Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
I’d be a right bastard to take what she’s offering.
He didn’t care in the least.
He leaned in, his lips touching the shell of her ear with each word. “Or I could hold perfectly still and let you ride my fingers. Would you like that, Keira? The control you desperately crave would be in your hands and your hands alone.”
Her hand closed around his wrist, holding him in place. “Dmitri, I—”
The sound of his name on her lips broke the spell. “But unfortunately neither is an option.” He sat back, taking his hand and leaving her splayed across the backseat, blinking at him. “I don’t fuck my enemies.”
He said it to remind himself as much as to remind her. In her presence, Dmitri was having an increasingly difficult time cleaving to his own personal code. Keira might be more woman than child, and she was an asset of his enemy’s, but the true reason he couldn’t take her up on the offer she kept waving in his face was that she was a broken thing. Walking wounded. She’d fuck him and then she’d hate herself all the more for doing it, and he refused to be party to her self-destruction.
More the fool he was.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jude woke up without realizing he’d been asleep. Not asleep. Passed the fuck out. He immediately looked for Sloan, only relaxing when he saw her manning the engine of the little boat. Then he noticed that they weren’t in the inlet any longer.
“Where are we?”
He started to move, and stopped, nearly cursing at the pain that shot through his side. He checked the bandage, breathing a little sigh of relief to find that while the gauze was soaked, the bleeding had slowed to a mere trickle. Won’t be bleeding out today.
“Getting help.”
He twisted enough to see that they’d left Orcas Island behind. He couldn’t immediately place the island looming a few hundred yards away, though. “How long was I out?”
“Long enough for me to worry.” She was paler than normal and shivering in her shirt and panties.
Goddamn it. It had been morning when they left and now it was twilight, so he’d been out a hell of a long time, leaving her to her own devices. Goddamn it again.
He kicked the bag closer to her. “I have some shorts in there and a sweatshirt.”
He should have told her before. Hell, he shouldn’t have let himself slip into unconsciousness until he knew she was taken care of. He’d fucked up across the board today, and it didn’t look like that was going to be changing anytime soon.
Sloan let go of the throttle long enough to pull the sweatshirt from the top of the bag. “I think you need this more than I do. You’re half-naked and you’ve lost too much blood.”
He was fucking freezing, but he’d suffer that and worse before he sat here while she was shivering like a damn leaf. “Put on the goddamn sweatshirt.”
She leveled a look at him, but pulled it on. “You’re being stubborn.”
“Yep.”
Sloan shook her head. “It won’t be much longer.”
Thank Christ for that. He eyed her. “How are you holding up?”
“As well as can be expected.” She tucked her legs beneath the sweatshirt, her eyes on the island they approached. “I’m angry and hungry and cold, but I’m not the one who was shot. There will be a doctor in the extraction party.”
Extraction party? “Who did you call?” He remembered her getting the phone, but he must have passed out after that. He’d told her that he trusted her—and he did—but he didn’t trust anyone else. “It could be a trap.”
“It could be.” She guided them to a small dock and worked to loop the lead over one of the tie-offs. It took her a couple tries, but she managed, and she tied a passably good knot while she was at it. “But we don’t have many options, and I’m not willing to gamble your life on hoping you did a good enough first-aid job. This is the only choice we have.”
We.
He managed to climb out of the boat, though he had to lean on her to do it. His weakness disgusted him. If he’d just taken Teague out when he first had the chance, the bastard wouldn’t have gotten a shot off. And I would have killed Sloan’s brother. The same brother who got her out, which is the only reason Jude met her in the first place.
Fuck, if it weren’t for Teague, Sorcha would be dead and he’d be gunning for Callista.
Strange how things play out.
Jude thought he’d accounted for every possible outcome. He hadn’t planned on Sloan.
“I’m sorry. We’re going to have to climb.” She hoisted the backpack firmly onto her shoulders and tucked herself beneath Jude’s arm. “There’s a flat space at the top of this hill—or so I’m told. The helicopter will meet us there.”