Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 95898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 479(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 479(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
As both of our breathing patterns calm down, her legs unwrap from around my waist, and I reluctantly let her body slide off my hips and onto the floor. “I don’t know how you held me up like that for so long,” she softly comments.
“Hey, if I can’t hoist my girl up against a wall or a window, then just go ahead and check me into a nursing home,” I reply with a grin. She returns my smile, still able to partake in a little light humor. I kiss her forehead and hold her steady until I feel she can stand on her own.
My lips twitch, lifting in an arrogant, lazy smirk. “You can scratch being fucked against a window off your bucket list now,” I tell her, and her face flushes a beautiful shade of pink as she coyly looks away and I chuckle. She tries to take a playful swat at me, but misses.
“What makes you think I…”
“Babe,” I interrupt, lifting a brow, “being fucked held up against anything is every woman’s dream.”
“So you say.” A haughty arrogance lines her voice, and I smile. I know she’s full of shit.
“Oh, I do say.” Then I tilt my head to the side and tease her, using a feminine voice, “Travis…oooh…God…don’t stop.”
I pull away quickly, avoiding her quick swing, and laugh aloud. She tries to hide her mirth, but fails miserably. “You’re so bad.”
“You like me bad, baby,” I say with a grin as I bend down and grab my jeans, slipping them back on, but leaving the top button unfastened at the waist.
I turn and make my way to the bathroom to grab a washcloth. I douse it with warm water, and as I do, my grin fades. Jules’ silver medallion gleams on the countertop underneath the bathroom lights, catching my attention. She has to be more careful with this piece of jewelry now. I don’t want her taking it off for a split second, because that would be all it takes for shit to go from bad to worse. Then I’d have a hell of a time trying to find her.
I grasp the necklace in my hand and close my fist tightly around it as I’m reminded what this necklace stands for. Eternal Love. I remember the exact words she said to me when I noticed her necklace for the first time too. Family, where life begins and love never ends. I wasn’t able to fully grasp its meaning then, not like I do now.
I slip the necklace into my pocket, and then wring out the wet rag. I’ll need to have a chat with her about keeping this on 24/7. When I walk into the bedroom with the warm washcloth, she’s sitting on the edge of the bed with her bathrobe wrapped tightly around her body, looking lost.
When I narrow my eyes on her in question, she turns her gaze away from mine, and I suddenly get the feeling we somehow took ten steps back from the intimacy we just shared. “What’s the matter?” I ask as I kneel down before her and gently use two fingers to turn her chin, forcing her to meet my gaze.
“Nothing’s wrong,” she says solemnly. My brows furrow at her odd behavior.
I’m not sure what the hell just happened between us, and I don’t like it. “That’s not a nothing’s wrong look to me, sweetheart.”
She softly sighs in defeat, her blue eyes full of grief as she asks, “So, what now?”
I squint my eyes, and raise a brow at her. “That’s a pretty vague question. Care to elaborate?”
She waves her hand around in a swirl through the air while she speaks. “You guys were having a secret meeting out there this morning. I’m just wondering about the plans you came up with.”
My lips thin in thought as I ask myself just how much to tell her to keep her appeased. “The plan is to stay in plain sight for now. Somehow, they found us at the cabin, and until we know how they did it, we can’t disappear fully, because if they found us once, they’ll find us again.”
I watch the wheels in her little head turn as she thinks about what I just said and then tries the word out on her tongue. “Disappear?” She swallows hard at the thought, her voice turning croaky, “You mean…really disappear? But what about—”
Cutting her off, I quickly explain, “I mean slip away to a safe hiding place…like what we had at the cabin, but we need to throw them off our trail first.” She doesn’t need to know any more of my future plans at this point. It’d only freak her out anyway, and we have a pressing task at hand. I set the warm rag on the bed and pull out the necklace from my back pocket. As I place it around her neck and clasp it, I warn her, “Jules, I know how much this necklace means to you, and with us being on the run like we are, we might have to leave in a second’s notice. That means you’d lose something very special to you forever if it’s not on you. Promise me you won’t take it off until I tell you that you can. Don’t even take it off to shower, okay?”