Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 72401 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72401 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
“Rue?” Cleo asked sharply.
I snapped my head around until I was staring into his eyes. “What?”
My voice came out sounding a tad bit more shrewish than I’d intended, and his eyebrows rose up in surprise. “What’s your problem?”
I stared around his house.
His furniture.
His TV.
His afghan.
His fucking food.
What here was mine?
That’s right, nothing.
Because I didn’t live here.
This wasn’t my place.
This was only temporary.
I turned back to Cleo who was still waiting for my answer and did the one thing that I knew he’d hate. I continued ignoring him.
He waited patiently for a few more moments before he got his face down into my own. “What. Is. Your. Problem?”
I wanted to smack him, yet I refrained.
Was there a reason he kept me in the dark about everything?
Hell, I was still mad at him for leaving me and not speaking to me for a year.
“I’m not talking to you right now,” I was finally able to say.
He snorted. “Well let me know when you decide to stop being a bitch. I’ll be in bed.”
A twinge of guilt speared through me. He was probably worried just as much as me… but that was what he got for being the one to recommend me taking the stand in the first place.
Finishing the last dregs of wine, I stood and laughed when I saw all the crumbs from the remnants of the four cookies I eaten earlier fall to the floor.
Cleo needed a dog.
If he had a dog, I wouldn’t be worried about the crumbs.
Groaning with annoyance, I went to the closet where Cleo kept his vacuum and started cleaning.
Which inevitably led to me cleaning the entire house, stopping to hydrate myself once or twice with another cup of coffee…I mean wine.
I don’t know when it happened, but at some point I sat down and fell asleep, because housecleaning was hard work, people!
***
Rue
I woke when I felt an unfamiliar hand touch the sole of my foot.
It was there, and then it was gone.
That happened four more times before I woke up, staring straight into the eyes of Sebastian, The VP of The Dixie Wardens.
“What?” I snapped.
Except for I fell back to sleep almost instantly, missing why this strange man was caressing my feet inappropriately.
“You’re going to have to actually pick her up and stand her on her feet. She won’t wake up if you give her girl taps on the foot,” Cleo said mildly.
I wanted to tell Cleo that he was a douche, but for some reason I was extremely comfortable
“Why am I doing this and not you, when you clearly could be doing it right now?” Sebastian asked.
Secretly, I wanted to know the answer to that question as well, but I didn’t care enough about the answer to wake up completely.
Why was it that at night, I could toss and turn for an hour and not find one smidgeon of comfort, but when I needed to wake up, any and every position was like sleeping on the softest of clouds?
“Because she’s mad at me and giving me the silent treatment. I’m supposed to stay away from her, or so she told me last night,” Cleo said dryly.
Had I said that?
“Yes,” Cleo answered immediately.
Clearly, I’d said that out loud.
I popped an eye open and glared at him over the couch. “No, I didn’t.”
“Last night when I tried to get you to back away from the vacuum, you told me to go fuck a duck, and to leave you alone,” he said with amusement.
I closed my eyes again, not even caring in the least. “Whatever. I did not.”
Suddenly my afghan was ripped off me, and I found myself being carried like a sack of grain into the bedroom, watching Sebastian’s amused face as I went.
“I’m gonna barf down your ass if you don’t put me down,” I growled.
He did put me down, right into an ice cold shower.
“Eeeek!” I squeaked. “You…you…butt muncher!”
My stuttered insult had him laughing, and he left with a smile on his face while I struggled out of my wet clothes.
Then went to work on the elastic band in my hair that didn’t want to let go of its firm hold on my tangles.
I sped through my shower, knowing damn well why I’d had so much to drink last night.
I was nervous.
In fact, I was so nervous that I was on the verge of puking…or maybe that was the remnants of the wine sloshing around in my empty belly.
Washing my hair, I was just about to get out of the shower when I saw that Cleo had left his razor in the shower.
Smiling deviously, I did a quick shave of my legs, bikini line, and armpits, then put the razor back exactly where I found it.
Served him right.
“What are you smiling about?” Cleo asked from the doorway causing me to jump in surprise.
I thought about the time he told me how gross it was when I asked if I could shave my legs with his razor and barely contained a smile. “Nothing. I’m just about ready.”
He looked at my dripping body skeptically, and turned without another word.
Toweling off as I walked into the bedroom, I went to the closet where my clothes usually hung and grimaced.
I’d taken a little too much over to Cleo’s place, and I didn’t really have anything left that was ‘courtroom apparel.’
The first pair of black pants I tried on wouldn’t zip. The second zipped, but left much to be desired.
I finally settled on a brown pair of capris that had a flared leg, and paired it with a royal blue flowered shirt.
It looked a little showy for a courtroom, and I knew I’d be attracting a lot of attention, but I figured it didn’t really matter. I’d be the center of attention when I was giving my testimony anyway.
Let the games begin.
***
Rue
No bombs went off on our way to the courthouse.
No gunman were sitting on the roof across the street shooting me full of holes.
It was so very uneventful that when I finally took my seat beside Cleo in the back of the room, I was a tad bit disappointed.