Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 49416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
“Yeah, yeah,” I say. “I’ll try.”
We hang up, a little relief uncoiling in my chest knowing Caleb is taking good care of my club.
The case I'm working is frustrating as hell.
I’ve stared at the letters Zoe gave me from her stalker, plus all the information I've pulled on the guy's background in the days since, for the last hour.
Within the last decade, Spencer Joel has been arrested twice for assault—information I’ve yet to tell Zoe. She's already scared enough as it is with this guy, and I worry telling her might impact her day-to-day routine. That's the last thing I want to do. Besides, I'm here to protect her, and won't let that bastard get close to enough to even breathe on her, let alone attempt to hurt her. If he ever tried...
My hand curls into a fist atop the table, anger boiling inside me in a way that fires up all my alert sensors.
I'm thorough at my job, and damn good at it too. But the idea of someone hurting Zoe? This deep protective instinct flares inside me in a much more intense way than with my previous clients.
Shit.
The lines are getting blurred here. I always take my cases seriously, and never want anything bad to happen to any of my clients, but I can tell there's a little something extra when it comes to Zoe’s safety. Emotional, physical, it doesn't matter—there's nothing I wouldn't do to make sure she’s taken care of.
A flash of last night blasts through me, hot and searing. The way she'd gone soft beneath my touch, submissive and responsive in a way that told me the brilliant woman who was independent in every single facet of her life, liked to give up control in certain areas. Liked to be taken care of when she's usually the one handling everything.
And fuck me, she turned me on. I’ve never reacted so viscerally to someone in my life, never needed or wanted someone on the level I do her.
Ever since that night on the roof, our flirtatious texting, and then getting to spend more time with her now has led to this intense connection I can’t deny.
And I don't want to.
I don't know how the fuck I got lucky enough for someone as smart and wonderful and gorgeous as her to even entertain someone like me, but I’m sure as hell not going to waste it. Caleb was right about that.
I study the papers before me for a few more minutes, frustration settling heavy in my gut. The fact that Caleb is struggling to track him down is unsettling.
Normally, if I can just find these people and explain to them the severity of the situation and the consequences of what will happen if they continue, they back off. Getting an arrest on a stalker is a difficult and complicated situation—unless they cross the lines and make a physical attack on the person they’re stalking, it's an entirely difficult situation. And I'm sure as hell not going to let it get that far, hence me needing to find this guy and let him know the real-world consequences that lie just inside the law if he continues his bullshit.
I blow out a breath, checking the time. I have a half an hour before Zoe will open up her practice, and decide to drive to her favorite coffee shop in Sweet Water, grabbing the iced coffee that she can't seem to get enough of, before heading to the office.
She parks her car next to mine where I wait for her, and we both climb out at the same time, me with two coffees in tow. I hand her the sweet, cold concoction, and her eyes light up as she takes the drink and looks up at me.
“Thank you,” she says, glowing like I've just given her a diamond instead of an iced coffee. Her smile is breathtaking, the gratitude pouring off of her enough to make me want to buy her a coffee every day for the rest of forever if it makes her look at me like that.
“How did you sleep?” she asks as she unlocks the building, and we head inside. She takes a sip of her coffee as she sets down her bag in her office, moaning around the swallow.
Fuck, I want to hear her moan like that while I'm pumping between her thighs.
“I slept okay,” I say with a shrug.
“Just okay?” she asks, tilting her head.
I step farther into her office, cocking a brow at her. “I had a few things on my mind that kept me up.” I let her know exactly what I'm talking about with my eyes, and I'm rewarded with another flush from her.
“Oh,” she says with a little hint of surprise. She fidgets with a few things on her desk, breaking our gaze. “I'm sorry if I left you hanging. I had way too much champagne at the party and then you left so quickly after dropping me off—”