Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51889 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 208(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51889 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 208(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
He was there to protect me.
I had started to look forward to those evening meals most of all. A time when I could ask him questions about himself and the world. He answered me honestly and as fully as he could. He was a different kind of man from anyone I had ever met. Rough around the edges, sure, but wise, kind, and moral. A bit scary. But I knew in my bones that he would never hurt me.
His gruff praise made me swell with pride. His big, warm hands on me, teaching me, showing me a new way to move or sparring with me, did odd things to my pulse rate. And the heat in his oddly pretty eyes made me break out in goosebumps. I had noticed lately that the goosebumps seemed to spread and then center on my chest, forming my nipples into hard, sensitive points. Sometimes, a strange heaviness started to pulse between my legs.
I was only just starting to wonder if that was… something different. Not gratitude, or friendship, or even admiration. I was starting to realize that it was desire.
Without noticing, I had developed a little bit of a crush on my captor, who was also my savior.
Now when I woke up and found him in my bedroom watching me, it made me feel safe. I fell back asleep easily. The first few times I waited, making sure he wasn’t going to do anything but watch over me. What exactly that ‘anything’ might be, I wasn’t sure. But I was starting to hope he did something, um, unexpected.
He knew a seemingly endless number of things about the world. I did not. It was creating quite a case of hero worship.
Not that I ever let on to that.
“Come on, champ,” he said, dashing the hope that he might be taking me seriously. “I think we earned a steak tonight.”
“And a beer?” I asked hopefully. Vice wasn’t the sort to let his guard down. But he’d relaxed a bit lately, rewarding us both with a beer or two a couple of nights after a particularly hard day of training.
He chuckled and shook his head.
“I’ve created a monster.”
“I want cheese fries, too,” I said with an unrepentant grin. It was true, my tastes were growing more American by the day. I loved the taste of a hearty meal. And Vice said I was putting on weight, something he seemed to approve of.
“Oh lord, help me,” he said with an eye roll. But he was smiling as he guided me into the house, triple locking the back door behind me. He used a key to lock us in. A key which was around his neck on a ball chain. It was the only key, as he told me time and time again.
I knew he would check all the doors and windows a few more times before going to bed. He barely seemed to sleep, other than dozing off in the chair in my bedroom when he watched over me. I headed to take a shower, deciding to wear one of the prettier tops he had bought for me, along with the snug fitting jeans that always made his eyes flare appreciatively.
I also washed and blew dried my hair, something I rarely bothered with. Usually I ate dinner with wet tendrils clinging to my back and shoulders. I recalled the time Vice had snatched the scissors from my fingers, glad that he had stopped me. He did seem to like my hair a lot, although he warned me repeatedly that in a fight, my long hair was a liability.
The man certainly liked to worry about me. At first it had bothered me. But now it made me feel safe, protected, and valued in a way I had never felt before.
I was smiling when I came down the stairs to eat.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Vice
“Alright, I think you earned this.”
“And?” She asked cheekily, taking a swig of the beer.
“You can choose the movie tonight.”
She gave me a look. I’d been bringing her into the current century with the biggest hits of the last couple of decades. The girl didn’t seem to know any movies that weren’t in black and white.
Not many, anyway.
What the hell did they make those kids watch at that school? And how did they keep them off Netflix in their free time? Actually, it didn’t sound like they gave the students much time off at all. She had already told me she wasn’t used to not being scheduled. She certainly took to training like a duck to water.
Not that I was complaining. Sharing all the pop culture hits with her was the most fun I’d had, well, ever. I got to see everything through her eyes.
And what beautiful eyes they were.
“Roman Holiday.”
I stared at her. The runaway Princess, stuck with a common man for a few days during which they fall in love. Of course, it is impossible, and they never see each other again. I was no Gregory Peck, but it was a little too on the nose.