Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 55860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
“Break it down for me then. How do you want to live?”
“Other than ‘in an imaginary world where you’re not in the freakin’ Mob?’ I guess I want to live the way I was before I met you. Working and saving tuition money and taking care of my dad. No dance lessons, no slipping into an elite club for a quickie in the middle of the day, no high stakes danger and desire game. I’m not built for this kind of life.”
“Stuff like this doesn’t happen than often since I’ve taken over. It was way worse when my dad was in charge,” he says, like that’s a ringing recommendation.
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?” I say, voice rising. “I had your blood on my hands. It’s still all over me. When you kept losing consciousness, I thought I was going to go crazy. I wouldn’t be able to stop the bleeding, and I was praying like I should’ve been struck by lightning for the bargains I offered to make with God to save your life. I can’t believe you did this to me. You are such an asshole!”
“For getting stabbed,” he says wryly.
“For making me fall for you.”
“Come here,” he says and reaches for me again. I shake my head. I know if I let him touch me, I’ll stay. I’ll do anything he says as soon as he gets his mouth on mine. I’ll tell him it’s all right and I’ll climb on the desk and strip off my top and let him suck my nipples while I ride him right there where I put pressure on his wound and sutured it. I’d be ashamed afterward, but I can’t pretend that I wouldn’t let him fuck me right then and there. I have to stay out of arm’s reach. It’s hard enough when I can hear his voice, how incredibly reasonable and convincing he sounds, how seductive.
“Let me take you someplace for the weekend. We can get away, give you some time to process this and spend some time alone together away from the business,” he offers.
“I’m no expert, but I hear there’s no leaving the business behind,” I say. “It’s not like we could go to the beach for a weekend while you take a break from organized crime.”
“That isn’t how it works with any job,” he says reasonably. So infuriatingly reasonable that I grit my teeth. “You don’t stop being a nursing student when you go out of town do you?”
“I don’t go out of town. That kind of activity requires a certain disposable income I don’t have, Jack,” I say primly. I’m pissed, but mainly I’m scared out of my mind. I can still feel his hot blood slipping into my hands every time his heart pumped, recognize the ache in my shoulders and upper traps from the pressure I had to apply to the wound to stop it bleeding.
“Please,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper. “I can’t do this anymore. I don’t have it in me, Jack. I thought I could do anything to be with you, but it turns out I’m too weak and too scared to go on.”
I crumple into a chair, face in my hands. When I try to wipe the tears and mascara off my face, I’m convinced I can smell the rusty tang of his blood still clinging to my skin. The moan that comes out of me is barely human, a wail that sounds like an injured animal.
His aloof logic evaporates. He gets off the desk and goes to his knees beside my chair. He takes my hands in his, pulls them away from his face.
“I can keep you safe, Serena. I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t mean it. You know me, you know I love you. Nothing is worth losing you over, nothing,” he says.
His fingers feel cold when they wrap around mine. I look up, scan him for signs of shock. He doesn’t feel or look feverish. When I grip his wrist and concentrate, his pulse is steady. His lips and his fingernails are their normal color. He’s alert and doesn’t show any sign of confusion. I let out a breath, reassured that he isn’t going into shock.
His cool fingers trace my jaw and grip my chin. He sets his mouth on mine, kissing first my upper lip and then my lower lip. My lips tremble as I sway closer to him, my hands on the smooth skin of his bare shoulders. Warmth threads through me, coiling in my belly and heating my core. I nip at his lip, stroke his tongue with mine. I’m helpless, like I knew I’d be if I let him touch me again.
“Come home with me. Let me make this up to you, let me make you forget this night ever happened,” he says, rubbing his mouth over mine, the rough scrape of his stubble igniting my skin and making my nipples tighten.