Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 72284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
He turns back to hosing down the car, but he’s seen me.
“You can come out from behind the bushes,” he says in his robotic voice.
Cautiously, I straighten and give him a friendly wave. “I’m sorry.”
He doesn’t move. He just keeps hosing the car like I’m not even there. Can’t blame him—I put the poor guy right in the middle of Lev’s crosshairs when I got away yesterday. I can only imagine what trouble he got in.
So I apologize again, “I’m really, really sorry.”
“About hiding behind the lavender bushes?” he finally asks.
“No, about stealing the car.” I approach him slowly, genuinely sorry that he got in trouble with Lev. “I can see you really take pride in looking after it. I think if someone took something of mine that I loved, I’d be really mad. So I’m sorry. Plus, your boss is a grouch, and I’m sorry if you got in trouble with him because of me.”
“My pakhan had every reason to be angry. The Phantom is my responsibility.”
“But it wasn’t your fault.”
“He trusted me.”
Guilt tightens in my stomach.
“I told him it was my fault.” I twist my hands in front of me nervously. “He knows you really didn’t have a chance. I’m as cunning as a fox when I put my mind to it, so you really had no chance.”
My lame attempt at humor earns me a ghost of movement on his lips. But I blink, and it’s gone.
“Can I help?” I ask, gesturing toward the bucket of soapy water.
He turns back to the car. “No.”
“You know what they say—two pairs of hands are better than one.”
“No.”
“I’m good with a chamois.”
“Again, no.”
“I could finish for you so you could go and help Enya take the groceries in from the truck.”
He turns to look at me.
Yep, that was definitely the right button to push.
“Joe is already helping her,” he says.
“Joe?”
“The delivery driver. Brings the food every Friday.”
I hear the hint of jealousy in his voice.
“That guy? He’s half your size and clearly nowhere near as strong as you.” I step forward and take the hose out of his hand. “Go and help her. I’m sure she’d be very grateful.”
For a moment, I think he’s going to grab the hose out of my hand and tell me to stop being a pest.
But then his icy expression breaks, and his brow furrows. “You think?”
“Oh, I know.”
He takes a step away but stops and turns back. “You’re not going to steal the Phantom again, are you?”
My eyes widen. “I said I was sorry—"
Then I see the hint of a smile on his lips.
“Ha ha, you’re hilarious, Mr. Funny Man.” I give him a slight push. “Go and help her.”
I watch him haul his large body across the driveway to where Enya is walking toward the door again with two large bags of groceries in her arms. He jogs up to her, and when she sees him, her face lights up. She likes him, too, I think, grinning from ear to ear. He takes the bags from her, and she leads him inside. But not before he gives Joe the delivery driver a stone-cold look that screams back off, or I’ll pull out your eyeballs with my fingers.
I turn off the hose and start wiping the car down with the chamois.
“What the hell?” comes the familiar deep voice from the other side of the car.
I look up from where I am crouched by the wheels to see Lev coming down the path. Dressed in his usual suit with no tie, I bite back the familiar coil of lust at the sight of him.
“Why are you cleaning my car?”
I stand. “I’m making myself useful. Turns out there’s not a lot to do all day when you’ve been kidnapped. I thought I would do something productive.”
“Where is Igor?”
“Helping Enya with the groceries.” I gesture toward the delivery truck parked at the staff entrance.
“She has Joe for that,” Lev says, walking toward me.
“Ah, yes, but I don’t think Igor wants Joe anywhere near her box of groceries.”
Lev raises an eyebrow. “Care to explain?”
“Are you blind? Igor has a thing for Enya. And I think the feeling is mutual.”
He barely contains his eye roll. “Of course you would think that.”
“Of course you wouldn’t.” I walk over and place my hand against his chest.
“What are you doing?”
“Seeing if there is a heartbeat?”
“And?”
“And there isn’t.” I remove my hand. “Just as I suspected, you’re heartless.”
He gives me a look that tells me I am the bane of his existence, and I feel a surge of pure joy. Anything to get under his skin.
“Pleased to see you have your sense of humor back,” he says.
I resume wiping down the wheels. “I’m not joking. You have no heartbeat. You’re either dead or a vampire.”
He leans against the car. “I thought I was a monster.”