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)
We chat for almost an hour, and by the time I venture out of the main room and down the hall toward the kitchen, Mila and I have covered just about everything from the color of Reaper’s man nips right down to the way my thong is wedged right up my ass.
She’s right in the middle of telling me all about some new tech software that’s supposed to be released this month, and as she raves all about it, I walk into the kitchen and come to a startling halt. A big pink gift-wrapped box sits right in the middle of the kitchen counter with my name scrawled in messy boy handwriting, and a stupid smile pulls across my lips.
“What is it?” Mila asks.
“Huh?”
“You gasped,” she tells me.
“I gasped?”
“Yes.”
“Well shit,” I laugh, not having even realized. “There’s a box,” I tell her as I stride toward it, sparing a smile for Shadow, who sits next to the box, not caring in the slightest about its sudden appearance in our kitchen.
“What kind of box?” Mila questions, sounding suspicious.
“A gift-wrapped one with my name on it.”
“Oooooh,” she says excitedly before switching the flip. “Wait. It could be a trap. Does it say who it’s from?”
Pulling the phone away, I switch the call over to FaceTime before turning it around and showing Mila the large box. “I don’t know,” I tell her just as Shadow cuts in, not bothering to turn her gaze away from the bowl of cereal before her. “It’s not a bomb, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s from Reaper.”
“Oooooh. It’s gotta be an apology for leaving you stranded in that cave yesterday,” Mila cuts in as giddiness flourishes through me. “That’s kinda romantic.”
I don’t have a lot of people in my life and wasn’t one to ever receive birthday presents growing up, and to have someone care enough for me to get me something means more than Reaper could ever know. All I ever wanted as a kid was to have what the other kids had, and unfortunately, that wasn’t a reality for me. I had to work for everything I got, and when Mila came into the picture, the two of us pushed ourselves to the brink of exhaustion until we were capable of having the life we wanted for ourselves. Any gift we bought each other was slaved over, and to receive this gift now . . . It could be a moldy banana, and I’d still be grateful for the thought.
Moving closer to the table, I inspect the pretty box, trying to decipher what could possibly be inside, and judging by Shadow’s lack of interest, I can only assume that she already knows what hides within.
I reach for the big pink bow right on top, and as I start to pull it apart, Mila giggles with excitement. “Holy fucking shit,” she rushes out. “Hurry up and open it.”
A stupid smile stretches across my face, and I tug the bow harder, releasing the pretty ribbon before lifting the lid off the box and setting it aside. I glance down into the box and suck in a breath as the decapitated head of The Executioner stares back at me, the blade still protruding from his eye. But on top of that, the very ID Reaper had plucked off the dirty cave ground and taken off with rests peacefully on top of The Executioner’s forehead.
“Wait,” Mila grunts, certainly having a very different idea of what constitutes romance. “Is that—”
“The Executioner’s head served to me literally on a silver platter?” I say, finishing her sentence as Shadow decides she’s suddenly interested enough to peer up from her cereal and glance inside the box. “It sure is.”
“That’s disturbing.”
“No,” I say with a soft sigh, my heart filling with the sweetest joy. “It’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me.”
Reaper chooses that exact moment to walk through the front door, his glorious tattoos on display as his shirt dangles from his shoulder. His body is coated in a sheer layer of sweat, and judging by the way every single one of his strong muscles bulge from his sculpted body, it’s clear he’s just put himself through one hell of a workout.
His gaze comes to mine the second the door closes behind him, and as he holds my stare, my heart races faster than it’s ever raced before. “You got me a head in a box,” I whisper as he watches me from across the room, waiting to see what he’s about to walk into.
“I fucked you under a waterfall and then abandoned you in a cave,” he tells me as though I hadn’t experienced it all myself. “You refused to sleep in my bed, so I figured I owed you an apology.”
I go to respond when Shadow gets to her feet, her face scrunched up in disgust. “Gross,” she mutters before reaching into the box and grabbing the handle of the blade. She yanks it out, and The Executioner’s eyeball goes right along with it, and with her prize in hand, she struts down the hall and takes herself to her room.