Free Because You Want Me (Falling for You, Book One) by Ava Claire

this dream, I knew exactly where to take her. Brentwood Winery was my favorite in the area and I wanted their delicious wine to coat her tongue; I wanted her to see that beauty and escape were within reach. Most of all, I wanted her to see that I was willing to do anything just to make her smile.
    That was my first mistake.
    My second was jokingly suggesting we swing by and meet my parents.
    And then she said yes—and I realized that this wasn’t a joking matter at all.
    I leaned back, trying to exude a confidence that usually came to me naturally. “It should be fairly uneventful. My father will be in his wing, under lock and key. The likelihood of him summoning us for a meeting is nil. My mother will treat you like a long, lost friend that’s finally come home.” I could picture the hug, my mother’s thin arms wrapping around Penny like a python, squeezing the life out of her. “And my sister-” I stopped cold, my hackles immediately raising. Marie was a lot of things: vapid, ungrateful, indulgent, and a professional liability, but one thing she was not was overly nice. If my mother dialed up the congeniality meter to 10, Marie would dial it down to zero and skip right to treating Penny like she didn’t exist at all. “Let’s just hope my sister is out spending money she didn’t earn.”
    “And I thought me and my sister had issues,” Penny whistled.
    I let her gaze pull me in and instead of shrugging it off, I owned up to my comment. “I have two years on my sister, but you’d think it was two decades.” My head told me that this was all too much, that she couldn’t possibly want to hear about my sibling drama, even if she could relate to feeling completely alienated from your own blood. My heart couldn’t help but share. There was something disarming in the way she searched my face like she was ready to shine a light to pierce all my dark memories. “When I was growing up, my father told me about the importance of hard work. I received constant reminders of how he put blood, sweat, and more blood into Wade Enterprises. My sister got hugs and kisses and if at first you don’t succeed, just bat your eyes and I’ll fix it for you.”
    “I’m sorry, Xander,” she said softly.
    I let out a rumbling sigh as I shifted in my seat and aimed my ire out the window. I ignored the sympathy I felt coming from her. I felt like I was whining, and men didn’t whine. “It is what it is.”
    “You don’t have to do that with me. I know about not being seen by your family,” she murmured. The melancholy in her voice was the same loneliness I refused to name. It was easier to shove it to the dark recesses of me, throw myself into my work, and avoid it altogether.
    I tilted my head in her direction, expecting to see sadness. Ready to take it head on and let her know that I’d learned not to go there, but she didn’t need my comfort. I saw the fight in her that had sparked back at the club. I saw determination.
    “It would be easy to run from it all. I’m really good at running.” The sweetheart line of her lips hardening to stone. “Every time I run away, like I did this afternoon, I just give that scared little girl power over me. And that’s far more terrifying than anything they can throw at me.”
    I stared at her, past the beauty, the white hot sex appeal that first drew me to her...and I saw the woman beneath. The one that didn’t need me to whisk her away to a winery because her family didn’t appreciate her. She didn’t need saving at all.
    She dropped her chin to her chest, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. “I’m not saying that you’re wrong to feel that way about your dad and sister-”
    I brought my lips to hers, the kiss silencing her fears and soothing my own. I held onto her lips, only letting go when her hand dropped to my crotch.
    “Penny Robertson, I’m beginning to think you only want me for my body,” I smirked against her mouth. The kiss alone was enough to make me wish I