Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51889 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 208(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51889 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 208(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
“Thank you,” she said primly. And I kissed her again. I couldn’t help it. I had to.
But then unwelcome reality set in.
I sighed deeply. We had to get up. I had a very specific plan to get us down the coast to the meetup spot, also known as the wedding venue. The wedding that the bride quite literally had no idea about.
Speaking of that… I had to order the flowers.
“Do you like pink?”
“Huh?”
“Pink? In fact, what are your favorite colors?”
“We are getting ready to get on the road. We need to make sure no one catches our trail. What are you asking me about my favorite colors?”
“I want to know everything about you,” I said honestly. I did have an ulterior motive, of course. But she didn’t need to know that at this exact moment.
“Green,” she said. “I do like pink, too,” she conceded, before whipping off the covers and standing up. She realized she was naked and squeaked, turning around and covering herself. I laughed, holding her nightie up in the air.
“Looking for this?”
“Vice!”
“I like the way you say my name, woman. You sound so surprised, every damn time.”
“May I have my nightgown, Vice?” She said, her gorgeous eyes narrowing to slits when I shook my head.
“I don’t think so.”
“Vice!”
“There you go again,” I said, standing up to kiss her outraged lips. I held the nightie up and out of reach while she grabbed for it. Her chest rubbed against mine in the most delicious way. I groaned.
She stopped and looked at me.
“Are you alright?”
“No,” I said honestly, still holding onto her nightie. “But with a whole lot of luck I will be in a couple of days.”
“What happens in a couple of days?”
“It’s a surprise,” I said, kissing her one more time. Then I smirked. “And I’m keeping this,” I added, tucking her nightie under my arm. “Now git,” I said with a gentle tap on her delightfully round bottom.
She squeaked again and ran for the bathroom, leaving me grinning like a loon while I watched her.
Life was good. With my woman around, how could it not be? And things were only getting better.
I just hoped no one tried to kill us today. Or tomorrow. Or, hell, ever again. But definitely not until after the wedding night.
Either way, for now and as long as I could, I was going to enjoy the ride.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Anastasia
“Where are we?” I asked. The highway was dark. We had been driving all day with minimal stops to get food, water, lots of coffee, and use a restroom here and there. I must have fallen asleep after our fast food dinner, eaten in the car.
I hadn’t had fast food since Vice took charge. I had missed it, even though the circumstance were less than ideal. They called it comfort food for a reason.
I could still smell the French fries.
“We made good progress today but we still have a ways to go. I had hoped to take a sleep break but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards.”
“What? Why?”
“Don’t panic, but we are being followed,” Vice said. I looked at him, noticing the tense way he held his jaw, the white of his knuckles on the steering wheel.
“How did they find us? My cousins?”
“I don’t think so. I am not sure. Maybe someone spotted us at one of the rest stops. Does your father have people out here?”
“He has people everywhere. And he does own a string of gas stations. Maybe we stopped at the wrong one.”
“Fuck. How did Trace miss that?”
“I am sorry. I didn’t even think about it before now. We used to go when I was a little girl. It hasn’t crossed my mind in a dozen years or more.”
“It’s not your fault. It was an oversight. I apologize.”
“Don’t be silly. How could you know?”
He glanced at me for a millisecond but said nothing. His eyes turned quickly back to the road.
“I should have known,” he said softly. I had no answer. He wasn’t God. He couldn’t see everything or know everything.
Vice looked worried. More worried than I had seen him yet. And he had been driving non stop since early that morning, when he woke me and told me to ‘get a wiggle on’.
I blushed, thinking about how I had been naked when I woke up, the night we had spent together, and all the things we had done.
I could hardly believe all the incredible things that had happened between those two soft, pale blue, rumpled linen sheets.
It was surprising I could think of anything but escape at the moment. But the feeling of him nestled between my thighs had been overwhelming, to say the least. I was feeling shy and yet eager to do it all over again.
I wondered what else Vice was going to teach me.
If we escaped. If we survived. We had to survive. I would never forgive myself if I got the man trying to save me killed.