Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 164263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 821(@200wpm)___ 657(@250wpm)___ 548(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 821(@200wpm)___ 657(@250wpm)___ 548(@300wpm)
“I’ll call him now,” he replies.
“Okay.”
“Thanks, man.”
I walk to the end of the marina as I do another check and ten minutes later my phone vibrates in my pocket, the name William lights up the screen.
“How did it go?”
“He didn’t answer.”
I twist my lips as my eyes go back to the yacht. “Thought as much.”
“Can you go in and check on him please?”
“He doesn’t want to see me.”
“He doesn’t want to see anyone, just go in and make him go to bed to sleep it off. He’ll be fine by morning.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Call me if anything else is going on.”
“Alright.”
I make my way onto the yacht and stand at the door. “Edward.”
He turns toward me, his eyes are wild and he’s totally disheveled.
“Let’s get you to bed, hey?”
“I’m fine,” he replies, his voice is weak, broken.
But he’s not fine, his soft and sad reply is so unlike him that it only worries me more.
“I’ve got some of your sleeping pills.”
“Go away please,” he murmurs.
“Sir, I need you to go to bed and get some sleep or else as a duty of care I’m going to have to call your brother.”
He exhales heavily. “Leave me be.”
“A good night’s sleep will fix everything; in the morning you will feel so much better and we can make a new plan.”
He stares at me for a while and eventually nods, resigned.
I follow him up to his bedroom and get his sleeping pills and pass them to him; he takes them with a glass of water.
“What would I do without you, Philippe?” he says softly.
“Probably murder a lot of people.” I smile as I gesture to the bathroom. “Shower.”
I wait as he showers and then eventually he comes back into the bedroom with a towel around his waist and drops it as he dresses into boxer shorts.
“Have you eaten?” I ask.
“Yep.” He pulls the blankets back and climbs into bed, and I know he’s lying. He hasn’t eaten all day.
“I’m going to stay on the yacht tonight, okay?” I tell him.
“Whatever.”
“I’ll be in the room next door; you call me if you need me.”
“I won’t need you.” He sighs.
“What if you have a bad dream?” I tease.
“Fuck off,” he replies with his eyes closed.
“Well, can I call you if I have a bad dream?” I smile.
“Get out before I kill you,” he mutters dryly.
I flick the light off and leave his bedroom door ajar. “Tomorrow will be a better day.”
“Stick to your day job, you’re a terrible therapist.”
“Sweet dreams.” I smirk.
“Shut the fuck up.”
EDWARD
I roll my lips as I park the car, can’t believe I’m about to do this.
I push through the doors of the antique store and walk in. “Hello, Helene.”
Helene turns and her face falls when she sees me. “What are you doing here?”
“I….” What am I doing here? “I need to know Alora is okay.”
“She’s fine.” She picks up the feather duster and walks to the shelving as if to dismiss me. Not one to be deterred, I follow her.
“Is she alone?” I ask.
“Well.” She dusts a shelf. “I talked to her a half hour ago and she was at the beach bar and she had just met a lovely man.” She keeps dusting. “Funnily enough…he just broke up with his girlfriend as well.”
I glare at her, my tongue slides over my teeth as I get a vision of Alora talking to another man, my fists clench at my sides.
“Where is she?”
“That is none of your business.”
“It’s all of my business, I want her to be safe.”
“Oh, she’s safe.” She smiles sarcastically. “But let’s be real for a moment, you don’t want her, you just don’t want anyone else to have her. But my prediction is that tonight she’s going to fuck you out of her system with a long, hard night grinding in the sheets.” She smiles. “And by morning she won’t even remember who you are. You snooze, you lose, Prescott. Letting her go was the biggest mistake of your life.”
My jaw clenches in fury. “I don’t like you.”
She shrugs with a smile. “But Alora does, and we both know that her opinion is the only one that matters.”
“Where is she?”
“Get out.”
I hate this woman, although her loyalty is admirable.
“When will she be back?”
“In a while.”
“How long?”
“Goodbye, Edward.” She turns to dust the shelf. “Tell Philippe to ask me out on a date.”
“Dream on.” I march toward the door. “That will absolutely not be happening.”
“Toodle-oo.” She waves with her fingertips. “Have a nice life,” she says in a singsong voice. I march out of the store and onto the street, I can feel my blood as it pumps angrily through my veins.
What a fucking witch.
ALORA
“Where are you from?” I ask.
“New York,” he replies with a playful smile. His sandy hair has a curl to it, and even while sitting down on a bar stool I can tell that his tanned body is built for sin. I thought men like this only existed in brochures, I’ve never met a man like him while on vacation before. “It’s beautiful. Like you.”