Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 137205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Her unexpected bluntness gives me pause.
For the damndest sliver of a second, I reconsider my plan. I like Hallie enough to spend more time with her. If I do what I initially intended to her tonight, I’ll burn her out in one go. She’ll want nothing to do with me afterward.
Then again, it seems unlikely she would ever agree to go out with me after I lured her here tonight with bad intentions. Even if I could somehow convince her and I ended up enjoying a night out with her, it would likely only lead to boring sex—at best.
It’s not as if I could convince her to come back through these doors with me after taking her out to dinner. I doubt I could even lure her upstairs, given she would have the advantage of knowing I almost pounced on her down here tonight. If I wanted to take her after dinner, it would have to be in the back of a limousine. Once I finished with her and she escaped with her tattered spirit and terrible memories of me, I would never see her again.
Whether I enjoy Hallie Meadows for a whole evening or this one, single fuck, I’m only going to get one go at her.
It’s the nature of the beast, unfortunately.
I don’t know why, when I look into her endless ocean eyes, I get the sense that one time will never be enough. That it will haunt me as much as it haunts her. When she’s lying in bed alone at night replaying what I did to her, I’ll be across town in my own bed, thinking the same thoughts.
Maybe I should heed the warning and turn back now, before it’s too late.
I can’t bring myself to do it, though. If I can have one taste that lingers for a while or no tastes at all…
I have to taste her.
So I do.
Chapter Three
Hallie
I thought it would work.
I thought I could reason with him.
Now I can’t think at all as adrenaline surges through my veins and my heart threatens to beat its way out of my chest.
Whatever I expected him to do next, I didn’t expect him to kiss me.
My hands press against his firm, muscled chest, useless as I try to push him away. Even though they’ve proven ineffective, he captures my hands and wrestles them behind my back, gathering both of my wrists in one of his massive hands and forcing me back against the cold, hard wall.
I imagine I’ll be able to tug free, but I’m wrong. Even with one hand he’s able to keep my wrists trapped behind me, the only thing between my body and the cold cement blocks.
Frustrated, I turn my face away to evade his brutal kiss, but he grabs my jaw with his free hand and forces my gaze back to his. My heart lurches at the coldness in his deep brown eyes.
“I don’t know if you know this, Hallie, but it’s not much fun to kiss someone who won’t kiss you back.”
“You’re a complete psycho if you think there’s even a chance I’ll kiss you back,” I tell him.
His gaze warms with something I might call affection if I were a nutcase. I start as he loosens his grip on my jaw to caress it instead.
A shiver dances down my spine. I don’t know what to make of this man. There’s something obviously off about him, but…
It’s the ‘but’ that’s my damnation.
A normal woman would look into the eyes of this predator and feel no faint pull of curiosity, only the self-preserving instinct to get the hell away from him.
I do want to get away from him, but I’m curious, too. Maybe it’s the curiosity that keeps me from raising my knee and bringing it full force into his junk, incapacitating him just long enough to wrench the door open and flee this awful place.
I’m not sure how far I’d get, though. Maybe that’s why I don’t do it.
I’d rather get out of this peacefully than make him angry. He’s bigger and stronger than I am. He can hurt me if he wants to.
He has men, too. The man that brought me here, the one he sent away because he doesn’t want an audience, I doubt he left. Even if I made it through those doors, the guard would probably catch me and haul me right back inside.
Then I’d be right back where I began, but with my aggressor injured and angry.
No, running won’t work.
Appealing to his mercy still seems like the best option to me at the moment. There’s something off about him, but he seems rational. He’s not some raging, unthinking beast. He’s a man, just perhaps an odd one.
As that thought flits through my head, he pushes a button on my blouse through its slit.
The thought of him undressing me spurs me to action. “Wait. Please, let’s think about this.”