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He chuckles and nuzzles his nose into e beast, I suppose"

My heart glows at hearing hi unhappy My ht off the wolves for him, but another instinct tells me that his wolves are all on the inside, not out

"Aard segue alert"

His chest shakes with suppressed laughter "Okay Go"

"The lawsuit you’re in, the one I overheard you talking with soer?"

He nods "She’s suin’ asp, he’s quick to add, "I’ht not be a pillar of h to steer clear of adolescents"

"I know I believed you before when you told me it wasn’t true How old is she?"

"Sixteen"

"Oh my God! She’s a child!"

His voice turns dry "You wouldn’t say that if you saw her picture Or got a look inside herWants attention, kno to get it"

"I think you’d better just tellup soht now, Cah my hair as he speaks "The story, to put it in a nutshell, is that I’ dumb bulls-eye I’ve done myself no favors with the way I act--drunk and disorderly, ’ history, so to speak My barrister thinks it’s a miracle I haven’t seen ly dark "Luckymy breath, until he continues

"I had a party at my house I was always havin’ parties Havin’ people around makes me feel better Lessantsy My house was always filled with people Friends--if you could call theers, whoever"

I think of the strip poker party he had the first night we irl he picked up in a bar, and shudder to think ould’ve happened if I lived on a different floor and we’d neverher unborn child here, too

Maybe truthfully this tis his sister She looks twenty, at least Full ets wild By three am, I’m passed out on the lawn in the backyard When I wake up in the one except this girl, who I find cryin’ in , she says her brother left and she has no way home So, idiot me, I offer to drive her And that’s it That’s all I did: drove her hoot a visit from the police, anted to discuss how I’d like to plead to sexual coercion under the Sexual Offences Act"

I’ood idea after all "So she claimed the two of you had sex?"

"Aye I was drunk, but I bloody asn’t drunk enough to forget that I never saw her after she first caal team interviews everyone from the party, and it turns out no one can corroborate her bein’ near me at any time Because there was no physical evidence, either, and she had no witnesses to back up her story, the charges weren’t filed But by then the news had picked up the story I was called everything from a child molester to a rapist"

He pauses to draw a breath The tension in his body radiates off him in waves "That kind of stink doesn’t wash off"

"Oh, Cam That’s awful"

"That’s not even the worst part Two nant and files a paternity suit against me"

"But all it would take would be a DNA test to prove you’re not the father!"