Reborn by Hailey A Fowler (have you read this book txt) 📖

me, setting the muscles in my left shoulder on fire. I dropped to the floor grabbing my shoulder and groaned. Jessie was at my side in less than a second resting a hand on my back.

"Please Taylor, just rest for now, your wound isn't completely healed yet."
I nodded and he scooped me right off the floor and laid me softly on the bed. I couldn't help but blush, I'd never been treated this way.

I looked up at Jessie and noticed he hadn't let me go yet and was looking down at me.

"Your eyes, they're even better than I expected." He let me go, walked across the room and scooped up a near by mirror then handed it to me. I had to suppress a gasp. My eyes were a blue just like Jessie's but had gold lines running through them from the pupils out towards the whites of my eyes that looked like gold lightning. That wasn't all that had changed, my hair was softer, as well as my skin. Unwelcome tears stung my eyes, I was beautiful, I didn't look like me and I was scared. Jessie hugged me, I should have pushed him away, he was my captor right? I should have feared him but every last particle in my body wanted him to hug me and tell me it would be okay, that I wasn't alone. I felt safe. I curled up, head on Jessie's lap and fell asleep.

I woke up to the smell of bacon and coffee. For a second I laid in bed with my eyes closed wishing it was my mom in the kitchen, I knew who it'd be. Part of me was excited to see Jessie but another part of me thought, what are you thinking? This man kidnapped you! Are you insane? I walked over to the in suite bathroom and looked in the mirror. I almost screamed, when I looked in the mirror I didn't see myself I saw an over grown barbie doll with bluey green looking eyes. My once curve-less body now had the perfect hour glass shape of a supermodel. My eyebrows were a perfect, thin arch, cheekbones more prominent. My skin looked airbrushed. What did that stupid man do to me?! This had to be hell, this was my worse nightmare, I looked like the very toy I used to rip the heads off of. Karma. The only thing that made me imperfect was my hair and I would have left it that way just to make myself feel a little... human, but it was starting to mat from tossing in my sleep. How long had I slept?

Back in the alley, in our rush to escape (Me the rapist and Jessie the police) My bag had gotten left behind. Thank god, earlier that day I had switched my wallet, phone and picture from my backpack to my pocket. Jessie must have run and got me a tooth and hair brush from London Drugs, they sat there still in their packaging, bearing the London Drugs logo. After freshening up I went back into the main room and dug around in Jessie’s drawers. Rude I know but if I could do anything that would piss him off, I would, I still wasn't happy with him for the whole 'turn me into some kind of telekinetic freak then kidnap me' thing. I managed to dig out some sweat pants, socks and a wife beater tank top. I messed up my hair a little in defiance of this new “pretty” me. It was gross. My sweats kept flapping around under my feet so I rolled the bottoms up to my mid calf. Jessie was tall, at least six foot four which made him seem like a sky scraper in comparison to me at only five three. Yes I was short, but I could still take down most guys in my age group. I wasn't buff but I wasn't exactly scrawny either.

I walked around Jessie's house looking at the pictures of his family and friends that hung on the walls. I stopped when one caught my eye.

Jessie was holding a little girl no more than two who was almost a spitting image of himself. The only differences between them was instead of Jessie's dark -I assumed by the root colour- hair the little girl had short auburn hair and bright green eyes. Ella. She was hugging Jessie but had her head turned facing the camera with a huge grin that lit up her entire face.

Definitely Ella.

My gaze moved from Ella to Jessie and I gasped. Jessie looked exactly the same then as he did now, that had to be at least twenty years ago. There was no way.. Jessie only looked tops, thirty four, more like twenty five though, there was something ageless about him.
I tore my gaze off the picture and followed the smell of Bacon and clang of dishes to the kitchen and stood in the doorway. Jessie was at the sink doing the dishes in nothing but an apron and boxers, I blushed but couldn't help but stare at him, his body was so lean, sheer muscle, but somehow still thin, not that bulky kind of muscly you see on the guys in magazines. His hair was tousled as if he'd just woken up. I turned my eyes away from his body and did a fake cough, Jessie chuckled and turned slightly to toss a quick look in my direction.

"A good morning would suffice." He said with a crooked grin.

"Don't make me mind-toss that hot, bacon grease covered frying pan at you, stretch" I said. "And since when do the captives say good morning to their captors?"

Jessie laughed and stopped doing his dishes to look at me. Really look this time. For a second his eyebrows arched and he looked at me with a shocked expression, giving me a once over. I inwardly groaned, he was such a guy.

"Take a picture Jessie." I snarled.
Jessie blinked "I haven't seen you since last night, you changed even in that short period of
time.”

I felt my cheeks heat and opened my mouth to say some snappy come back but nothing came out, I closed my mouth and looked down at the floor deciding the tile floor in Jess's kitchen was the most interesting design I'd ever seen. I walked over and sat at his table, grabbing the fork and knife, hinting.

Jess laughed and grabbed some paper towel for the bacon grease.

“You've been sleeping for days. Do you even remember me bringing you food and water?” Jess asked.

“No, not at all. All I remember was the pain in my shoulder..” I trailed off, not wanting to bring up the fact I fell asleep right on his lap.

Jeez, since when had I turned into such a girl?

“Well it wont be bothering you now. You gave me quite the scare. I thought I was going to lose you..” it was his turn to blush. I couldn't help but inwardly smile. So I wasn't the only one acting like a little schoolgirl with a crush. Jess didn't seem like the blushing type.

“You can't lose something you never had to begin with” I said. As soon as I said it, I'd wished I hadn't. Jessie looked hurt. As if he was a puppy who'd dug up a flower and I'd full out beaten him. Damn it.

As soon a the flash of hurt came, it went. He plastered a big phoney grin on his face and grabbed the bacon plate.

“I guess if you hate me so much I don't need to worry about feeding you.”

“Nope.” I said and jumped up, grabbing the plate out of his hands and sprinting to the bathroom. I locked the door and laughed. I sat against the door and listened for his footsteps. Less than a second later I heard a floorboard squeak and soft padded feet tip toeing toward the door. I let out a girly giggle and jumped to the other side of the bathroom sitting up against the bathtub wall. The door slammed open and I sprang to my feet and tried to get away but all I managed was a hop before Jessie grabbed at me and I slipped right into the tub. Jessie let out a booming whoop of laughter and toppled right onto the floor. I shot him a glare but looked over at the full body mirror across the room and saw myself covered in bacon and shower curtain with one leg over the edge of the tub and one tucked under me. I couldn't help but laugh. I looked ridiculous.

Jessie wasn't someone I should fear or hate, he'd saved my life, took care of me and from the look of the black rings under his eyes I could tell he hadn't slept much, worrying about me. Why did he care so much?

“Look” I said pulling to my feet. “I'm sorry for how I've been acting, I know you helped me a lot and I really appreciate that. Without you, I wouldn't be here.”

Jess grinned “You're giving me whiplash Taylor.”

I smiled, more kindly this time and punched him on the shoulder. “What ever Dipsy.”

Jessie chuckled “If your referring to the purple teletubbi, his name is Tinky winky, Dipsy was the green one and besides, my eyes are blue not puple.”

I arched an eyebrow at him.

“Hey when you have a little sister that watched nothing but tree house growing up, you tend to memorize this stuff whether you want to or not.”

That made me laugh. “Sure you didn't just memorize it cause you liked it?”

He just chuckled and rolled his eyes.

“So.. Ella's your sister?” I asked, He nodded and waved me out to the hall."Half sister." I stepped beside him and he put a hand on the small of my back, leading me back toward the kitchen.
“Now that you've calmed down a bit I'll explain what happened back there, Lets sit and have some breakfast while we talk. Sound good?” he asked.

I agreed and we went back to the kitchen.

Jessie and I decided we would have frootloops for breakfast. Due to the fact the bacon was scattered across the floor, I decided frootloops sounded better anyways. Jessie finished pouring the milk into his cereal and got up to grab us some coffee.

Once we were both sitting Jessie said finally. “Where would you like to start?”
I thought that over for a second and was going to ask how he and Ella knew my parents but something told me that wasn’t where I needed to start.

“What happened last night?” I asked. I could see in his face that this was the question he'd hoped I wouldn't ask. At least not yet.

He fiddled with his spoon for a couple seconds then finally looked back up.

“I was told to keep an eye out for you, follow you and make sure you were okay. Your step mom told me too, I stayed close by in case you needed me. I saw that guy following you around and hoped it was a coincidence but from the place I was watching you from I couldn't see you that well. I didn't get there in time, I thought you were sleeping. When I heard you two fighting I came running. When he shot you, You had bled out fast because of where he hit you, normally I would have had a few minutes to spare but he hit just the right spot.. See shoulder hits don't usually kill.. unless