Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 107096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 535(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 535(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
But it was also wonderful. I’d seen the way the team looked out for each other, even breaking the law to rescue us when we’d been captured. In Stormfinch, no one was disposable. “I’m in,” I told them, and Colton whooped and spun me around and kissed me long and deep.
The party continued long into the night. The sun went down, the stars came out and the strings of lights that Erin had hung over the parking lot began to glow. The children gradually tired and were carried into the base, where a room had been set up with air mattresses and sleeping bags for a sleepover.
I mingled with the women again and now that the ice was broken, I started to make friends. Bethany turned out to be gentle and kind, with the most soothing voice I’d ever heard. Erin was charmingly awkward and Olivia was earnest and adorably naive whenever the conversation turned to sex. Stacey was busy planning Olivia’s bachelorette party and was determined to outdo Danny, who was planning Gabriel’s bachelor party. “Where do you think they’ll go?” she thought aloud, stirring her drink. “Vegas? That’s what the O’Harras did for Aedan and Sean’s joint bachelor party. But I know they got banned from at least a few places...”
“There are plans afoot for a girls’ vacation, too,” Gina told me. “Somewhere hot. You in?”
I looked around at their expectant faces, delighted. A few hours ago, I’d been worried they hated me. “Yes,” I said with feeling. “Absolutely.” I glanced behind her, to where the houses of Mount Mercy formed a carpet of warm, snug lights at the base of the mountain. Maybe I could fit in here after all.
Sometime past two in the morning, after we’d helped box up the leftovers and waved goodbye to everyone, we realized we were the last ones left. Erin had switched off the lights and when I looked up, I found that the sky was full of stars. It really was beautiful, up here in the mountains. I walked through the darkened parking lot with Colton, swinging our joined hands.
“Got something to say to you” he growled.
I stopped and turned expectantly.
He cleared his throat. “I catch you,” he told me in Russian.
I looked at him blankly. Catch like catch you when you fall? Did he mean he wanted to support me?
“I catch you,” he said again.
Did he mean in a kinky way? He wanted to catch me and tear my clothes off? The thought made me crush my thighs together. But it wasn’t lust, in his eyes...
“I catch you,” he repeated, more urgently.
I mouthed the words. And then I went through all the Russian words that could be mispronounced as catch and...oh. Oh! I flung my arms around him and kissed him, “I catch you, too!” I told him in Russian.
He beamed. “Danny taught me. He knows how to say I love you in like thirty languages. I’ve been practicing in my head all night. I’m pretty good, right?”
“Flawless,” I said with a straight face. God bless my training. I squeezed him tight, overcome that he’d do something like this for me. And, I decided, I catch you was an oddly appropriate way of saying it, for us two.
We started walking through the deserted parking lot again. “Been thinking,” he said. “I’m glad you like the trailer, but it is kinda small. At some point, we’re gonna need a bigger place.”
I nodded and turned to look at the town. “An apartment, maybe.”
“You know what I’d really like?” asked Colton. Then he shook his head. “Nah.”
“What?”
“Nah, it’s dumb.”
“Tell me!”
“Forget it, it’s a dumb idea.”
I put my hands on his shoulders. “I will put my thighs around your neck and scissor hold you,” I warned.
He mock-frowned. “If I don’t tell you or I do tell you?”
I flushed and punched him in the arm.
“Okay, okay.” He sighed. “A houseboat. I want a houseboat. I used to live on a lake, back in Missouri. Best sleep I ever had, like being rocked all night.”
“Then we will get a houseboat,” I said firmly, and hugged myself to his chest, burying my nose in that warm, safe place between his pecs. He stroked my back and we stood like that for a long time.
As we finally unwound, he saw something behind me and nodded for me to look. I looked over my shoulder and saw the inflatable castle. Then I looked back at him and saw the look on his face. “We can’t!” I told him, shocked.
“There’s no one else here. And it’s soft. Like a waterbed.” His hands closed on my waist and I felt the heat of them throbbing through the thin material of my dress. “I could throw you around,” he said. “Throw you down.”
The mood changed. I looked up at him, my breathing starting to get faster. He looked down at me, the amber in his eyes blazing.