Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 167204 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 557(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167204 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 557(@300wpm)
My tummy tumbles since I know he’s legitimately dangerous, but I act like it doesn’t faze me. “Actually, I’m cold,” I tell him. “I didn’t wear a coat, and… well, you see what I’m wearing.”
His cool gaze skims my bare shoulders, and a chill passes over me. Convenient timing, I suppose, because without another word, Hex unfastens his mantle and drapes it around my shoulders instead.
As he fastens it, he looks down at me. “Never let it be said I can’t be a gentleman.”
I smile up at him, a warm, authentic smile. “Thank you, Hex.”
He runs his hands over my shoulders and down my arms, now covered in his big warm cloak, then he leans in to lift my mask and press an intimate kiss against my cheek. “You’re welcome, Brynn.”
All the blood seems to drain out of my body as I look past his broad shoulder and see a man in a black tux and mask stopped dead, facing us.
But the mask doesn’t matter. I’d recognize that jawline anywhere.
Killian.
My heart squeezes, but I don’t wait around another second.
Warmth secured, I turn away from Hex and Aiden, pick up my skirt so I don’t trip, and take off up the staircase we just came down.
I hurry through the doorway but stop at the security guard. “Hi,” I say quickly. “I just got here, but I can’t stay. May I have my phone back, please?”
“Ticket.”
Seriously?
“I was literally just here,” I say, opening my purse. “You can’t just…?”
“No.”
Sighing, I open the purse wider, trying to see inside with just the light of the moon. Paranoid, I look back over my shoulder to make sure I’m not being followed, and I see I am—by Killian.
My heart sinks and I snap my purse shut. “Never mind,” I say, then I pick up my skirt and take off running.
This time, into the woods.
Chapter Forty-seven
Killian
I don’t think when I see Hex kiss Brynn—I just react.
My heart stops, my muscles freeze, and then she meets my gaze across the room, and a burst of adrenaline hits my veins.
Then she turns around and runs away with Hex’s fucking mantle draped over her shoulders, and I have no choice but to run after her.
I notice Aiden seconds before I plow into him, shoving the fucker and wanting to rip that mask off and break his fucking face, but Brynn’s getting away, and getting to her is more important.
“Kill,” Hex says, trying to stop me.
But I can’t look at him without ruining my life right now, so I ignore him and take off up the stairs after her.
She’s stopped at the door, probably trying to get her phone, but when she looks back at me, she abandons her mission, picking up her black lace skirt and taking off.
Like a princess in a prophecy she can’t outrun, she heads straight for the woods.
That’s all right.
It’s not the first time I’ve chased her pretty little ass through the forest, but this time when I get my hands on her, I’m not letting go.
And at the pace she’s running, it won’t be long.
She wore heels tonight, and Brynn can’t run in heels. She can’t stop to take them off, either. She knows I’ll catch her if she does.
But I catch her anyway.
“Killian,” she cries, trying to rip her arm away from me when I grab it.
I grab her everywhere I can. I let go of her arm, but only to grab her waist and yank her against me.
“Did Hex fuck you?”
“What?” she shrieks, the shock on her face easing the slightest bit of frenzied fucking fury out of me. “No, of course not.”
“You need to stay away from him. He’s poison. He’d fucking destroy you.”
“I don’t like Hex. You’re being crazy,” she says, struggling to get away from me.
Since she’s wiggling so fucking much, I grab her arms, pinning them behind her so I can hold her body against mine. “You looked awfully fucking cozy getting kisses from him in the goddamn corner for someone with no interest in him.”
She looks up at me with her big, innocent doe-eyes. “I was interested in his coat, not him. And I didn’t expect the kiss. I was as shocked as you were.”
“I swear to god, Brynn, if he touches you again…”
I don’t even know.
I’ll lose my fucking mind.
I’ll lock her up somewhere like a fucking prisoner.
I’ll torch both our fucking lives if I have to, but I’ll never let him touch her. Not him.
And not fucking Aiden, either.
Hex was the one I caught too close to her, but it was Aiden standing next to her in that fucking phantom mask.
And here she is, looking just like Christine.
His Christine.
My blood runs hot despite the chill in the air. I can feel my grip on her is painfully tight, but she doesn’t complain. “Did you come here with him?”