Total pages in book: 331
Estimated words: 315585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1578(@200wpm)___ 1262(@250wpm)___ 1052(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 315585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1578(@200wpm)___ 1262(@250wpm)___ 1052(@300wpm)
“No one watching. Just us.”
What’s one more time? We’ve already been here twice. Even though I hated myself afterward, it felt good in the moment.
“Okay.” The single word slips from my trembling lips before my mind can even process what I said. My body wants him. Even now, it’s leaning into him. I’m having an internal battle, wanting to slam a knife into his chest as badly as I want to fall to my knees to let him fuck my face however he likes.
My mind knows right from wrong, but my body…she’s only ever known what he described.
“Okay what, angel? You’re going to have to tell me what you want.”
I glance up at him through my lashes, taking in a shaky breath. “I’ll play hide-and-seek. If you find me, I’ll be yours for forty-eight hours.”
“When I find you,” he corrects me.
“What do I get if you don’t?” The thought of him not finding me is what scares me. What if this is a trick? What if he wants to see me hide and he doesn’t even come after me? A way to set me up. To see how desperate I am.
He removes his hand from my neck, and I shiver from the coldness. Kashton chuckles at my question and glances at his watch. “You’ve got sixty seconds and then I’m coming to get you.”
“I can’t get very far in sixty seconds.” I smile playfully. My adrenaline is already pumping. He was right the last time we stood here in the cemetery, when he said saving me from the guy on the Isabella turned me on.
He was there when I needed him, and he’s the first guy to never disappoint me. So far.
“This isn’t about running, Eve. It’s about hiding,” he clarifies. “And you’re wasting valuable time. Run and hide.”
I turn around and rush through the cemetery, stepping on old graves and dodging unmarked headstones in my chunky boots. There’s a mausoleum in the far back that I can hide inside of.
Looking over my shoulder, I no longer see him and smile at myself. The old concrete structure comes into view, and I take a sharp right. Walking up the two steps, I push open one of the heavy doors and step inside.
Pressing my back against it, I blink, giving my eyes a second to adjust while I catch my breath. Drinking and running are not two things I suggest be done together.
It has three stained-glass windows that run across the top of the opposite end, but they don’t allow much light to filter in. Especially on a night like tonight. The lingering musty smell has me turning up my nose. You can hear the wind outside. It’s so strong it makes the tree limbs rustle against the side of the building.
Pulling my cell out of my back pocket, I turn on the flashlight to see better.
It’s on the smaller side. Built from nothing other than concrete. Both the right and left walls contain past Lords concealed in their tombs. Each side is stacked four high and three deep.
There’s a small bench in the center of the room so you can sit and pay your respects or cry for the Lord who’s been tucked away from the world they betrayed.
There are dirt and dead leaves all over the floor. My boots crunch them as I walk to the back. Two concrete pillars stand tall on either side, and two more Lords lie between them in concrete tomb-like structures.
They must be really important. Lords are allowed to be buried wherever they want—with their families. It’s the ones who betray their oaths that are brought and dumped here in the cemetery behind the cathedral. So for these Lords to have been placed in the mausoleum—a private burial within concrete—means they were very respected. Founders, maybe? Even those, I’ve known to be burned and tossed away with the wind if they’ve fucked over the society.
Stepping up on the platform, I run my hand over the dirt-covered crypts. There are no names carved that I can see, just bodies forgotten and left to rot.
This will be me one day. Once I’m gone, no one will come and visit me. I’m not mad about it. I’ve just learned it’s the way of life. No one cares about you when you’re alive or when you’re dead.
It makes me think of the woman I found in the cemetery. Left to rot all alone after she spent God knows how long being tortured. Her family deserved to know what happened to her. She deserved to rest in peace.
The sound of the doors opening behind me is a reminder that I was supposed to be hiding. But deep down, I really want to be found. I’ve spent so many years alone; what’s forty-eight hours belonging to someone? Even if it is just as a toy for him to play with.