Total pages in book: 225
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
“You’d better not,” he growls through what sounds like gritted teeth. “What did I tell you? Nobody but me. And what did I tell you about making me worry about you?”
“You threatened me. Because that’s what you do. You think threatening me gives you full control over me. Right?”
And it gives me a thrill to hear him angry. Because he deserves to feel angry that someone is doing something he doesn’t like!
“But I’m tired of doing what’s expected of me. I’m tired of being the good girl. So guess what, Derek? I’m not your good girl. I will never be your good girl. And there’s a good-looking guy here at this bar who’s into me. He’s been buying me drinks. And I’m gonna go back to where he’s sitting waiting for me now and invite him to invite me to his place. What do you think about that?”
There’s no immediate reply, so I check. “Hello?”
“You fuck that guy, Chloe, and it’ll be his death sentence.”
I snort. “You don’t even know where I am. You won’t know who I did it with. He’s not from here.”
Shit. I need to guard my words. I’m too drunk. Can’t let him figure out where I am by saying the wrong thing.
“You think I won’t find out? You think I don’t have the ability to have security footage checked all throughout the city to find out where you’ve been and exactly who you’ve been seen with?”
“You don’t even know if I’m still in Columbus. So there.”
“You’re still in Columbus, Chloe. You just fuckin’ said he’s not from here.”
I scoff. “Maybe I am and maybe I’m not. Maybe, but I do know one thing.”
I pause.
He doesn’t say anything.
So I start talking again. “I know that I’m fucking finished being that good girl, Derek. I’m d-o-n-e done! What has it gotten me? Huh? I’m so done letting you do whatever you want to do to me with no repercussions.”
“You do this, you’re responsible for that man’s death. Because I will fucking kill him. I’ll kill him and guess what, wife? You’ll watch.”
I’m losing bravado. My knees are wobbly. I think the air just got sucked straight out of this place. I brace with my hand on the wall beside the phone.
He starts speaking again. “Decide if you’re coming back to me, ready to work hard to make up for this or…” He pauses for effect, and he achieves his goal because I’m chilled to the bone. “doing something you can’t undo. Doing something that you’ll regret. Because, Chloe… are you there?”
I’m frozen in place, my heart hammering so hard it hurts.
“Are. You. There? Wife?”
“I’m here,” I somehow manage to rasp.
He’s The Ice King, delivering his frigid blow through the phone line. “Not only will I end him if you, my bratty wife, are unfaithful to me, you will watch me do it and then you’ll find yourself writhing around my cock for so long you’ll think you’re being fucked to death. And that won’t be the end of your punishment either. Because we both know how much guilt you’ll suffer if you’re the reason I end a man’s life and ruin both our happiness, don’t you? Choose wisely, Chloe Steele. Think long and hard about this before you do something that’ll change everything between you and me. Has he put his hands or his mouth on you yet?”
My shoulder gets tapped and Aaron with the blue eyes is smiling. Close.
“Hey, beautiful! Wondered where you’d gone to.”
I abruptly put the phone receiver back onto the cradle, hanging up on Derek.
I somehow wake up hangover-free. Shocker, since I started with wine, drank some vodka, and then finished with several different minibar bottles back in my hotel room.
My period has arrived and thankfully, I’ve got two tampons in my purse.
I leave the hotel two minutes before check-out time, get a cab to my car at the airport, unlock and then get into it and start it up. Five minutes later at a stoplight, I see the familiar blue SUV behind me at the stoplight.
Bile rises at the back of my throat.
Ken follows me all the way to Dublin, to my dream house. The sight of it right now makes me so, so sad. I press the app on my phone and get the gate opened, then tap the app and close it behind myself. The SUV parks directly outside the gate. Blocking it, in fact.
I press the app command to open the garage. Not only is the driveway empty, the garage is also empty. Derek isn’t here.
And I don’t know if I’m relieved or not because although I don’t want to see him or talk to him, waiting to see him for however long it takes for him to come back is going to fry my nerves to a crisp. I stayed gone all night, leaving him to worry and wonder.