Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
He stopped, his brain working overtime. “The king of Loa Mali? The one who got married recently? What do you mean by harem? And how would you work in a bikini?”
She started toward the store. “Oh, I can work in a bikini. It makes hiding weapons a lot harder, but it forces one to be more creative. I killed this dude with a straw from one of those coconut drinks once. I had to. That string bikini was useless when it came to hiding a gun. And yes, it was that king, and maybe I shouldn’t tell you these stories.”
“Because they’re classified?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Because you look a little crazy pants right now.”
Because he was jealous. Didn’t matter that she told him he couldn’t be. He fucking was. He loved her stories. She’d started telling him crazy spy stories and he would sit and listen, soaking them in without ever quite believing them. But he could see her in a harem. He might not be able to truly visualize her assassinating the heads of the five top Yakuza syndicates at a conference with an ice pick and not getting blood on her catering uniform, but he could damn straight see a kinky king picking her out of a crowd for some dirty sex. Yeah, he could see that all too well. “I don’t like thinking about you using your body like that.”
Her brows rose. “Are you serious?”
He shook his head. “It’s different.”
She stopped and the joking left her face. “How is it different, Josh?”
Shit. Was it? He reached out to the only thing he could. “Well, for one you’re not lying to me. All our cards are on the table. We know this is an exchange, but then it always is. This is an honest exchange. I bet you didn’t tell the kinky old king who you were and why you were there.”
“No, and just for the record, he wasn’t that old. He’s only a couple of years older than me.”
Awesome. “Also, we’re involved in a D/s relationship. Did the king give you what you needed?”
She frowned. “He was way too gentle. And see, you call him kinky, but he wasn’t. He called me his delicate flower. I actually hated that part. Kash is a good guy, but he was a little fucked in the head in those days. And I did eventually tell him. I had to because a man working for The Collective showed up, blew up Kash’s lab where he’d been building an engine that ran on water, and tried to kill us all. I managed to get the king off the boat with scuba gear and the last of his research intact. And that’s totally classified.”
He stopped, frowning because he’d heard that story before. “That sounds like that movie. Love After Death. Hey, did someone drown after she managed to switch a bomb to the bad guy’s boat, and then the hero pulled her out and made everyone leave because he didn’t know what she’d done. And then he brought her back to life?”
That brilliant grin was back. “I have no idea how they haven’t arrested Serena yet. Probably because no one would believe it.”
He followed her inside. “Holy shit. You were the crazy CIA double who saved Pierce Craig.”
“I like to call him Big Tag,” she admitted and then sighed. “It smells like joy in here.”
The well-manicured attendants were already circling like sharks, but he drew her close anyway. “Sometimes I think you’re too good to be true.”
“Only sometimes?”
“The other times I think you’re too crazy to be true.”
She went up on her toes and met his eyes. “Maybe I’m both. Good and crazy, but I promise you, Josh. I am true. And you’re right. This is different.”
When she got close to him like this it was almost impossible to not lean down and brush his lips against hers. She was right there and she would welcome his kiss. He could be normal for a moment.
It didn’t do him any good to think like that. “If I stopped paying you would you stay with me?”
Her stare turned serious. “Yes.”
Why was he going down this road? He couldn’t seem to stop himself. “If I didn’t have money, would you still sleep with me?”
“I would pay money to sleep with you, Josh.”
A chill went through him and he stepped back.
“Josh?” She reached out and put her hand in his. “Do you want to go somewhere and get some lunch? I don’t need clothes. I’m actually pretty stylish all on my own. We have the afternoon. Let’s go do something fun for you. I think the Dodgers are playing.”
She killed him. This was how she fucking killed him. He knew how much she wanted those damn clothes. He’d watched her talk about designers and shit with his agent’s wife at a party they’d gone to a couple of nights before, but unlike the other women he knew, she would give up her shopping day to please him. This. This was why he said it was different with her, why the D/s part was different. In D/s, each partner had a role to play, but at the heart they were the same role—to please the other.