Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Sobs wracked my body. I was shaking so hard the headboard was rattling like we were still fucking.
What was Carter thinking? I wasn’t about to look at him, not until I could get myself under control. Was he gloating? Loving that he’d destroyed me like this?
I flinched when his arms came around me. Then he pulled me against him, and I couldn’t believe it. My heart pounded as tears still spilled down my cheeks. He held me tight against him and then he pressed his lips to the top of my head. The simple gesture tore me apart. Sobs hit me again, shaking my body, but Carter stayed with me, his body tucked around mine, letting me know I was safe.
Why? He hated me. He had every right to hate me.
My tears finally dried up, but I didn’t dare move. I wasn’t going to do anything that might make Carter snap out of whatever mood was allowing him to hold me like this, to comfort me. I didn’t care if I never moved again. Having his arms around me like this was heaven. I hadn’t thought I’d ever feel this again. Cuddling had been rare enough before I’d deserted him.
I was so sleepy. The physical and emotional release had done a number on me. The next thing I knew, the sound of a phone ringing woke me up.
“Fuck,” Carter muttered, letting me go and rolling over. I stayed there, curled in on myself as I listened to him trying to find his phone in the mess of clothes we’d left on the floor.
His voice was sharp and irritated when he answered, then he was silent for a few seconds. I strained to hear the angry words coming from his phone, but I could only make out the tone, not what was being said.
“No. I’m fine, you don’t need to do that…. What the fuck? No. Damn it, Miles. I can handle this.”
So it was his friend Miles, the one I suspected might be more than just a friend or at least had been at one time. Miles had a boyfriend now, but I didn’t know what that arrangement was like.
“This is my investigation,” Carter yelled into the phone.
“The fuck it is.” I heard Miles clearly that time.
“We’ll talk about this later.” Carter must have ended the call, because the next thing he said was, “Get dressed. My friends will be here in a few minutes.” He tossed a pair of his sweatpants and a T-shirt on the bed.
“What the fuck?”
Carter rolled his eyes. “They thought they needed to check on me. They’re worried I might have snapped.”
“I wonder why. Did you tell them you were kidnapping me?”
“You were already in our custody.”
I snorted.
“No, I didn’t tell them a damn thing.”
Wow. He really was fucked up about me. “No wonder they’re worried.”
“Get dressed.”
I rolled over and looked at him. He was scowling at me, which was better than the softness he’d shown before. Carter mad and trying to be superior was something I could handle without falling apart again.
“Why?” I wrapped a hand around my dick, which had gotten hard again as soon as I heard Carter’s voice. I stroked myself lazily, and his eyes remained glued to my hand. “Don’t you want your friends to see how easily you conquered me?”
“Get up and quit playing around.”
“You can’t tell me you didn’t enjoy breaking me like this. Surely you want to crow about it.”
Carter snarled. “This was a mistake. All of it. I should have sent you somewhere else, let one of my men interrogate you and then…. Fuck. I don’t know, but this was a one-time thing.”
“I deserved to be punished, and you did it.”
“Yes.”
That wasn’t all he’d done to me, and this wasn’t a mistake. It was the only thing I’d done in ages that felt exactly right, even when it hurt like hell. “Then what the fuck was the spooning for?”
“You know I’ve always been a sucker for a weaker person in distress.”
Before I could reply, one of his friends began pounding on the door. Carter moved to stand right in front of me, anger pouring off him. “This never happened. You won’t say a fucking word about it.”
“Or what?”
“Or I’ll hurt you in a way you don’t like.”
“You have no idea what capacity for pain I’ve developed in these last months.”
He looked away, but not before I saw something that could be sympathy in his eyes. Did he wonder what I’d been through? Did it matter? As far as he saw it, I’d sent him away bleeding to further my career.
“I could hand you over to the men you ran away from tonight.”
I shook my head. “You won’t.”
“Matteo, don’t say a fucking word about this.”
“Okay.” His eyes widened. “They don’t need to know about any of this. It’s only important to us.” I stood and dressed hurriedly.