Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 72496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
“Y-yes,” I agreed. What the hell? “It is.”
What went on beyond that for the next hour, I could only describe as hell. She took her shower, loudly, and asked me to find the soap after getting too much in her eyes and needing help to rinse off.
She was naked, I nearly ran into a wall.
“Another first!” she’d yelled after showering. “Romantic dinner by ourselves without any security.”
“Yay.” I started grabbing some of the meat and cheeses in the fridge and nearly choked when she walked out of the bathroom naked. “Let me guess, another first.”
“I’ve never just walked naked in a cabin in front of my husband.”
“Great.”
“Oh look, a book. I’ve never read a book naked.”
“Do it all the time.” I lied. “There should be something over there. I think.” She was slowly killing me.
“Also…” She grabbed some old book and opened it. “I’ve never done one more thing.”
Please let it stop, I couldn’t even focus on what was cheese and what was meat anymore on the wood board, it looked like a toddler got into the fridge and was trying to build a shrine.
She hummed happily to herself while I checked my phone and read through the messages again.
Me
It’s done.
I’d texted King first, then Bella.
King
What will you do?
Me
Stick to the plan, my guy’s following the old bodyguard just in case the new boss double crosses us or doesn’t want to meet, at least we’ll have a location.
King
And Bella?
Me
I’ll make sure she’s protected—made—into the De Lange line and pray I don’t get killed later.
King
The cabins stocked, use your time wisely. You won’t have much of it, but I’ll cover for you before we break the news to everyone that you’ve betrayed the Five Families and have her as a hostage.
Me
She’ll come willingly.
King
Try not to get killed.
Me
I thought that was the plan all along… besides, if I don’t end this, then Junior’s choices will have been in vain.
King
There’s always a way to pull out poison—he chose the right one, we can’t begrudge him that.
Me
And yet I’m still pissed at him.
King
Text Bella, Serena just left the bathroom.
We had all grown up amid violence and anger. Rage was all too often the first response to every situation. Danger was the norm. Even now, danger stalked us, sought to end us. Was there not something poetic in striving to claim a small bit of paradise within the chaotic hell that was our everyday life?
Don’t think… feel.
I was so lost in my thoughts and that text conversation I almost didn’t hear Bella sneak up on me, completely naked. The knife slipped from my hand, clattering onto the counter. “Sorry, what was that one last thing?”
Please say chess, play chess, and put on a blanket and stay completely covered in a corner.
“Play naked with my husband in the kitchen.”
I braced my hands against the counter. “Sounds dangerous, lots of pointy things.”
She shoved the knife across the counter and dipped herself under my arms so that they were pinned on either side of her. “Take off your shirt.”
I almost snapped you take off your shirt, then realized duh, her shirt was already off I was just losing my mind.
I slowly peeled my shirt over my head and dropped it to the ground. “Happy?”
She shook her head no. “Now your pants.”
“Should we put on music?”
“Are you offering me a show?”
“It might cost you.” I leaned in and captured her mouth. “Sorry, I slipped, I’m a clumsy dancer.”
“I see that.”
I kissed her again. “I have a condition where everything has to be done in even numbers.”
I kissed her again. “Shit, I slipped again, that’s three, so that means I need to go for four and—”
She wrapped her arms around my neck, fusing her mouth to mine. A possessiveness I’d never felt in my life took complete control of my body, it wasn’t that I was running out of time; it was that I had her, I fully had her, and I didn’t have to feel guilty about my word to Nixon.
Because she was mine.
And I’d done what I promised.
“Ciao, Bella,” I whispered in my mind.
Hello.
Goodbye.
Hello.
Goodbye.
I loved both words, because they meant I’d met her in both scenarios and had no regrets leaving.
I pulled away from her. “I’ll get the rest of the food ready.”
“No.” Bella grabbed my hand.
When I tried to pull away, she held on even tighter. “What? You aren’t hungry?”
She placed my hand on her naked hip. “Are you?”
For so many things. “Bella, why don’t we sit down for a bit?”
I had no qualms kissing her, pleasuring her, I would do everything to her—but the one thing I wanted the most, because in the end it felt selfish and wrong. Like the people who sleep together, then leave the next morning without a note. I couldn’t promise her everything was going to be okay, or that she wouldn’t be planning a funeral, so I couldn’t take something that was important to her.