Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 69330 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69330 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
“You don’t look like an Annie. I think Sky is beautiful. It suits you perfectly.”
“Why did yours call you Bono? Did your mother have a fixation on the rock star?”
“You’re ignorant,” he said teasingly, emphasizing it with a disapproving shake of his head. “In my language, Bono means all good.”
Her eyes searched his. There was something warm and disconcerting in the way she looked at him as if he was the sole focus of her senses.
“What a strange combination of words.” She untangled her hands and placed them on the table. “Nothing can ever be all good.”
“Nothing can ever be all bad either.”
“From where I’m sitting, life looks infinitely bad.”
“Why do you say that?”
She studied her nails, which were chewed so short some of them were bleeding. “I know what’s in the future, and I don’t see many good things there.”
Leaning over, he cupped her hand and gave a squeeze. “Then maybe you should look at the present.”
She stared at him. “Right now, I’m looking at you. That’s enough.”
The borrowed time in the café with her could never be enough. He had a sudden urge to take her away from here to someplace happy. “How much time do we have?”
“All the time I want.”
“Don’t you have to work?” He’d hate to make more trouble for her than what she was obviously already carrying on her narrow shoulders.
“I’m taking a holiday.”
“What do you do when you’re on holiday?”
“I don’t know. When I was a child, my grandparents used to take me fishing or to the amusement park.”
“Then it’s hooking worms for bait or the big dipper. Which will it be?”
She laughed, a clear, pretty sound that made him happier than anything had in a long time.
“I hope you’re not scared of heights,” she said.
“Are you joking? You’re talking to a pilot.”
They left hand in hand and caught a cab to a small, neglected fairground with few rides, but from the way her eyes sparkled, their sad light momentarily suppressed, it was a special place.
After queuing for tickets, they started with the big dipper, then worked their way around the rides to the hall of mirrors, and ended with the games. Sky wanted the teddy bear, so he shot down the pins, full score, and got her a cotton candy too. The bear she gave to the first child who passed, but she kept the candy.
Outside the haunted house, she leaned on the fence, bending her knee to rest a foot on the wood. She broke off a piece of the treat and held it to him. He didn’t react immediately. He took a second to appreciate the sight in front of him.
Dusk had fallen. The air had a dusty-pink color. A comfortable breeze stirred the warmth of the day. A mixture of generator fumes and burned sugar wrapped around them. Laughter and ecstatic shrieks rose above the carousel tune. The atmosphere was thick with excitement and the unspoken anticipation of lovers for how the night might end. With the lights shining at her back, her body was a dark silhouette to him, every curve and dip begging to be copied by the hollow of his hand.
“What?” she asked, her arm still poised in the air.
Upon his silence, her half-smile started slipping. How could he tell her the things in his heart when he was supposed to protect his team?
The spun sugar had melted to a clump between her fingers. She slowly lowered her hand, but he grabbed her wrist and brought her fingers to his mouth, wrapping his tongue around each delicate digit covered in sticky, pink sweetness. The coolness of her eyes grew one shade of blue warmer as she watched him taste her. Her casual bearing didn’t change, but the sexual energy that drew her body and nipples tight was as palpable as the stiffness of his cock.
Coming to her senses with a soft gasp, she pulled her fingers free. He allowed her to deny him her taste, but he didn’t release his grip on her wrist. Gently, he dried her fingers on the hem of his shirt. A group of girls turned their heads as they passed, making wolf whistles at him and giggling behind their hands.
Sky gave them a hard stare, one that clearly said hands-off. He liked that she showed her little claws on his behalf. It meant she was jealous, and if she was jealous, she had staked her claim, maybe not on him, but at least on this time they were spending together.
Circling his arm around her waist, he pulled her delicate body against his. She was warm and soft. Her breasts molded under his breastbone and her hips locked with his as if she was made for him. She didn’t fight him, but she didn’t embrace him either. The pliancy of her body was enough permission for him to lean forward, putting their faces so close he could feel the ghost of a vapor escape from her lips and smell her cotton candy breath.