Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Our naked bodies locked together as we chased pleasure in each other.
I hold her to me when she comes down from her high. She sighs and tucks her head against me.
My lips tip up in a smile until she reaches for my belt.
I have to stop her.
Fuck.
“Not yet. No,” I say, but when her face falls, I have to explain. “I don’t have any protection, baby. Do you?”
She bites her lip and shakes her head. “No, dammit.”
I gotta get out of here. I have to get her dressed and get out of here while the taste of her is still on my lips.
I reach for her jeans and hold them out for her to step into. I fasten them before I snag her top. Starla looks shy and pleased.
I tug her top down and watch with chagrin as her perfect beauty is hidden under the fabric. She’s perfection personified. Perfection deserves to be worshipped and adored, not hidden.
We’ll get there.
“Let’s get something to eat. I need to shut all this down. I’ll meet you in the hallway.”
I don’t know if she’s eying me with suspicion or it’s just my imagination, but she quietly waits for me outside the door.
With a sigh, I check to see whether I still have cell service. Spotty, but it’s there.
I pull up the footage I came for. Attach it to the secure location I was given and hit send.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Starla
It’s honestly hard for me to think straight right now.
I’m standing in a hallway at Bella Notte while Timeo shuts down monitors — which ones? I’m not exactly sure, but I’m more than a little grateful we won’t have video evidence of whatever it is he plans on doing with me.
My heart thumps at the possibilities.
They’re… endless.
I bite my lip as I think about the room with the ropes, and all the other rooms we passed on the way here that basically were begging for our attention.
I’m not the straitlaced little prude I was when the Montavios rescued me from the clutches of the fellowship, but I’m also not even close to being… experienced.
I’ve had opportunities, but I never wanted to be with anyone else that way.
I’ve wanted Timeo since I knew what those butterfly wings in my chest meant.
I’ve wanted no one but him since I knew our friendship had blossomed into something so much more.
“Half my kingdom for a steak and potatoes right about now,” Timeo says, rubbing his stomach as he joins me. “What do you think they’ve got here?”
I know it’s a common expression, but… I kinda like the idea of Timeo and a kingdom.
I want to be his queen.
I slant him a teasing look. “What will you give me if I find steak and potatoes?”
“Depends,” he says, his eyes narrowing on me, a half grin teasing his lips. “Do you know how to cook them?”
“Nothing a good ol’ YouTube video can’t show me,” I say with a nonchalant shrug.
“And if we lose cell service again?”
Shit.
“What did people do in the old days?”
He smirks. “I dunno. Learned from grandparents and cookbooks?”
I shake my head. “The Dark Ages for sure.”
To walk toward the kitchen, we need to pass the main bar area. I pause at the bar where the boxes fell.
Would boxes really make that much noise?
I bite my lip, thinking. I guess it would depend on what was in them, but we were all the way upstairs—
“Are you sure we looked at every possible avenue here?” I stand at the bar, looking around me curiously. “It just seems strange, don’t you think?”
“We’ve swept the place. I checked and locked the kitchen before I came to find you.” Frowning, he jerks his head toward the kitchen. “But it’s most easily accessed from outside.”
The kitchen, located near the main entrance, has both an inside access door and an outside exit.
“In the middle of a blizzard?”
“It’s unlikely, but I want to be safe.”
“Wait. Do you mean to tell me I could’ve been… doing what I did… and someone could’ve been here all along?” My question ends in a high-pitched squeak.
He blows out a breath. “I hope not.”
I breathe that air back in again but keep my shit together. I take out my gun and hold it before I nod. “Let’s do this.”
Timeo nods, his own weapon in his hand as he goes ahead of me.
He looks over his shoulder at me. The overhead light hits his jaw, highlighting the roughness of stubble on his strong chin. “You look so fucking sexy, baby.”
My cheeks flush hot. For years I’ve wondered if he ever thought of me as more than a sister-in-law, more than a friend… but now I know that’s not a question.
“Alright, I’m gonna open this door. You ready?”
My heart pounds, and I have to take a tighter grip on the gun because it’s slippery in my damp hands. “Of course I’m ready.”