Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 140940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Her face was streaked with dirt, blood, and sweat, her cheeks flushed and eyes tired. Her once sleek hair was now disheveled, sticking to her sweat-drenched forehead.
Still. . .to me. . .she was more beautiful than ever.
My heart ached.
I gently brushed away the strand of Emily’s hair that clung to her sweat-dampened forehead. My fingers lingered with a tenderness that came deep from my soul.
I leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her forehead.
She closed her eyes.
“I would burn the world to ashes before letting harm come to you.” My chest rose up and down. “Do you understand that?”
She opened her eyes and slowly nodded.
“Yet, you want to stay in New Orleans?”
She nodded again.
“Do you think you are really being healed?”
Her eyes watered.
That made something inside me snap.
“Mysh. . .” I reached for my mouse, pulling her into my lap.
She let the jacket fall from her legs and straddled me. Her warmth radiating through to me.
Her scent danced around my nostrils, coaxing my angry thoughts into submission.
She placed her head on my chest, and I wrapped my arms around her curvy frame, holding her closer to me. In my grasp, she was a tiny porcelain doll.
Perfect.
Fragile.
The car’s headlights cut through the darkness of the night as we headed away.
She shivered against me.
I tightened my hold on her. “I may end up killing that witch.”
She sat up and scowled.
“I do not trust her.” I dove my hands into my pocket, pulled out my phone, and gave it to Emily. “Type it out. I want to know what happened.”
She shook her head.
I raised my eyebrows. “What do you mean no?”
Leaning back a little, she took the phone from me, typed a little, and then handed it back to me.
I read the message.
It’s too much.
I looked back at her. “If it is too much, then, summarize.”
She tapped the screen again.
“It’s too much to summarize?”
She nodded.
I wanted to roar, but I wouldn’t let myself lose control, not when my mouse appeared so out of it.
I calmed myself. “I know you. Even if it is too much, you would summarize something. So, what is really going on?”
Emily turned her gaze to the window.
“I know you well enough to know when you are avoiding something.”
She continued to gaze in the other direction.
“I think you are able to type something, but you are afraid.” I took her chin and directed her view to me. “What is it?”
Emily’s eyes shimmered in the faint light, pooling with unsaid words and hidden thoughts. She bit her lip, a sign of her internal battle.
I quirked my brows. “Mysh?”
She looked at me, then at my phone, and then back at me.
“Write it down,” I urged, my voice as gentle as I could make it over the throbbing fear that thudded in my veins. “Whatever it is, we will face it together.”
She didn’t move.
The car weaved onto the dark highway, taking us back to New Orleans.
“Mysh, whatever you decide, I’m with you. Your strength is mine. Your fears, I’ll shoulder.”
She returned to hugging me, pressing those soft breasts against my bare chest.
I relished in the gentle pumping of her heartbeat against mine. “You’re not alone in this, not now, not ever. If you choose to stay in New Orleans and face this, I’ll stand by your side, fighting every shadow, every demon, that dares to threaten your peace.”
My voice was steady, my resolve unbreakable. “And if it’s time to leave, to seek safety in Russia or wherever else, then I’ll swim you there myself if I must. All I want, all I’ve ever wanted, is for you to feel safe, to feel loved.”
She sat back up. Tears spilled from her eyes.
The sight gave me chills.
My bottom lip quivered. “And these words are not a castle built on sand, vulnerable to the first wave that might wash it away. My love for you, my promise to you, is a fortress made of diamonds. Impenetrable. Lasting forever.”
Reluctantly, she took the device from me, but did not type. Instead, those fingers trembled the whole time.
“Do not start holding things back from me now.” I frowned. “Together, we have weathered storms and battled nightmares. This. . .this is just another chapter in our story.”
She parted her lips.
“And I promise you, we will emerge stronger, together. Just say the word, mysh, and I will tear down the stars from the sky and shatter mountains to make it a reality.”
Her fingers hovered over the screen for a moment before they started moving.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Each tap echoing in the silence of our car ride like the ticks of a bomb about to explode.
More tears spilled from her eyes.
Fear—it was an emotion I prided myself on mastering, on bending to my will.
Yet, in those moments, fear seeped into the marrow of my bones.
Unbidden and raw.
It wasn’t the fear of physical danger; no, that was an adversary I knew well, one I could confront with steel and fury.