Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 43557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Lyric
Zayne bumps me and I go flying, stumbling across the rug on the hotel floor. I land on my forearms and roll. I know how to go down hard. I also know that it is very important to get up again as quickly as possible. Snapping up to my feet behind Zayne, I see my big alien bodyguard take the predator’s punch for me. I hear the impact of paw on scaled skin, a loud, slapping, concussive sound that indicates the sheer power that was going to be unleashed on me.
Zayne flinches slightly as Simon Scowl curses and I realize that I only barely avoided death in this moment. My manager legitimately tried to kill me, and would no doubt have replaced me, just as he threatened.
“That wasn’t meant for…” Simon shakes his mane and looks at me with primal viciousness slowly fading from his eyes.
I’d be terrified of him if I didn’t have Zayne here with me, ready to bleed for me even though he barely knows me. I have never been so intensely attracted to any creature before, ever. I owe him my literal life. My entire existence could have been erased from the universe if not for him.
I don’t care that he spanked me anymore. He can spank me all he wants if he’s prepared to cash the checks my mouth writes for me. He can do anything he wants to me if he’ll look after me the way he just did.
I am melting as I look up at him with newfound admiration, and okay, yeah, lust. Wait. Am I making this weird? I don’t want to make this weird. He’s probably into dragon chicks with cool scales. There’s no way anything that looks like him would be into anything that looks like me. Right? Right. Of course not.
“I need a moment,” Simon Scowl says, gathering himself. He stalks out of the suite, leaving Zayne and me together.
Zayne turns around and looks me up and down. I can see the concern in his eyes, and perhaps a little shock. I don’t think any of the three of us actually expected that to happen. Even Simon seemed instantly ashamed, not that it fucking matters, given he was trying to kill me in the moment.
“You alright?”
I’m alright, but is he? There’s blood coming from between some of his scales, a neon green exude that slowly trickles down his incredibly muscular torso. I reach out for him, stopping just short of actually touching him.
“He cut you.”
“I’m fine,” he says. “Don’t worry about me. It’s just a scratch.”
It doesn’t look like just a scratch. It looks like Simon Scowl unsheathed his claws and made an upward swinging motion that would have absolutely crushed and decapitated me if it had made contact.
“You just saved my life.”
“Yes,” Zayne agrees, plainly. “And I need you to keep that in mind next time you decide to get mouthy with your manager. His threats are not in vain.” He pauses for a moment. “I am going to tell you this because I want you to live. You should run. Now. As far as you can. You should go into hiding until a new starlet is announced. With your temper, you are not going to survive this tour.”
He’s right, of course. I should run from the predatory manager, but I think about the money I’ve earned so far, and the money I’m yet to earn. I think about the fans, the crowds, and the performances. I think about the opportunity of several lifetimes. And I can’t walk away, even though the wages of sin in this deal are apparently death. And of course, then there’s Zayne. Big. Brave. Hot Zayne. If I run now, I never see him again. That suddenly seems like more of a pity than I can bear.
“Thank you,” I say. “For saving my life. That was actually pretty cool of you.”
He doesn’t say anything, just nods.
The moment is starting to feel uncomfortably and uncommonly awkward. Like there’s something else I need to, or want to say, but I can’t, because I’m not entirely certain what it is, and what I have the impulse to do — throw myself into his arms — just feels wrong.
“I’m, uhm. I’m going to get cleaned up,” I tell him. I need to get myself together, breathe, think, clear my head.
“Alright.” Zayne starts to follow me toward the hotel bathroom.
I stop and swirl on my heel. “Wait. What are you doing?”
“Last time you went to the bathroom, you climbed out the window. I’m making sure you don’t fall to your doom.”
“You just told me to flee.”
“Not out the window,” he says. “I’m coming with you.”
Zayne
This isn’t strictly appropriate, but neither was anything else that happened so far today. I had a feeling this tour would be chaotic. They always are. But Simon Scowl doesn’t often try to kill his talent in a temper, and never on the first day. This woman is adept at getting under the skin, and something else is going on with Simon, I’m sure of it.