Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
“He flew to New York today. He’s on his way home now, Miss Mar—”
“I swear to god, if you utter that name one more time, I will steal your gun from you and shoot you in the leg.”
“—Emma.” He flashed me a rueful grin.
“Better. Remember it this time.”
He nodded, and I went back inside. Well. I had no idea what to do now. Carter wasn’t in the Mauricio family anymore, but he still had business dealings with them, as well as with the Bartel family now. He owned shares in The Richmond, too. Carter also had other businesses, ones he hadn’t even told me about because there were too many to mention, but I’d gotten spoiled over the last year. He’d made a concerted effort to be home, flying and conducting his business during the hours when I was at work myself.
Telling myself not to worry, as Carter was a big boy, I went back to the kitchen and poured a glass of wine. Unlike Theresa, I hadn’t joined in with the beer. I preferred to keep a clear head when outside the house. It was a survival tendency I’d picked up after being shot at a year ago.
I was enjoying the wine and relaxing in the tub when the bathroom door opened.
I felt him before I saw him. A small grin appeared automatically on my face, and I opened my eyes to see Carter standing there.
It was always the same. A tingle started in the base of my stomach, and it would rise, spreading out through my body, warming me as it went, until I was almost salivating for him. When I saw him, I needed to touch him. It had been like this for a year, and I never wanted it to end. I always wanted to thirst for him.
“Hi.”
“Hi, yourself.” He was dressed in custom-tailored pants and a black button-down shirt, which was wrinkled and untucked with the top two buttons undone. The collar looked like he’d stretched it out, and damn, with his dark blond hair cut short, his wolf-like blue eyes, and his sharp cheekbones, Carter managed to look restless, on edge, and sophisticated all at once.
He knelt at the edge of the tub. “Did you have a good night?”
“You weren’t here when I came home.” I hadn’t meant it to sound like an accusation, but it slipped out that way.
A smile crossed his lips, and he dipped a hand into the water, stirring it in a slow motion. “I got news today, and I had to go and see for myself.”
My heart paused. Bad news? It didn’t sound good. “What kind of news?”
“News that…” He hesitated, the smile slipping. “…might change a lot of things.”
“There’s a man watching you.” Theresa’s words came back to me, along with the other shout. “Miss Nathans!” I bit down on my lip and asked, “Is it news I should know about?”
A flicker of darker emotion crossed his features before he clamped it down. Lifting his hand to my leg, he moved his fingers in a slow caress, up and down. Just that slight touch and I began to have a hard time breathing. I glanced down, mesmerized by his fingers. Water slid down my skin from his hand. When it stopped, he dipped down and lifted the water once more to my leg. I had to pull my gaze from that vision and lift it back to his face.
His eyes were tortured, but when my gaze caught his, that look vanished right away and he murmured, “You should, but I don’t know if I can tell you.” His eyebrows bunched, and he shook his head, becoming unreadable once again. Then he slid his hands underneath me in the tub. He stood, lifting me with him, out of the water. Instead of grabbing a towel, he walked me back into the bedroom and placed me onto the desk in one corner. I could see us in the mirror across the room.
He leaned close, his head moving to the crook of my shoulder and neck, and he held me. His shirt stretched tight over his back, outlining his broad shoulders and tapered waistline. My arms had wrapped around his neck, and I slid one down the middle of his back. He sucked in his breath under my touch.
He murmured against my skin, “Why is it that your presence can calm me? Your touch can make me alive, and one little sigh from you makes me want to sleep for days in your embrace?”
I smiled, moving to press a kiss to his ear. “Because you love me.”
He pulled back, his eyes meeting mine with only a few centimeters between us. His forehead rested on mine, then one of his hands cupped the side of my face. His thumb brushed over my cheek and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. “I need to tell you what happened today, because it could affect us.”