Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 67120 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 336(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67120 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 336(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
His brows rose, and I felt my heart rate start to skyrocket.
God, he sure was sexy.
Like you know when you saw flames of a fire, and you thought they were so pretty that you wanted to touch them, but knew you shouldn’t because you would get burned?
That was what Malachi was to me.
A flaming hot man that I knew that I should stay away from.
Yet, I couldn’t make myself do it.
I couldn’t stay away.
And I knew I’d get burned, but I couldn’t quite make myself care.
“Fine,” I said. “And Axe stays with me. You can visit him.”
“What’s it mean that I think this is going to come back and bite me in the ass?” he asked.
“Probably because it is,” I confirmed.
CHAPTER 8
My hobbies include judging people’s eyebrows and grammar.
-Sierra to Sammy
SIERRA
Gabriel,
Tell me about yourself.
I know that we said that we wouldn’t exchange photos, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t tell each other what we look like, does it?
I’m not tall, or short, I guess. I’m just about average. Five-foot-five.
I have mousey brown hair that I’ve cut all of three times in my life, meaning that it’s really long. I’m talking to my waist long if it’s fully straight and I take the three hours to make sure that it is.
I have lightly tanned skin that stays year-round, and freckles on the bridge of my nose and the tops of my cheeks, right underneath my eyes.
I have boring brown eyes that are the color of mud—not Texas red-dirt mud—but the brown mud that normally allows trees to grow in it. What is that? Topsoil? I don’t know what it’s called. Maybe a more apt description would be the color of a Hershey’s bar. Blah.
As for my body shape, it’s nothing great. Just a normal body, I guess.
And I have small feet. Size six. I think that’s why I trip so much.
Anyway, hopefully you’ll tell me about yourself. Also, I hope that you’re being safe.
If you ever decide to allow me to buy you something and send it to you in a care package, let me know!
Sierra
• • •
“What’s this I just heard about you dating my sister?” Sammy came up not long later and insinuated himself so close that Malachi had to step back or be pressed up against him.
I punched him in the ribs and he backed off, but only slightly.
“What’s it to you, fart face?” I asked. “You’re suddenly concerned for me now and not Mark?”
“Mark is a good friend, Sierra. I’m sorry that I’m a little upset with you because you broke up with him out of the blue,” he said, his eyes moving to Malachi. “So you’re seeing my sister, but you’re not telling me that you are? What kind of friend does that?”
“The kind of friend who knew you were pissed off this week,” I said, smoothly lying as if I were telling the truth. “Let’s just point out that you were pissed at me this week, and I didn’t think that it would go well if Malachi told you we were dating.”
“Damn fucking right.” His eyes narrowed on Malachi. “I just… this doesn’t make any fucking sense. I would’ve known that y’all were together.”
“Let me see your phone,” he ordered, holding out his hand to me.
I rolled my eyes and gave him the finger instead.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I’m going to text him,” he said. “If you’re really seeing each other, your phone number would be in his phone, right?”
I looked at Malachi warily.
“Sammy,” I said, trying to play it cool. “This is utterly ridiculous.”
He held out his hand for my phone, and when I refused to give it to him, he only started laughing.
“I knew that you wouldn’t do it,” he jeered. “What’s really going on?”
I reached into my pocket and handed him my phone. “Here.”
He didn’t know my passcode any… Sammy signed right into my phone, using a passcode that I’d only changed it to a month ago.
When had he had time to figure it out?
He quickly went to the phone app and queued up the number.
I opened my mouth, desperate to stop him, but he dialed a number anyway.
When I stepped forward to explain, Malachi’s pocket started to ring.
“Wait,” Sammy said as he looked in between Malachi and me. “You’re her Gabriel?”
You’re her Gabriel.
Three simple words that had the power to knock me to my knees.
My head whipped around and I stared in dawning realization at ‘Gabriel’ or ‘Malachi.’
I wasn’t sure which one to call him.
“I didn’t realize that you went by Gabriel,” Sammy said, no idea that he’d detonated what amounted to an atomic bomb between Malachi and me.
Gabriel and me.
Shit.
“Well that just makes a whole lot more sense,” he admitted, his eyes moving from me to his sister and back. “Y’all have known each other forever.”
Malachi’s eyes met mine and held them.