Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92559 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92559 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“I know asking you is a little forward.” Mahrci reached out. “And it’s not because I think you can’t handle yourself.”
Oh, so this was about Remis and his band of Brooks-Brothers-wearing thugs? Hey, at least the bastard’s name fit, ’cuz Mayhem sure as shit would like to ream—
“I’m not worried about him.” He smiled. “And you can be as forward as you like with me. I’m just curious where we’re going.”
An answering grin teased her mouth. “We’re? So you’ll—”
“I told you.” He memorized the way she looked at him. “I go with the flow. And you’re . . . my kind of flow.”
“That’s just . . . thank you.”
There was a long moment. Then he couldn’t help himself. He stepped into her and touched her face.
“You’re welcome. Although I feel like I should be the one with the gratitude. And you still haven’t answered me, but it’s good. You just let me know where to go and I’ll be there. I trust you.”
“Let’s leave as soon as you’re done, okay?” That worried look came back to her eyes. “Please?”
“Sure.” Even though he really didn’t want to get back to work. He had . . . other things . . . on his mind. “I’ve got about—well, let’s say another couple hours? And I’m going to need to do some final testing with Apex.”
He wasn’t exactly sure where the guy was, but he had a feeling it was across the yard in that garage. That wolven had always been a thing for Apex. Maybe the thing.
What a road, though. With that kind of past?
“Oh, and listen, I didn’t bring much,” Mayhem tacked on. “As long as Apex is good with taking the SUV back to Caldie? I’m free as a bird to ghost out.”
Mahrci’s smile returned and he couldn’t help it. He dropped down and brushed her lips with his own. As she gasped, he eased back.
“I maybe shouldn’t have done that. Not the time or place—and don’t worry, I’m not making any assumptions.”
Well, he was making one: She still wasn’t being completely truthful with him. Yes, she was worried about that ex of hers—he just had the sixth sense there was more to it than that. But hey, whatever it was had given him an in he was more than happy to enjoy: He’d been wrestling with the fucking rank-ass idea he was never going to see her again, and what do you know, for a go-with-the-flow male like him?
That had not been the right flow for him.
“No . . . it’s all right,” she murmured. “I want to do a lot more of that. The . . . kissing, I mean.”
Well, wasn’t that a hi-how’re-ya to his hey-nannies. “Me, too.”
“Good.” She laughed in a little awkward rush, and started to head for the door. “Well, I guess I’ll leave you to it—”
“Mahrci.” As she paused, he lowered his voice to a growl. “I’m not scared of your father, either. Just so we’re clear.”
As she put her hand to the base of her throat, it was as if she were feeling someone squeezing the life out of her.
“I am,” she said roughly. “I’m terrified of him.”
All that mattered, Mahrci told herself, was that Hemmy had agreed to join her at her safe house.
The one she had bought in secret, and furnished herself, and kept quiet about.
The rest could be sorted out from there, once they were both safe: Their relationship. Her father. The future in all its forms. Which, if they could just get free of her situation, she was suddenly looking forward to for the first time in . . . well, maybe ever.
Abruptly, she nodded as if she were in a conversation, instead of talking to herself. Then she blurted, “I’ll just need you to take my vein before we go—”
As she spoke up, Hemmy’s head jerked to attention. Then he dropped the laptop and lost his balance, all at the same time—and when he tried to catch himself before he fell, they both calculated where his boot was going to land at the same time: The computer. With all his work on it.
He did what he could to correct the lurch, but he went too far, his heavy weight veering off-kilter wildly. So she did the only thing she could. She launched herself at him, pushing him backward onto the bed, landing on top of him in a tangle as they both hit the mattress. While they bounced, she had to laugh and so did he.
“I guess that was a little bit of a surprise,” she said as she went to roll off him.
Hemmy put his hands on her hips, stilling her. “Where are you going so fast, female—if you’re comfortable, I am.”
Looking into his eyes, she flushed. Underneath her body, his muscles and heavy bones were a landscape that she fit herself into with a precision that seemed like destiny. She also couldn’t ignore the way her breasts pressed into his pecs or how the hardening length at the front of his hips made her want to straddle him properly.