Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 128356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Not that I’m complaining.
This is not a bad development per se. And I certainly love this over the tension I sensed from him at the arena last night.
He gathers the cum and thrusts it back into my mouth, watching me suck his fingers clean with darkened eyes. “That’s a good girl.”
A noise of protest leaves me when he pulls out his fingers and stands up.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Violet.”
And then he’s out the door, and I close my eyes, a weird sensation wrapping around my throat like a noose as I drift off.
That was a dream…right?
23
VIOLET
Dahlia
Viii! Lunch together?
Actually, no question mark. Lunch together. I’ll ask Kane to eat with his friends, so it’s only us.
Me
You don’t have to do that.
I want to. See ya!
As I’m about to pocket my phone while walking out of my building, it pings.
Unknown number
You should leave this town while you still have the chance.
I frown, my fingers gripping the phone tight.
This can’t be…Julian, right? For some reason, this seems way beneath him. That man would threaten me face to face or on the phone without having to resort to these tricks.
Besides, Kane clearly said Julian is taken care of. Not sure how, but it’s been a couple of weeks since I returned to Graystone Ridge with Dahlia, and I’ve had no contact with Julian, so I believe Kane.
From my understanding, and all the smart-looking people I saw surrounding Julian when I signed that contract, he’s powerful enough to eliminate me without threatening me.
Unless there’s a benefit in not eliminating me?
My head slams into a solid wall, and I recoil. “Sorry…”
The word bunches up in my throat when I look up from the phone and my eyes crash with the deep dark-browns from last night’s erotic dream.
And it was a dream.
It could have only been a dream.
“Do you lack the ability to watch where you’re going?”
The rumble of his voice drags over my skin like sandpaper and silk all at once. A shiver rushes through me, leaving goosebumps in its wake.
Jude’s so tall, so broad, his presence consumes the space and air around us. The black leather jacket strains over his shoulders, stretched taut by muscle, the fabric creaking slightly as he shifts. The T-shirt beneath it does nothing to hide the sharp ridges of his torso and the way his barely contained biceps flex.
But it’s his face that makes my pulse stutter and my fingers tremble at forbidden dreams I refuse to acknowledge.
He’s a grumpy, good-looking mess of closed-off but dangerously captivating features. Sharp jaw, full lips pressed in a firm line, and dark brows drawn together in a look that hovers between annoyance and something I can’t read.
The intensity of his dark gaze presses against my ribs, my skin, and even though we’re fully clothed and in public, it’s like he’s stripping me bare.
Like last night.
No. Absolutely not.
I step back, hide my phone, and start to sidestep him. I’m simply not getting myself into the Jude mess after I finally escaped him.
My stupid fantasies that would get me killed don’t matter—
A strong hand wraps around my arm and drags me back. The air whooshes out of my lungs as I stand in front of him, swaying slightly before I ground myself again.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Away from you.” I twist my arm, trying to set myself free, but he only tightens his hold.
“You sure about that?” There’s a glint in his usually closed-off features, a rush of brightness and intensity that puts me on edge.
I still lift my chin. “Yes. How about you continue to ignore me like you have so far?”
“How can I ignore you when we have so much unfinished business?”
My lips part at the way he grunts the word unfinished. He steps into my space now, and I inhale his cologne that sets my skin ablaze.
Like it did last night when I was touching myself as the dream version of him watched me.
The orgasm was real, but I refuse to believe anything else was. I just…can’t.
“Kane said he gave you the list in exchange for removing me from it. You should’ve killed me that time when you put Mario in a coma.”
His jaw clenches, the pads of his fingers tightening around my upper arm. “You still think I attacked you?”
My lips tremble because his rage is seeping into my bones. I shouldn’t even feel his rage, let alone be affected by it, but I still lift a shoulder. “I told you. That’s what Julian said.”
He releases a humorless bark of laughter. “Julian said I attacked you and you believed him, then proceeded to become his fucking lab rat?”
“He said he’d give me and Dahlia a new start away from you.”
“Is that new start anywhere to be seen? Because you just came back right into my claws, Violet. Three months of slumbering did you no favors.”