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)
Kenny told me the fiancé left with his brother with an overnight bag on Friday, so I had him slip in while she was with me so he could wire the place. Not only do I have their cells bugged because of a remote hack, now her house is bugged, too. He wired her office, his office, the bedroom they share, and their main living space Friday night. He also installed software on both their computers that’ll be helpful going forward and slapped a tracker onto her car when it was parked at the condo Friday night.
I’ve been watching her mope since yesterday. Mope. Cry. Pace. Clean. Right now I can make them both out easily with the night vision setting and the sight of her sleeping in his embrace is making my goddamn skin crawl.
That she’s pouring emotion into him infuriates me. All that emotion isn’t about him anymore; it’s about me and what I admitted to doing. That emotion is mine. She’s mine. And I don’t want his fucking hands on her.
I’m mostly calm by the time I get to thirty, because I manage to tell myself she needs time. She needs more proof of who I’m gonna be to her. She needs things she’ll get from me. Only me. I finish counting down anyway and then I keep my eyes on the screen until there’s no noise or movement for half an hour before I switch it off. I shed my clothes and get into the shower, staring at the drain with my hands braced on the tiles as the water hits my skin.
Adam Hallman doesn’t get to keep her.
Chloe Turner is going to be mine. Wearing my ring on her finger. Sleeping in my bed. I’m gonna fulfill every sexual fantasy in that blog and beyond. She won’t want for anything. Not affection. Not emotional support. Nothing.
I don’t want to wait. I want her now. But I need to play this the way I play everything. Like chess. But instead of winning for bragging rights, I’m going to take my queen. And keep her.
“Can you just… there. Like that, yeah,” Adam grunts.
I feel my back twinge with protest as I help him the rest of the way into his wheelchair.
“I got it,” he says, then pulls himself the rest of the way in.
Getting onto the convertible couch bed wasn’t as difficult for him as getting him back into his chair proves to be. There’s a height difference to our calibrated-for-Adam bed and the fact that the handles installed there are fixed, not something I could bring here to my office for him to use.
I open the door so he can easily maneuver out. I put the couch back the way it belongs and fold the blanket.
A new day. New attitude? New chapter for Adam and I? I don’t know. I really don’t.
We lay together for a while cuddling this morning and something in the air feels different, but I haven’t got the capacity to figure things out at this point.
He’s going to physical therapy this morning and said his brother Paul is taking him, that Paul has a surprise for him. He’s being sweet and careful with me. He offered to skip PT, but I insisted he go as well as find out what Paul’s surprise is. I told him I just need to throw myself into some work for the day.
We’ve left things unsaid, I know, but it feels like we’ve crossed over a threshold. There’s just no telling yet where it’ll take us.
My doorbell rings just after 1:30, so I answer and find Alannah standing on the step with a cardboard tray holding two coffees and a paper bag.
“Chocolate éclairs,” she states, and pushes her way past me.
“I’m working, Lan,” I mutter.
“I said chocolate éclairs,” she repeats with more than a bit of attitude. “In other words, I’m paying a toll, so you get your ass in here and talk to me.”
She goes directly to my office, sets the bag and coffee tray on the floor in front of the convertible couch, then parks her behind on it. I sit beside her, folding my legs under myself and cradling my elbows.
“Background noise needed?” she asks.
I shake my head. “Adam’s out.”
“Good. Now, spill.”
I haul in a big breath and let loose. “Derek Steele overheard our conversation in the club that night I met him. He heard all about the hall pass, all about my kinky wannabe status from the things you said, and then he proceeded to run into me multiple times. I actually thought you set it up after it happened because he knew just what to do and how to do it. So, short version is that I slept with him and then before I left the next morning, he told me he overheard our conversation.”