 by M.A. Innes.jpg)
Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter 1
Ender
“He’s coming.”
What the fuck had we done?
As I panicked, face still pressed against the window as I watched our life unravel before my eyes, Leif called out from the bathroom, obviously not grasping the severity of the problem, “What do you mean? You said you’d wait for me.”
“I lied.” He’d been taking too long. My patience hadn’t held out. “But the crazy one saw me and he’s coming.”
That finally got Leif out of the bathroom as he dried his hands, but he was barely frowning and still didn’t get it. “Maybe he’s going for coffee or something. It’s still early for a photo shoot.”
Leif never knew when to panic. He was entirely too laid-back sometimes.
“No, he’s crossing the street.”
Oh, what had I done?
We.
What had we done.
This was definitely a we situation even if I was the one who’d gotten caught.
Leif paused, understanding finally dawning on his face as he tossed the hand towel back into the bathroom. “How did he see you?”
“I don’t know.” We’d been watching the photo shoots for months and hadn’t done anything different. It was one of the benefits of working from home. “What should we say?”
We’d have to say something to the crazy man, right?
“Nothing.” Frowning, Leif looked serious and in control, helping my panic finally recede. “It’s not illegal to look out our windows, and if they wanted privacy, they should’ve closed their curtains.”
That sounded logical but laws weren’t always logical.
There were whole websites devoted to the silly laws that were still on the books, and if we weren’t careful, we were going to end up as an example on one of them.
“I won’t do well in prison. I’m too soft.” And too curious about stupid things to end up in jail. What if I got some big brute who wanted to help me explore the ridiculous things the photo shoots had put in my head?
“Neither of us are going to prison.” Leif rolled his eyes and somehow that made him seem much more confident. “Who do you think a jury would believe, two boring-looking, mid-twenties guys who look like they should be playing golf, or the lunatic in lingerie who’ll just end up screaming at everyone in the courtroom?”
Good point.
“We need clothes that don’t make us look like forty-year-olds going golfing.” It wasn’t until he pointed it out that I realized I’d put on nice pants and a polo shirt to hang around the house on my day off.
When had my wardrobe turned into middle-aged bland?
I wasn’t ready for a midlife crisis yet.
“You wanted to look like a real adult, remember?” Leif was glaring at me like I was an idiot but that might’ve been because he was dressed just like me, except he was wearing nice jeans.
Clearly, I’d thought real adults were boring.
“You shouldn’t have let me do this to us.” He was the one who was supposed to keep us from doing stupid things, not me.
Leif needed to up his game, but before I could tell him that, the doorbell rang.
“Shit.”
“Shit.”
Yep, it was bad if he was frowning and cursing.
When the doorbell went off again, I turned back to Leif. “We have to open it, right?”
He just shrugged, which didn’t help the whirling in my stomach. “He might get bored and go away?”
The guy who seemed to thrive on drama?
Was Leif delusional?
Leif’s sigh as the doorbell went off again said he was regaining his sanity. “I think this means we have to open the door.”
Great.
“I’m too young to die.” And I had too much social anxiety to survive being yelled at by the crazy model for very long.
Leif snorted. “He’s not going to kill us. Just make threats and scream. Pretend he’s just another relative and tune him out. You do that great.”
He had a point.
“I can do that.” I had plenty of insane relatives, so it might work. “He’s just another cousin.”
Taking a deep breath might’ve helped my nerves if a slightly shrill voice hadn’t come through the door. “God help both of you kinky fuckers if I have to ring this bell again.”
We weren’t kinky.
Well, Leif wasn’t.
I wasn’t so sure about me, but I wasn’t going to voluntarily tell that to the crazy man.
“I don’t think he’s going to leave.” Whispering to Leif, I felt my stomach knot as he sighed. “What do we do?”
“Open the door?” Leif took a deep breath and straightened. “We’re going to open the door. If he accuses us of anything nefarious, we’re going to point out that they never close their blinds. I’m pretty sure that will be the bigger legal issue because we’re not the only one in the building who can see into that studio.”
I liked that.
Leif could handle it.
He was amazing and had a point about the building. The old warehouse-turned-lofts was beautiful and in an amazing location, but it faced the craziest photography studio I’d ever seen. Yes, we wouldn’t look like the problem if it came down to courtroom drama.