Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 72692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
“How dare you?” I hiss. “How dare you?”
“You asked,” he retorts. “I responded.”
“Then I guess I’m fucking lucky that I’m not yours, then,” I seethe, even as I imagine myself sprawled over his lap while he punishes me. Even though a part of me craves the thought of belonging to him. Warring desire and shock make my body tremble at the thought of him taking me across his knee. Tied to his bedpost so he can… discipline me.
What other dark and devious things would he do to me?
I want to know.
Oh. My. God.
I can’t deny that the thought both horrifies and excites me.
Is that what being with a man like Thayer means?
How could I ever have a crush on someone like him?
I’m turning away when the sudden memory of what I saw tonight overcomes me. That woman tied up and terrified, dragged between two men like she was nothing but chattel…
I look back to him.
We’re too close.
Too close.
“Are you sure about that, love?”
He’s breathing heavily as his fingers skate up the length of my arm, wrapping me in a cocoon of heavy, heated anticipation. The touch of his hand sends shockwaves through my body, and when he cups my jaw, my heart threatens to leap out of my chest. Thayer’s sharp blue eyes hold mine. My body vibrates with tension.
No, of course I’m not sure about that. I’m not sure at all.
His mouth hovers over mine. Part of me yearns to submit to this, even as another part warns me to run. I’ve imagined this moment, but it was so different. I wasn’t half-naked, we weren’t arguing, he hadn’t just told me he’d punish me.
I want this. I want him. But I’m afraid of what will happen if he kisses me.
His lips press against mine insistently, and my warring thoughts disappear as suddenly as they came. My body heats, a fusion of light and longing and a desperate, throbbing need that builds when my lips part and his tongue meets mine. Strong fingers massage the back of my neck while his other hand strokes my thigh.
I want him. Oh, God, I want him.
A door opens. Voices coming our way.
He lets me go. I jump backward as if scorched.
What are we doing?
My cheeks burn when I hear footsteps heading this way. Thayer busies himself tidying the first aid kit when we suddenly both stare at my legs and apparently realize at the very same time that I’m not wearing any pants.
Thayer looks quickly around the room and grabs a rumpled blanket on the armchair. He throws it at me.
“Fucking cover yourself,” he growls in a heated whisper.
Ugh, the nerve of him!
“You did it,” I snap.
He gives me another look laced with the whole if you were mine speech.
So I do the only sensible thing. I stick my tongue out at him.
My God, what is wrong with me? If tonight has taught me anything, it’s that nowhere is safe. People are violent and untrustworthy, and Thayer has basically just said as much.
So, naturally, I kissed him.
Ugh!
Lyam enters the room with Mario Rossi as I clumsily cover my bare legs and yank my pants halfway up.
I saw both of them when I first came in but was so fraught with nerves, I barely recognized them. I remember Mario now.
Lyam doesn’t even look at me. If he notices anything out of place, or if he cares, he doesn’t let on.
“Get her out of here, Thayer. They haven’t traced her back to us yet, so I called in some favors. They don’t know where she is or who she is, but there’s a posse on the prowl for the tall, pretty woman with the hot-pink hair.”
Mario nods, corroborating this. “Word’s already gone far and wide.” He turns to me. “You were at Avelline’s?”
I shrug, still blushing, but very, very thankful for that damn blanket.
“The Chaberts, Thayer,” Lyam says in a low voice.
“Fuck.” Thayer looks like he wants to torture, maim, and eventually kill somebody.
“You know what this means.”
Lyam and Thayer stare at each other until Thayer finally nods.
“Uh, does someone want to fill me in? Because I have no idea what this means. I don’t know any of these names.”
I try to pretend that I’m very put together, after having fallen and scraped myself to pieces, begging hysterically for help, allowing Thayer to doctor me up, then kissing the man.
Very put together and grown up, indeed.
I want to sob. I want to hide.
I want him to kiss me again.
“You two tell me if anyone’s in the foyer,” Thayer says. When they go, he turns and hisses to me, “Get dressed.”
I quickly yank my pants up over my ass and zip them just as Lyam and Mario come back.
“No one.”
Mario sits beside me and gives me a look of concern. “Do you have anywhere to go?”
I swallow, my predicament suddenly seeming insurmountable. Where can I hide?