Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 133975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
She glared at him over her shoulder and made a move to climb onto the counter so she could reach the chips. Keys caught her around her waist and set her firmly back on the floor. “Are you deliberately trying to take ten years off my fuckin’ life?”
She rolled her eyes at him. “You said to get the chips. I was getting the chips. I climb up on counters anytime I want something on the second shelf. What do you expect?”
“I keep forgetting how short you are. No more climbing on counters. If you fall and hit your head, you could die, Lyric. It isn’t a joke. I should have you wearing a helmet in the house.”
She rolled her eyes again. “I talked to the doctor myself, and he said I was fine. No helmet is necessary. I can resume all activities.”
“I don’t give a damn what Steele says,” Keys declared. He walked her to a chair and pressed on her shoulder until she dropped into it. “Nearly lost you, Wildfire. In that helicopter I held you all the way to Caspar and you didn’t open your eyes. Not once. No matter how many times I told you to open your eyes, you just lay in my arms, barely taking a breath.”
His tone was accusatory. As if she’d done it on purpose. He never wanted to relive those moments. Not ever.
“How long are you going to be angry with me over something I couldn’t help, Keys?”
He wanted to shake her. Of course she could have prevented what happened. “Maybe if you’d stayed in your locked salon and called the cops, you wouldn’t have sustained a head injury.”
She nodded slowly. “That might be true, but I think, knowing what your prisoner told you, that once they had you on the ground, they would have broken down the door to my salon, and I would have had more than a head injury. They made their intentions very clear.”
He couldn’t argue with that, so he retrieved the chips and put them directly on the table beside the sandwiches. “Scared me, babe. Not a good thing. I guess you’re just going to have to put up with me getting upset every now and then until I’m over seeing you pale as a ghost with fluid draining out of your brain. Will you cut me a little slack?”
“I always do,” she said and took a bite of her sandwich.
Her eyes. He could fall into her eyes and just live there. Instead of acting like a pussy-whipped idiot, he gestured toward the yard.
“Noticed you like what you see. Any ideas to make it ours?”
She flashed a genuine smile, the one that she reserved just for him. The one that rocked his world. “I always have ideas. You should know that.”
“Knock me out,” he invited.
“I love plants, Keys. If we’re really going to live here for a time, I could design a backyard with all kinds of flowering shrubs to bring in butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. You like to make furniture. We could use a really nice picnic table and a bench for the far side of the garden, not the ones out there now. They aren’t unique enough. We need unique. I’m not big on a lawn, but we could use pavers or find something you like to build a patio. Maybe a fire pit. I’ve always wanted a fire pit.”
The eagerness in her voice shocked him. She liked the idea of designing a garden for their backyard. Just the fact that she would commit to it without further persuasion sent relief coursing through him.
“I can do unique,” he agreed. “You’ll like the greenhouse. It’s large and the beds are raised so we won’t have to break our backs while we’re working out there. I think there’s fruit trees as well, a small section behind a fence.”
“You think? Didn’t you look at this place before you bought it?” She was definitely laughing at him.
“I paid attention to the acoustics. Every room. That mattered to me. That and the workshops on the property. Needed to know they were set up right.” He looked around the kitchen. “I probably should have tried to see the house the way you would see it.”
“If you did, Keys, you’d know I love it. For someone like me, it’s perfection.”
Ten
“Never saw a woman on the back of Keys’ bike,” a tall, dark-haired man said. “Have to admit, I didn’t believe it when the rumors started flying around.”
Lyric wasn’t quite sure how to respond. Keys, however, had no such trouble. He stuck his middle finger in the air. “Fuck you, Maestro.”
Maestro’s grin widened. “Fell like a ton of bricks, didn’t you, oh mighty one.”
“Keep it up, brother. I’ve got a gun.”
She could tell the two men were tight. She kept her hand on the seat of the bike while she made certain she tuned in to exactly the right energy between them. She was good at reading everyone around her, and Maestro was happy for Keys. He might tease him mercilessly, but he was happy for him. On the other hand, when Maestro looked at her with his smile of supposed welcome, his eyes were hard and flat. Judging.