Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 108563 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108563 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Thank fuck for that.
She leans back onto my legs, simply staring at me. “I’m curious about you,” she tells me. “What makes you tick?”
“What makes me tick?” I question, unsure how to even answer that. Fuck, I don’t even think I know what that means.
Siren grins. “Yep. What makes you tick? What gets under your skin?”
“Are you trying to figure out ways to best me? Because it’s not going to work. Nothing gets under my skin.”
“I don’t need to figure out how to best you,” she tells me. “The second I cuffed you to my refrigerator, I realized I already had. If anyone is going to bring you down during these games, it’s going to be me. Besides, look at you, Reaper. I got you pinned on the ground. I could kill you before you even knew what was happening.”
Laughter threatens to burst out of me, and if I wasn’t such a quiet, broody guy, I might have even let it. “There are two things wrong with that statement.”
“Dare I ask what they are?” she throws back at me.
I grin. “Number one. You haven’t got me close to being pinned, and the only reason I’ve allowed you to use me as a bench is because the way you’re leaning back, gives me the perfect view of your sweet little cunt.”
Siren sucks in a breath, grabbing the front of her shirt and pulling it down just enough to cover herself. “And number two?” she prompts.
“Number two,” I say, grabbing her around the throat and gently pulling her into me, her lips barely a breath away from mine. “You couldn’t kill me even if my hands were bound and my cock was buried deep inside you.”
Siren laughs, her eyes shimmering with excitement. “Careful now, you might be giving me ideas.”
Her grin is addictive, and I release my hold on her throat, but as she sits up closer, she drops her gaze to my chest, following the lines of the reaper tattoo that covers most of my body. “This is insane,” she murmurs, her fingers brushing across the design, following it up to the ink that runs up the side of my neck. “I’ve been wanting to find out what this was since the second I saw you.”
“And?”
“It’s terrifying.”
“I don’t wish to scare you, Siren.”
“I know,” she whispers. “But that doesn’t mean that the idea of who you are and what you’re capable of shouldn’t haunt me. You’re going to kill me no matter what happens between us in the next twenty days. I’m right to be wary of you, just as I should be wary of everyone else, Shadow included.”
I nod, agreeing with her completely, and yet the idea of having to end her life suddenly isn’t sitting so well with me. Before tonight, I could have done it. I would have made it quick, made sure she didn’t feel any pain, but now . . . I don’t know. Something has shifted within me.
Lifting my hand, I brush my fingers across the soft skin of her jaw, watching as she folds into my touch. “I don’t want to kill you,” I tell her. “But I will have to in order to protect Shadow.”
She simply holds my stare. “I came into these games so confident that I was going to win. I didn’t expect you to be here, and I sure as hell didn’t expect to find Shadow. I was such an idiot. The second I got the invitation, I could barely contain myself. No part of me thought there was a chance I wouldn’t be going home at the end of it, and now that I’m realizing how wrong I was, I’m not ready to die. I’ve barely had a life outside of work. Never gotten to love someone or be loved in return, never gotten to have a real home or start a family.”
I pull back, meeting her stare straight on. “You want to start a family?”
“Well, no,” she admits. “I don’t particularly care for having kids or anything like that, and to be honest, I’d be a terrible mom, but I want to be able to have the option to start a family if I wanted. Maybe a dog family. I’ve always wanted a golden retriever.”
Understanding fills me. I’ve been where she is a million times before, but in our line of work, a normal life isn’t always something we can have. We aren’t able to put down roots and make plans for a future because we never know where we’re going to be, who we’ll meet, or what job will come next. Not to mention the risk of starting a family only to have your past creep up on you. It’s too dangerous, and that’s when hearts start getting hurt. It’s better this way. Easier. Cleaner.
“I tried the whole girlfriend thing once,” I admit.