Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 60904 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60904 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
He chuckles, and the sound does something funny to my insides.
“I’ll see you in class.” He says it like a promise.
I give him an awkward wave and turn on my heel to hide my flushed cheeks.
Before this weird encounter, I’d struggled not to glower at him during our lectures. Now I’m not sure how I’ll keep myself from blushing if he turns that devastating smile on me again.
He’s far too hot to be a professor. It shouldn’t be allowed.
11
RAND
Karolina
Are you free to chat?
I really want to talk to you.
Stop ignoring me, Bones.
Are you alive?
Please answer me.
Iread through her string of texts that she’s sent since the disastrous end to our hunt. I’ve intended to deprive her of my company as Bones until she accepts me as Rand.
But after our encounter in town today, I’m curious to know what she thinks of her asshole professor.
I hope I’ve managed to repair some of the damage I did during the icebreaker.
She seemed more at ease with me, even if she was a bit prickly at first. She almost flirted with me a little.
I’ll have to be careful not to give away too many clues that I’m Bones and Rand; she’s not ready to find out yet. I might never tell her, if I can figure out a few logistics—I have her real name and her face tattooed all over my body.
Eventually, I’ll have her in my bed, and she’ll need an explanation for that.
I’ll have to earn her trust so that she’ll share her true identity with me. Then I’ll be able to pretend the tattoos are more recent.
For now, I have to hope that my false English accent is enough to throw her off. That, and the fact that she’s never seen my face as Bones.
And really, what has she shared with me in all these years as her masked man?
In the wake of her rejection after the hunt, I’ve obsessively pored over ever interaction we’ve ever had. Even though I know everything about her from my clandestine stalking, objectively, she’s barely revealed anything about herself.
And I kept all of my secrets too because I wasn’t ready to reveal myself to her.
No wonder she freaked out when I tried to profess my devotion.
She was scared of me in that moment.
I shudder at the memory of her fear. Even now, it makes my heart twist painfully in my chest.
I read her unanswered messages again.
I want to know what she thinks of Rand. She’s too guarded to open up to her professor so easily, but she might tell Bones about it.
Any information I can glean will help me win her heart.
Acting before I can change my mind, I find my skull mask and gloves. I tug on my long-sleeved black shirt so she won’t be able to see my tattoos.
Once I’m covered, I request the video call.
A warm glow suffuses my chest when she answers seconds later.
“Bones.” She sighs my name in relief. Then her delicate features sharpen with annoyance. “You’ve been ignoring me.”
I make my voice gravelly and fall back into my authentic American accent. “I wasn’t ready to talk.”
She sighs again, the aggression draining out of her. “I understand. Things didn’t go the way I thought they would, and I freaked out.”
It’s not an apology, but at least it’s an admission that she was too scared of our connection to stay with me.
“Don’t worry about it,” I reassure her.
I don’t feel like reliving the painful encounter with her. All I want is to find out how she feels about Rand.
She presses her lips together, as though she’s considering what to say next.
She must decide that she doesn’t want to hash it out either because she says, “Okay. Everything is normal between us, then?”
My teeth clench, but I force myself to relax. There’s no going back to our relationship as it was before. I will never service her again. Not like that. Not when she won’t offer me more than her sexual submission while she keeps walls around her heart.
“I don’t want to fight,” I say instead.
She blows out a relieved breath. “Good. I don’t want to, either.”
Of course she doesn’t. That would mean confronting her feelings and being vulnerable with me.
I’ve always known Karolina has trust issues. I just didn’t realize that she didn’t trust me.
I resist the urge to rub away the ache at the center of my chest.
“I’ve missed you,” she admits, and my heart squeezes.
“I’ve missed you too, kitten.”
A sly smile curves her lips. “So, why did you finally call me?”
I grit my teeth. She thinks I’m here for a sexy chat, and nothing more.
As though I only want to talk to her to get myself off.
“I know what you want from me,” I grumble. “But I want something from you first.”
She smirks and cups her breast through her powder blue nightgown. “Oh? What could you possibly want from me, Bones?”