Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 135958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
My people were out there, but I had no idea how they’d get to me. A hopeless feeling filtered in until, no. I wouldn’t have that. I’d just have to get to them.
Somehow.
Then the doors opened.
It was showtime.
CHAPTER EIGHT
I didn’t see where the Master of the Bennett Universe went, but Tanner went up the stairs, surrounded by guards. Another two waited for me, and as I started up after him, two more moved in behind me.
They led me into a grand entryway with white marble flooring. Flecks of gold nestled within the rock, which matched a fountain off to one side. The underside of the fountain shimmered gold as well. A large, white-carpeted staircase circled around, curving upward, and that’s where my guards seemed to be taking me.
Tanner ignored me, disappearing somewhere farther into the house.
My guards and I kept going, all the way to the fourth floor and down a long hallway, then up another set of stairs until I felt I was in a whole other wing. We passed through a glass-encased walkway that led us from the main home into the second building, and then up another set of stairs. I tried to keep track of where we were going, but it was getting harder the farther we went.
They led me into a back hallway that rounded the second home and up one last set of stairs. A granite wall stood in front of us, and a guard pressed his earpiece, saying, “Here.”
An unlocking sound clicked, and a door opened for us. We went inside, and I knew this was my prison.
Though, for a prison, it was a nice one.
It was an entire apartment, really. Sleek and modern with black countertops in the kitchen and a dark oak dining table. The couches in the living room were black leather, sitting on a white rug, in front of a television that looked more like a small movie screen. The bathroom had an oval drop-in sink of black glass, with the same hints of gold from the entrance. A chandelier hung high over the kitchen table.
A doorway led into a room past the living room, and I could see the corner of a bed there. A sheepskin had been laid across the edge, creating a scene that could’ve been photographed for an interior design magazine.
Two of my guards stood to the side of the door, and the other two positioned themselves outside.
I didn’t ask questions, and none of them said anything.
I felt it in my bones: I was waiting for Kai Bennett.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to find an escape route from the apartment. But I still looked around to get my bearings.
Inside the bedroom was a king-sized bed, and a wrap-around deck beyond two sliding glass doors. As I stepped out onto it, my heart sank.
There was nothing for me to climb onto if I wanted to make my way down. The fall could’ve fit a thirty-eight-floor hotel, and I could see rocky terrain at the bottom. It was a rock-climber’s dream, or challenge, but not mine.
“Gonna jump?”
I jerked, my hands clenching the railing as his smooth voice slid down my spine. It awakened all my nerve endings, and I gritted my teeth, hating how I reacted to him. Those were the first two words he’d spoken to me in fourteen years, making four in total now.
I didn’t know this guy. Why did I react to him this way?
Turning around, I found Kai standing just inside the bedroom doorway, his head cocked to the side as if he found me a puzzle.
I’d seen it before, but his presence was like a punch to my sternum. He’d been devastatingly handsome at sixteen and he was even more so now, and that set my teeth on edge.
Dressed in a business suit, the shirt unbuttoned and the ends pulled loose from his pants, he had bare feet. He looked as if this trip to see me was the last thing he had to do before relaxing completely, as if I were an afterthought.
Then he shrugged off his suit jacket and shirt, catching the collars of both and tossing them on the bed. He turned to the closet behind him, which opened to showcase an array of men’s clothes.
My mouth dried.
This was his bedroom.
Was it?
I glanced to a second closet, wondering if I’d find women’s clothes in there or more of his.
He brought out a T-shirt and pulled it on. It molded to him, revealing broad shoulders and a lean waist that had been trimmed down to a core of solid muscle.
His hands dropped to his belt buckle, and I pulled my gaze away and turned around.
Reaching out to steady myself on the railing, I heard his pants drop to the ground. My fingers clutched the steel railing, my nails digging into it.