Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
“Tell me who did it,” he said, voice dropping as he inched forward. My heart skipped another beat. I shook my head. “Roselyn.”
“I can’t,” I whispered.
“I’ll find out. I always find out.”
“Please don’t.” I swallowed hard and if possible, his gaze seemed to darken even more.
I watched his jaw work, a multitude of unspoken promises in his eyes that made me want things I shouldn’t. His protection, his mouth, his touch. It felt like an entire breathless minute went by before he finally dropped his hand and took a step back. He spared me one last glance before leaving the room and it was then that I took a breath. This was the complete opposite of when Anthony had me up against that brick wall.
That had been scary, but this scared me in an entirely different way.
8
ROSIE
When I finished getting dressed, I grabbed my bag and headed downstairs. I wanted to leave as soon as possible. I wasn’t sure I could look him in the eye after what happened upstairs. I was about to walk past the kitchen when I saw Dominic standing there, sipping on something and scrolling through his phone. He was wearing a black t-shirt and matching jeans. He used to wear his hair longer, in a messy way that looked like hands were always running through it. Sometimes I’d dreamed those hands were mine. Now, he had it cut short and let a layer of scruff grow on his face. Not quite a beard, though I could tell he definitely lined it as such. All of it suited him. Everything about him made my mouth water. Everything about him also made alarm bells go off in my head that told me to run the opposite way.
“If you keep staring at me like that, I’m going to get the wrong idea,” he said, still looking at his phone.
“I’m just, I was just trying to figure out whether I liked your hair longer or shorter,” I said quickly, as if I hadn’t been standing there for at least a full minute and couldn’t have gathered that kind of intel in under five seconds.
“Really.” He glanced up with his eyes. How the hell did he even make that look hot? Jesus.
“Yes, really.” I stepped into the kitchen.
“And? What’s the verdict?”
“I like it long.” I tore my gaze from the twinkle in his. “I like it short too though. Jesus Christ. I don’t care about your hair.” I turned around and walked out of the kitchen because what the fuck? I wasn’t even an awkward person, but this guy, who’d been such a jerk to me when we were kids, had me all tongue-tied? Ugh. I hiked my bag higher on my shoulder and spared him one last glance. “I guess I’ll see you later? I have to be at rehearsal in an hour, so I figured I’d head that way.”
“You figured, huh?” He set his phone on the counter and gave me his full attention now. “You should eat.”
“I will once I get over there. It’s going to take me thirty-five minutes.” I looked at the time on my phone. “Forty, maybe, depending on how fast I can get to the train.”
“The train.”
“Yeah, you know, the form of transportation that over four million people in this city use.”
His mouth twitched. “You’re not going on the train for the foreseeable future.”
“But –”
“You’re not riding the train.” He tilted his head back as if asking for patience, and I decided that if he was mine, which he would never be, I would hop on top of the counter and lick from his Adam’s Apple to his jaw. I pushed the thought away quickly. When he looked at me again, he seemed a little more relaxed. “Look, this is temporary. As soon as all of this is handled, you can go back to your regular life and ride the smelly train, but for now, you’re not doing that. Don’t fight me on this. You won’t win.”
“Oh, I won’t win?” I blinked. He almost had me agreeing, but he just had to throw that in there.
“No, you won’t.”
“Try me.” I turned and headed to the door.
“Jesus Christ. Are you going to make me tie you up and carry you? Because I will.”
That made me freeze on the spot. He’d already charged at me last night when he snuck into my apartment, and now he was talking about tying me up? I turned around slowly. “You’d really tie me up?”
“Rosie.” He sighed heavily, shutting his eyes briefly.
“After what they did, you’d do that to me?”
“Rosie.”
“No. I want to know.” I swallowed back tears that threatened. I had nightmares of being tied up. He must have had them too. “I want to know what it is you’re capable of, so I know what I’m dealing with. Who I’m dealing with.”