Everything except what kept him up at night. I’d spent mostly every night at his place for two weeks, and half the time he woke up in a cold sweat. The other half he didn’t sleep at all. I was suspicious that whatever gave him this insomnia was the same thing that chased him away years ago, because that was the only thing he didn’t speak about, and I didn’t press him. Yet . Besides, I was sure I’d figured out who he was.
    There was a knock at my door, and Matt peeped his head into my office. “Do you have a minute?”
    “Sure . I’m done for the day.”
    He walked in, shut the door, then took the seat across from me. “So you’ve been scarce around here lately.”
    “No , I haven’t. I’ve been here for all my appointments.” I knew it was a playful dig at me being with Xander, so I brushed it off.
    “How ar e things with the movie star?” He wiggled his eyebrows, and I smiled at him.
    “Not as bad as I expected.”
    “I ’m sure you were expecting doom and gloom.”
    “More like heartache and destruction.”
    He narrowed his eyes. “Is your heart