Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“I don’t know. You could keep threatening me if you wanted. You seemed to enjoy it.”
He narrows his eyes at me like he’s trying to work out if I am fucking with him or not. But I’m not.
“I’m just trying to keep you company,” I explain. “I can go, if you want.”
“No,” he says, his voice slightly husky. “Lock the door.”
I do as he says almost without thinking about it. Then I come back to the bed, but before I can sit down, he throws back the covers and crooks a finger at me. He’s wearing boxer shorts and nothing else. He has a bandage over his stomach, but other than that he looks muscular and powerful.
“Take your clothes off,” he orders. “You can leave your underwear on, if you like.”
He is watching me, and I feel myself blush as I receive that order. I feel suddenly shy. It is a lot to take your clothes off for a man and slide into bed beside him.
I lower my eyes and fumble with my shirt, like I’ve forgotten how to undress myself.
He waits patiently. I thought he might get annoyed with me, but he seems content to watch me as I squirm. Then I realize that he’s probably enjoying this part too.
Leo
I forgot how adorable she can be. One moment, a sassy temptress; the next, as shy as the virgin she certainly is not. I enjoy the tension in this room as she struggles with herself.
“Come here,” I eventually say. It is hard to help her undress with one hand, but I do it anyway because I am a gentleman. I slide her shirt up over her head, she kicks her shorts off, and I pull her into bed. She snuggles against me, all curvy and sweet, her face pressing into my neck. I feel her inhale me deeply. I stay still, not wanting to interrupt her tenderness. So much of our interactions have been governed by chaos and dominance.
“I’m sorry you got shot,” she repeats. “Please don’t do it again.”
“I will try not to. To be fair, that’s really more about what Luke is willing to do. He was doing his best to deal with the situation. Don’t worry. We’re going to be okay. We’re all going to be okay.”
I hold her close, and as I say those words, I feel like they are true. We are going to be okay. In spite of the fact that we are in a bunker, and being hunted by a man I would put money on being obsessed with Aiden, we are going to survive.
I had planned to fuck Ella, but as she snuggles into me, her breathing slows, and after a few minutes, she is fast asleep. There is a peace in the room, and in my heart, that I have not felt before. Lying in bed, holding the woman I would die for, feeling my gut and my heart heal in two different, but entirely real ways.
“I love you,” I murmur to her. I don’t know that she can hear me, and I don’t know that I will be able to say it to her while she is awake. I have never said those words to anybody before. I did not think I was capable of feeling love in this way.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
I wake up, surprising myself with the realization that I was asleep. I must have dropped off with her beside me. Someone is tapping at the door.
“Can you get that, please?”
Ella pads out of bed in her panties and opens the door, still half asleep. Aiden is at the door. He looks faintly surprised as she opens it, then turns around and comes back to bed, crawling back under the covers with me.
“We were going to talk about what happens next,” he says. “I wanted to get your opinion on some things…”
“Sure. Come in. Close the door.”
Aiden steps into the room. There’s a chair by the door, which is where he sits. Ella has more or less disappeared under the blankets by this point.
“Doctor says you should be out of action for a few more weeks,” he says. “I want to send you and Ella somewhere very safe, somewhere you will be under guard, but not underground. I was going to ask if you would be open to that.”
“Can Ethel come?” The question comes from under the blankets.
“Yes. This isn’t something we’ll be doing right away. I need to stabilize the Red situation, but once it’s more under control, I want to send the two of you away.”
“I don’t want to go away.” Ella pokes her head out from under the blankets. “I want all of us together. It’s the only thing that feels right, or safe.”
I am inclined to agree. “She’s right.”
“Having us all in the same place makes it easier for us to be wiped out. It might be better if the three of us set up separate homes, and perhaps Ella could be shared between them…”