Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
I couldn’t help laughing. “Don’t sound so happy about it.”
“You’re going to be the death of me.”
“Oh, I will not, don’t be so dramatic.”
Heavy sigh. “What do you imagine is in the package?”
“I dunno. I thought decorative eggs, which reminds me. I need to call the woman back and make sure I can pick up what I need after all this is taken care of.”
“Just—give me her name and I’ll have Elyes call and take care of the eggs.”
“Sam, she’s your assistant, not your––”
“She’s out running errands, she’s happy to do it.”
He, on the other hand, did not sound happy; more worried, scared, and a bit mad. “You wish you’d found some nice boring boy to marry who wouldn’t give you heart attacks, don’t you.”
“Shut up,” he instructed. “You’re the love of my life, you idiot.”
“Oh,” I whispered as my eyes filled, and it was hard to see the road for a second. “Sam. You know I––”
“Focus!”
Spell broken.
“I have to make some calls on my landline, but just stay on the phone.”
I grunted.
“Jory.”
“Yes, geez, on the phone. You’re so grouchy when you think I’m gonna die.”
“You’re not going to die!” he roared, and as loud as it was on the phone, in his office it must have been really something.
Ten minutes later I made the turn onto the street in front of his building, and when I came to a stop, before the guys got out behind me, there were police cars everywhere. Like a sea of uniformed officers and detectives in suits. I put up my hands, but Sam was there, striding across the street, glowering, but stunning in his Tom Ford suit. There was no way to miss the power radiating from the man. When he reached my door, I unlocked it and he opened it, drawing me out of the car and up into his arms. He crushed me tight, his face in my hair as he held me pressed to his heart.
“From now on I’ll do my paperwork from home.”
“Sam, I––”
“Even your boring errands can become a summer blockbuster at a moment’s notice.”
He wasn’t wrong.
An hour later Sam and I were in his office as he stood staring at me, arms crossed over a chest like a brick wall as he listened to a Detective Shannon Curtis on the other end of the line.
“It’s almost thirty grams of uncut heroin.”
I groaned. Sam growled.
“Apparently, Mr. Harcourt was supposed to go to the apartment on the third floor, not the second,” Curtis explained.
I hadn’t really been listening that closely to the directions, terrible habit that.
“This is such a break for us. We’ve been tracking this ring for months, and their MO is to kill all the low-level street buyers, which they thought Mr. Harcourt was, and then sell in bulk to the Russians.”
Sam remained silent.
“I guess they have these guys come to different apartments all over the city to pick up product and then kill them when they hit the street. They usually stab them, though we’ve found some of the buyers shot, strangled, one guy was garroted and––”
“That will be all, Detective,” he rasped, hanging up the phone before leaning forward and putting his hands down on both sides of me on the desk where I was sitting. “Jory, you––”
“Did Elyes get the eggs?”
“Do not say eggs to me,” he warned, his voice low and husky.
I cupped his face in my hands, his stubble rough under my fingers as I lifted for a kiss. “I’m sorry, it was an accident.”
He grunted, his eyes narrowing as I nibbled over his chin.
“I promise to be more careful.”
“You always promise that,” he rumbled before he bent and kissed me.
I wrapped my arms around his neck to pull him down and hold him close as I returned the kiss that was possessive and mauling and everything I craved. When I was whimpering and squirming under him, my legs wrapped around his hips, he pulled back so we could both breathe.
“Lock the door,” I begged him.
He chuckled softly, and it was so sexy I let out a moan I wasn’t proud of.
“Why not?”
“Elyes is coming by here to bring the goddamn eggs, and more importantly, my office can’t smell like cum. It’s not professional.”
“No?”
He laughed at me and kissed me again and promised to take me to bed the second we got home. Amazing how a day could go from crappy to pretty near perfect when you were with the one you loved.
“Maybe next year we just have dinner, all of us, huh?”
I would have to think on it. A year away was a very long time.
MAY 2018
Hello, all, Jory Harcourt here. You know, sometimes life is weird and we need a reset, so I had to share this with you all because just recently, my husband did. Next month I’ll get back to my questions, because I have some good ones.