Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 61942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
I dropped the bar then my phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out, glanced at the screen and saw Bleu’s name, and then turned off my music so I could take the call. “Yes?”
“Laura landed in Paris an hour ago. She’s back at her apartment.”
I wore a blank stare, unsure what had transpired to make that happen. Maybe she missed me, but she wouldn’t sacrifice all her hard work for a quick booty call. Something must have happened—something bad. “Thanks for letting me know.”
“Sir?”
Great, there was more.
“The prime minister wishes to speak with you.”
Tensions were escalating. The heat on his back had started to burn through his clothes. “He’ll have to wait.”
I let myself inside her apartment without knocking, seeing that she wasn’t in the common areas. “Laura?”
She came out of the bedroom, barefoot in a sundress. It had thin little straps and barely contained her sexy breasts. She must have distracted everyone at the airport while she sat there and waited for her flight. “He figured it out.” She was clearly shaken up because her hands weren’t all over me like they usually were. “The money…he knew you were the only one who would have given it to me.”
“How did they know about it?”
“I don’t know.”
It took me a second to figure it out. “You shouldn’t have bank notifications on your phone like that. If someone steals your phone, they know more about you than they should.”
“Well, I’ve been broke all my adult life, so I’ve never had anything to hide.” She walked off, reaching for a bottle of wine in her cabinet, along with two glasses. She uncorked it and poured the red wine. When she took a drink, her lipstick smeared around the glass, and all I could think about was having that color around the base of my dick. “Fuck.”
I approached the small kitchen island and took the other full glass without taking a drink.
She gripped the edge of the counter, her eyes not on me but somewhere else altogether.
I didn’t interrogate her because I knew the information would flow naturally. Just had to give her time.
“He said he would kill me if he ever saw me again.” She didn’t look at me as she said it, like she was too embarrassed to admit the truth, not just to me, but herself. “My own father…” A sarcastic laugh escaped her lips, short and brief, bitter.
This was the moment people said they were sorry, but it didn’t feel right to say that now. It was hollow and pointless.
“I would have killed him right then and there, but I didn’t have the means.”
I wanted to break my word and do the dirty work for her. Break his skull in her name. But if I didn’t break my word for my men, I couldn’t do it for her. I was in hot water as it was. Already looking over my shoulder every time I turned a corner.
“And Victor…he hasn’t changed one bit.”
Her wine was cheap and barely tolerable, but I drank it anyway. I preferred hard liquor, but I respected fine wine, the kind stored in cellars for decades, the kind picked from the best harvests in France and Italy.
She took another drink, finishing the glass. “I guess it’s over…” Her eyes finally lifted to mine.
“I wish I could fix this for you.”
Her eyes softened. “I know you do.” She came around the kitchen island and slid her hands up my arms, snuggling into my body, her perky tits right against my chest. Her arms circled my neck, and she rested her forehead against my chin. The smell of springtime washed over me, coming from her skin and her hair. “But I’m happy to be home with you.”
My arm circled her waist, while the other slid underneath her dress, over that fine ass and to the bare skin of her lower back. I enveloped her against me, keeping her close as I closed my eyes, feeling all the pain in my heart stop for a moment in time. I was the kind of man to hold a grudge—and hold it forever. But I wasn’t angry with her anymore. All that resentment and rage had been replaced by a calming sense of peace.
She pulled her head back and tilted her chin to look at me, her lips slightly parted and her eyes eager. A tint was already in her cheeks from the wine, and her partially painted lips practically begged me to kiss her. I must have taken too long admiring the view, because she cupped my cheek and rose as high as she could on her tiptoes so she could kiss me.
My hand squeezed her ass as I pulled her into me. Her kiss was soft and gentle, but I took over and made it rough and hard. Our tongues danced together. Our breaths grew short. My hand continued to squeeze both cheeks under her dress.