Total pages in book: 156
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Ridiculous.
Or was she more upset over the fact that she hadn’t seen North in nearly twenty-four hours?
Where was he?
This wasn’t cool.
Suddenly, the door to the solarium where she’d been trying to do some yoga opened and North stepped in.
She moved around so she was sitting on her bottom. The yoga hadn’t really been working, anyway. “North! Where have you been?”
He raised an eyebrow as he ran his gaze over her. Almost like he was trying to memorize her. Or like he wanted to eat her.
“I’ve been looking into Rex’s disappearance.”
“Did you find anything?” she asked.
He frowned. “No.” He walked over to stand next to her mat and she stood.
What was going on with him? Why did he look so upset? Because he hadn’t found anything about Rex?
Or maybe because he’d learned she’d slept in Jared’s bed last night?
North was aware that she was looking at him warily.
“Something wrong?”
“What? No. Why?”
“Because you keep staring at me like you think I’m going to eat you.”
She flinched. “Sorry.”
Hell.
He’d been hoping that she might bite back at him. Instead, she was apologizing.
Something he despised.
“I don’t like you apologizing all the time.”
“Oh, um, sor . . . shit,” she muttered. “That’s a hard habit to stop.”
“Who taught you to do that?”
“Do what?”
“Apologize. Especially when you’re not at fault.”
She swallowed heavily. “I guess it started with my father, trying to appease him when he was off on one of his rants. And then it continued with Fergus.”
North nodded. “Well, I want you to stop it.”
“I don’t know if I can just stop,” she said.
“Try.”
She sucked in a breath. “Try? That’s your best advice? I should just try?”
“Yes. Try. And succeed. Now, tell me what is actually wrong. Why do you keep looking at me?”
She licked her lips, looking nervous. “It doesn’t matter.”
He sighed. This was his own fault. He knew he was unapproachable. It was something he deliberately did to keep people at bay. But if he wanted her to confide in him, he needed to find a way to get her to feel less scared of him.
“What happened to the girl who told me that I had hippo breath?”
Amusement lit up her face and her shoulders dropped. “I’m surprised you didn’t kill me.”
“I thought of it,” he replied. “You obviously have something to say. What is it?”
“I slept in Jared’s bed last night,” she blurted out.
“I know. I saw you guys when I got home.”
“You did? Was that late?”
“Not that late. You were still awake. You were telling him how you got those scars on your back.”
“You . . . you heard that?” she asked quietly, her shoulders hunching.
“Yes. I did. What’s wrong?”
“I just . . . you didn’t come in? To the bed? Is it because I was there? Or because of the scars?”
“Why would that be the reason? You think I don’t have scars? I have plenty.”
“These are ugly. Horrible. You heard how I got them?” she whispered.
He had to work hard not to clench his hands into fists. “Yes. That fucking bastard.”
There were no words to describe how much he hated Fergus Bartolli.
“Jared . . . he didn’t ask to see them.”
“Are you worried he thinks they’re ugly?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“He doesn’t. We both saw them the other day after your nightmare.”
“You . . . you did? Neither of you said anything!”
He shrugged. “I guess we were waiting for you to say something to us.”
“Oh. So why didn’t you come into bed with us? Because I was there? The other time we were in Jared’s bed you were gone before I woke up. Did you sleep with us the whole night or did I scare you off? I’m so sorry—”
“I don’t sleep with Jared,” he told her.
“You don’t?”
“No. I have insomnia. I barely sleep and if I do . . . I often have nightmares. That’s why I didn’t come into the bed last night and left the other night.”
“Good. I never want to do anything to come between the two of you.”
“Really? You don’t?” he murmured.
She grew bright red as she seemed to get his meaning.
“Jared told me his plan to get me used to you guys touching me,” she blurted out.
“Right.”
“Are you . . . are you going to do that to me too? Tease me until I want you so much that I . . . that I . . . ”
That she’d handle them touching her intimately without being afraid? That she’d be so out of her mind with arousal that Fergus wouldn’t even come into her brain?
That she’d crave their touch, come to expect it, only think of their touch as bringing pleasure and need?
He eyed her for a long moment. He could say no.
However, his life was on borrowed time. It always had been, but it now felt like the clock was speeding up. And he didn’t want to die without knowing what she tasted like. What she sounded like as she came.