Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 151410 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151410 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Rory cleared her throat, and I gave her a dirty smile.
“Battista will sleep between us tonight so he can’t fall out,” she said pointedly.
I rounded the bed and stretched out on the other side. I hadn’t expected there to be any action tonight.
She wanted me to redeem myself at the very least. But the road to redemption was closed to me.
Maybe that would change if Rory and I started getting it on, or maybe not. Maybe that kind of emotional bond would always elude me. Rory didn’t want to risk it, and a part of me was glad because it protected her from me. But the other part, which was unfortunately growing by day, wanted her no matter the price.
“Can you turn off the lights?”
“Aren’t you worried about being in the dark with me?” I was only half joking.
“Does it make a difference?” She sounded tired.
In the dark, the monster was always closer to the surface, harder to control and cage in. But Rory was right, that monster didn’t call out for her.
I hoped it never would.
I didn’t sleep at all that night. Not just because the kid woke three times screaming desperately until Aurora fed him a bottle and rocked him in her arms.
She and I didn’t speak as she took care of him. She, because she was exhausted and pissed at me, and I because I was in awe of her and still trying to figure out how to handle the next few weeks. Hell, the next few days even.
Aurora and I would need a good excuse for why we didn’t stay for the race, why we’d return to Las Vegas and have her move into the apartment early. People expected that kind of erratic behavior from me but not Rory, though she’d been unpredictable ever since our night together.
I got several messages from Massimo and Alessio that night, and especially the latter made it clear what he thought of me being out somewhere with Aurora.
It was before sunrise when I finally got up and dressed. Lying in this moth-eaten bed and staring at the ceiling splattered with fly shit, my pulse seemed to thump in my ears and my heart to hammer a hole into my rib cage.
I felt restless, erratic, like a junkie who needed a fix. If it weren’t for Rory and the kid, I would have gone in search for someone to kill, but this seemed like the worst possible moment to do so.
Aurora needed me; they both needed me here. I pulled a chair up next to the bed, sank down in it, and propped my feet up on the mattress. The curtains didn’t block out the lamp in front of our room, so I could see Rory’s face as she slept.
Tonight, she didn’t have any naughty dreams but her sleep was fitful nonetheless. Battista stirred around five in the morning, and Rory’s eyes opened slowly, then went wide when she saw me watching them.
She frowned and slowly sat up. Her hair was a tousled mess and her eyes were a bit puffy. She was still the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen, and that thought made me want to get up and run like a fucking coward.
I didn’t like the turn my thoughts often took when I looked at Rory, especially in recent weeks, and I felt the last twenty-four hours had worsened the situation.
“How long have you been watching me? It’s really unsettling,” she said in a sleep-roughened voice as she stroked Battista’s head. I doubted he would fall back asleep.
“For two hours perhaps. I couldn’t fall back asleep.”
Aurora lifted Battista into her arm. “Can you heat his morning oatmeal in the microwave?”
I got up and picked up one of the food jars labeled as breakfast meal, then popped it in the microwave.
Aurora got up. “Can you feed him so I can grab a quick shower?”
She raised her eyebrows expectantly. I really didn’t want to be alone with the kid, much less feed him, but I sank down on the chair and let Aurora put him on my lap. Battista tried to cling to Aurora, obviously as opposed to us being alone as I was. She eventually managed to put him down. “You got this.”
Battista and I both watched as Aurora disappeared in the bathroom.
With a sigh, I picked up the spoon and dipped it in the food. Battista allowed me to feed him, even if his eyes kept moving to the bathroom door, waiting for Aurora’s return.
“You and me both, buddy,” I muttered.
The next day, after convincing my parents of my early move, I called Carlotta to tell her I would move in to our apartment today and not in two weeks as had been my original plan. She had been suspicious right away, wanting to know why and if Nevio had done something. I lied that I just couldn’t bear his obnoxious presence at the race circus anymore and asked her if she could move in early too. Diego had forbidden her from moving into the apartment by herself, even just for a few weeks.