Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
“Scarlett!” Her voice comes out like an icy whip, low and deadly. “To your room. Immediately.”
I don’t argue, I walk straight to the elevator and get in, pressing the button up to my room. Susan comes in, standing beside me, and it doesn’t slip my notice that she doesn’t say a single word, but you can feel the tension in the elevator. You could cut it with a knife, it’s so thick. Which tells me one thing—when I get into the room, she’s going to lose her ever-loving mind.
I inhale, bracing myself, and when I do, I catch a whiff of Maverick. It flows in and goes as quickly as it comes, but for a moment, I’m captured by it. By the masculine, leathery smell that has somehow clung to my skin. My heart stretches, at least it feels like it stretches, and I inwardly smile. Tonight was the break I needed, the freedom I have so desperately needed to feel.
The door opens right into the penthouse suite, and both Susan and I step out. The moment the doors are closed, she turns and looks at me, seething. “What the hell were you thinking?” Each word comes out like a whip, like a poisonous snake ready to strike.
I inhale again, letting it out slowly. “I needed space.”
Her face goes red.
Shit’s about to get real.
“Space?” she screeches. “Space!”
Oh, boy.
“You have a man out there who only very recently stopped stalking you and following you around the country side, he’s dangerous, you know he’s dangerous, and yet you so casually walk out of the hotel without protection because you disagreed with what I said?”
Her words hit me right in the chest.
Mostly because they’re right.
When I left the hotel tonight, I didn’t think about him. I didn’t even stop, for one single second, and think that he might be watching and that he might have taken the opportunity to make a move.
My skin prickles and my heart starts racing wildly.
“You didn’t think of that, did you?” Susan yells, ignoring my silence. “You didn’t think that you could have been putting your life in danger going out there and allowing yourself to be exposed like that. And that’s only the beginning ...”
My heart is beating so loudly I can feel it in my head.
I close my eyes.
My palms start sweating.
I feel like I’m going to vomit as a memory invades my mind, claiming my body, freezing it to the floor.
His fingers graze over my cheek. It isn’t affection. It’s warning. Threat. Danger. His grey eyes lock on mine, his dark hair falls over his forehead. To onlookers, he would be a loving man stroking his girlfriend’s cheek. To me, he’s a viper, spitting poison into my veins. I look up at him, forcing my bottom lip not to tremble. His calloused finger glides down my cheek and stops at my chin, where he firmly grasps it, tipping my head back further.
“You’re going to do what I say, Scarlett. Aren’t you?”
I nod.
Of course I’ll do what he says.
The three cracked ribs, bruised abdomen, and pain in my stomach will make sure of that.
That’s what happened last time I didn’t do what he said.
“I’m in this now, do you understand?” His voice is so calm. He’s so clever. So cunning. He doesn’t need to raise it. He doesn’t need to get angry. The man is as smart as he is dangerous, a combination which terrifies me.
Once, I thought he was just a nice guy. I fell for him. We dated. Then I started getting suspicious when he kept disappearing. When he kept interacting with dangerous looking people. Then I found out he was selling drugs. Big drugs. Not just the mild stuff. And I tried to get out.
There was no way that was happening.
He made sure of it.
“I understand,” I croak, my fingers trembling, goosebumps crawling up my arms.
He squeezes my chin, just slightly. He won’t squeeze it hard enough. He won’t mark my face for the world to see. As far as everyone in my crew knows, he’s an amazing man supporting my dreams. They don’t see what happens behind closed doors.
“There you are.”
Susan walks into the room, and his composure instantly relaxes. He doesn’t jerk his hand away from my face, he simply tips my head back and brings his lips down over mine, as if that was exactly what he was doing in the first place. The moment his lips touch mine, I cringe. I hate their rough feeling. I once liked his rugged edge. Not so much now.
“I was just leaving, Susan.” He smiles, dropping my chin and giving me a look that warns if I open my mouth, I will suffer.
“Lovely to see you. Will you be joining us for tonight’s show?”
“I’m afraid I have to work, but don’t worry, I won’t be far.”