Total pages in book: 20
Estimated words: 18992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 95(@200wpm)___ 76(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 95(@200wpm)___ 76(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
A thrill shivers up my spine, my nipples pebbling rapidly. God help me, I like him being obsessed. I’m obsessed right back, aren’t I? With his face, his body, his warmth, his scent, his jealousy, his protectiveness, his voice. I need him. Again. Right now. I want him to throw me down and shove that huge part of himself deep inside me and ride away his pain. His relief still runs down the insides of my legs in rivulets and I mash my thighs together to savor the sensation.
But I’ve already proven to be weak of will tonight and if he muddles my senses again, I’ll never make the right decision. Stay safe at the church or take a risk with Griffin. Which will hurt the least?
Choose safety, whispers a voice in the back of my head. Save your feelings.
My heart disagrees vehemently. It wants me to throw myself into Griffin’s arms and tell him, yes, take me anywhere. I’ll go anywhere with you.
“Mercy…” he says, jaw popping as he comes toward me. “I meant what I said. I’ll take you regardless. I refuse to be without you.”
He’s serious, isn’t he?
I’m trying to make a decision when I don’t truly have one at all. I just need somewhere to think or I’ll hurtle myself headlong into this mutual obsession that could one day leave me heartbroken and alone.
“Please, I’m scared,” I whisper.
He makes a gruff sound. “No. Never with me. I’m your protector.”
I don’t know what to believe. My heart or my head. Knowing if he touches me, I’ll give in, I turn and run down the hill toward the convent.
“Mercy!” he bellows after me.
He gives chase, but I’m nimble and much smaller than Griffin—not to mention, I’m wearing all black—so I weave my way through the trees, crouching low and hiding as he sprints past me. Tears stream down my face over having deceived the man I love, but at least now, I can consider my options—
“Well, well.” Mother Superior steps out from behind a tree…holding a rope? “You’ve made this very easy, Sister Mercy. We thought we’d have to shoot Private Griffin to get you alone.”
“Who is ‘we’?” I shake my head. “I don’t understand. What are you talking about? Why are you out here so late…”
My question trails off when the regiment captain appears in the distance, a sick smile on his face. “The car is running. Need help securing the merchandise?”
“No.” Mother Superior pulls a gun from a hidden pocket in her robe and points it at me. “Don’t make a fuss or we’ll tie you up, understand? And that would be a shame. We’ll have a harder time selling you to the brothel with rope burns.”
Private Griffin
I’m ready to tear my hair out.
It’s been an hour and I can’t find her anywhere.
I keep seeing the tears in her eyes before she ran from me and I want to claw the beating heart straight out of my chest. God, I fucked up so badly. As I’ve been searching for her the last hour, I’ve realized how much I didn’t take into consideration before I asked Mercy to marry me.
I haven’t give her enough to time to trust me and she has serious issues trusting men after the way her father left. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I all but professed my disdain for women as recently as this morning. Of course she’s hesitant to say yes. Why wasn’t I gentler with her? Why wasn’t I more understanding? Instead I threatened to tie her up and kidnap her.
Idiot.
Mercy is sweet and sensitive and I need to find her. Now. Before I lose my mind. I’m going to hold her in my arms and tell her she can have time to make a decision. If I have to take leave and camp outside the convent for weeks on end, I will do it until she’s confident in my love.
My search of the chapel is fruitless and I’m running out of places to look. She’s not in the tower. Not in the kitchen or bathroom. And there’s something eating at my consciousness, my thoughts continually drifting back to seeing Mother Superior and the captain together outside right before I met Mercy.
Trusting my gut, I take the hallway to the lower floor bedrooms. I know which one belongs to Mother Superior because I overheard the men discussing her insistence that she didn’t want protective bars on her window, so she could let in fresh air from the freesia bushes beneath. I know right where those are located.
When I open the door and find her bed empty, the hair on the back of my neck stands up. I’m already turning to run down the hallway in search of the captain—or both of them together—when a paper-thin voice reaches me from the dark. “Private?”