Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33642 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33642 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Lord knew I’d overheard several of the club girls comment how they knew none of the patched members would ever take an old lady from the pool of club whores. Made sense, I guess. I doubted it would be comfortable if you had a woman every other man in the place had been with. Which is why I should have known better than to get my hopes up that Falcon saw me as something different.
“That’s why we need to talk. So you know the whole story. Or at least as much as I know.” He very slowly brought my hand to his mouth and kissed my fingers tenderly. “Don’t give up on me, Gina. Please.” His voice was tender and full of emotion. That was the only reason I was able to nod.
I was still dressed in the leggings and oversized T-shirt I’d had on the night before. “I probably smell gross. I should change clothes.”
“You smell incredible, baby. Nothin’ trumps the smell of warm woman after she’s woken from a contented sleep.” He smiled warmly at me. “But you do what makes you comfortable.” He stood but kept my hand which meant I either had to tug away from him or get out of bed. I didn’t have the strength for the latter so I followed where he led.
“I make a mean omelet.” Falcon grinned at me. “Any requests?”
I gave him a small smile. “You know what I like.”
“Yeah.” He gave me an arrogant lift of his chin. “I do.”
A few minutes later, we each had a plate full of fluffy omelet covered in cheese. Just the way I liked it. Basically, egg and cheese. What’s not to like? It also meant this conversation was going to be as bad as I’d feared because Falcon didn’t try to get me to have anything other than the eggs. He usually put all kinds of other shit in it. Veggies or meats. Today, though. Just an incredibly fluffy egg and cheese.
We ate in silence. Well, we pushed food around on the plate. I’m not sure either of us actually ate anything.
Finally, Falcon moved his plate away. I did the same. It was a lost cause anyway.
“Just say it,” I whispered, not looking at Falcon. I knew in my heart whatever he was going to say would change our relationship. He was probably tired of having to tiptoe around me. The mere fact he’d been watching me this whole time and hadn’t approached me before now told me he was probably trying to decide if he wanted to get to know me better. Or if he could approach me for sex again. Maybe that was it.
“If you want sex, all you have to do is ask. I know you’d never hurt me.” I spoke softly, unable to look at Falcon. I couldn’t look at him told me I wasn’t ready for intimacy with him. Or maybe I was ashamed because Falcon thought he couldn’t treat me like a normal woman.
“Baby.” He took my hand and moved to kneel in front of me. As I looked down at him, I tried my best to fight back tears. He didn’t need another round of tears or weakness on my part.
“Whatever it is you have to tell me, Falcon, just say it. I can take it.”
“Let’s clear some things up first, OK?” There was an intense light in his eyes. Whatever he was about to say, he felt passionately about. “If we ever have sex, Gina, it will be when you’re ready. You ever don’t feel comfortable with what we’re doing or where we’re headed, you tell me.” He reached up to frame my face with his hands. “I never want you to feel like you have to do something you don’t want to, Gina.”
“But… if it’s not that, are you leaving because of me?”
“No, honey.” He took a breath. “My past is murky. Before I came to Grim Road, I let a lot of people down and they died. Before that, it was me and Rattler and his sister, Joilyn.” He winced as he said the other woman’s name. “Joilyn… I don’t know what happened to her, but up until this meeting, I thought she’d died in a car wreck. So did Rattler.”
“You thought she died? Does that mean she’s not dead?”
“It looks that way. It was why we were called to the meeting. A paramilitary group has been hired to rescue a CIA deep cover operative. When this group found out who they were going after, they did some research to prepare for the job. That’s when they found out who she was in relation to Grim Road. Which is Rattler’s sister.”
When he didn’t say anything more, but looked like he wanted to, dread built inside my chest until it felt like a lead weight. “What else?” My voice was barely above a whisper.