Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Seeing her standing in the doorway with a smile chases away the darkness. Every problem melts away … even temporarily.
I don’t know how long this happiness will last, but I’ll take whatever I can get.
12
ZARA
I didn’t know what people meant when they said, “I’m so happy, I could die.”
Now I do. It’s like the universe has aligned everything in my life—my career, my family, and now, Alec. If someone pours a cup of coffee on my white shirt, steps on my toes, or even if the elevator never works ever again, none of that can make me any less happy.
Everything about last night has me blushing from head to toe. I never thought Alec was the type to go all caveman in bed, but now… Well, let’s say I’m more than happy to accommodate him. He’s too proper and polite and kind, and him going savage and turning into some foul-mouthed guy is … thrilling and exciting.
I feel like I chose well.
A man who’s not only gentle and caring outside the bedroom, but can also make me wet without even touching me.
Best of both worlds, I guess.
The warmth of morning sunlight dances on my skin, and no matter how tempting it is to stay in bed, I need to get up and make breakfast. My stomach commands me so.
With a soft sigh, I stretch my limbs. The smooth, cool fabric of Alec’s luxurious silk bed sheets glide against me, and all I wanna do is bury myself beneath the layers.
Damn. I need to buy something like this. My cotton sheets don’t feel as comfy.
With an internal groan, I finally rise from the bed, stealing a glance at the sleeping Greek god beside me. I reach out to brush a stray lock of hair from his forehead, extra cautious of my light touch to avoid disturbing his peaceful slumber.
He slightly stirs at the contact, but his breathing is still even and he continues to sleep.
Closing the door behind me with a soft click, I step right into his living room. When he said before that his place was a mess, he wasn’t kidding. This is my first time seeing everything in broad daylight. The last time I was here, it was night and I was too busy chatting with his brothers to notice other things.
My mother will have a conniption if she sees this whirlwind of clutter, mostly on the wooden table pushed against one wall.
Papers are strewn haphazardly across the floor, some even landing on his rolling chair. Post-it notes cling on almost every available surface—the walls, the edges of his desk, even the armrests.
Even his laptop sits open in the middle of the desk.
Fine. Alec is far from perfect. Then again, so am I.
I don’t bother reading the hastily scribbled notes, so I gather the papers and put everything on one side. That’s it. I won’t do anything else because he might not appreciate me going over his things on my first morning here.
After putting my hair up, I move to make breakfast when the glint of something catches my eye. Curiosity gets the better of me because I gently brush aside a few stray papers and carefully pick them up.
It’s a metal hair clip. Turning it over my palm, my heart begins to hammer.
A sudden wave of darkness washes over me, suffocating me, and a faint memory creeps its way into the perimeters of my mind.
A daisy hair clip.
Maybe it’s just the same.
But no.
The chip on one of the petals. The scruff marks on the metal.
No. It’s the same one.
MY daisy hair clip.
It takes a full minute for my shocked brain to crank back up, and when it does, my whole being kicks into full-on panic mode.
The fear starts as a distant whisper, and it grows louder and more insistent until the only sounds I can hear are the roaring of blood in my ears, my wildly beating heart, and fear echoing through my thoughts.
My breaths are quick and shallow, as if the very air refuses to fill my lungs. Images flash before my eyes, still-shots of my memory from the worst period of my childhood. I’ve spent my whole life burying them, forgetting. Now they claw their way to the surface with surprisingly relentless ferocity.
I focus on pushing them away and banishing them back to where they are supposed to be—back into the depths of my unconsciousness, back into the past where they belong.
But the memories continue to cling to me, refusing to be brushed off, forcing me to remember.
The world around me changes, fading into a hazy blur, replaced by scenes of my childhood.
A day at the beach with my parents and three siblings. Laughter. Playing. Me going to the bathroom, convincing my mom I can go alone. I’m a big girl. I don’t need her to stay outside while I pee. I can do it.