Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 155037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 517(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 517(@300wpm)
Loki knew that if he pushed things, pushed her, that she’d choose him.
Isa always chose him.
But he wasn’t going to do that to her.
So, as much as he wanted to carry her away with him, to keep her to himself, he forced himself to turn and call out to Remy.
“You coming, man?”
“Me?” Remy gave him a shocked look. “You want me to come?”
“You seem to know more about all of this than I do.” Something he hated. Yeah, his girl was in fucking trouble. “You need to come make sure she doesn’t leave shit out.”
“What are the two of you talking about?” Isa asked.
“Hush, you,” Loki ordered. “You’ll get to talk when I say you can.”
“Hey! That’s rude.”
“No, what’s rude is keeping things from me. Things that are important.”
25
Uh-oh.
Oh, fuck.
This really wasn’t good.
She stiffened as she lay over his shoulder. “Oh shit.”
“Oh shit is right. You’re in big trouble. And you’re going to stay quiet until I tell you that you can talk. And you know exactly what we’ll be talking about, don’t you, Tink?”
“I’ll tell you now,” she cried, knowing he was deadly serious.
“You’ll tell me once we’re somewhere where we won’t be interrupted. We’ll go to the office.”
“That’s on the other side of the bar!” she cried. Was he seriously going to carry her through a room full of people? She could hear Red calling out a question. “The quiz has started; my friends will be waiting for me.”
“They’ll have to keep waiting for you. And did I say you could talk yet?” Loki asked in a low voice. “Remy, you coming?”
Suddenly, Remy’s face appeared next to hers as he crouched down. He was watching her with a serious expression. “You all right there, Princess?”
Maybe she should tell him that she wasn’t. Would he force Loki to let her go?
Is that really what you want?
Because she kind of deserved this. The guilt was eating at her. She hadn’t told Loki the full truth. Something she knew he would hate. They didn’t lie to each other.
But was it really a lie? More like she’d opted not to tell him a few things.
She was only trying to protect him.
Yeah . . . that was also something he hated. When she did something that he considered to be his job.
It was why she was never allowed to take the garbage to the dump if they missed garbage day. Or deal with the snow in winter. Or take the cars into the garage when they had problems. Because Loki considered all of those things to be his jobs.
Including taking care of her.
It might sound sexist, but it wasn’t really. It was what worked for them.
And she shouldn’t be messing with it. Taking away his opportunity to protect and care for her.
After all, wasn’t that part of the reason she loved him?
Because he cared.
So she smiled at Remy, giving him a smile. “I’m good. I’m always good with Loki.”
There was a strange look on Remy’s face. Shit. She hadn’t hurt his feelings or anything, had she?
“I’m safe with him. Just like . . . I feel safe with you.”
Remy nodded and stood up. “Lead, I’ll follow.”
“I want to lodge an objection that this goes against the Isa-Rules.”
“Isa-Rules?” Remy asked.
“Rules that keep Isa happy,” she explained. “Things like always give me coffee first thing in the morning and everything is better with glitter and sparkles.”
“Also don’t feed or water her after midnight,” Loki said.
“Pretty sure that’s a gremlin,” she told him.
“What I said still stands.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Then they entered the main room of the bar and she groaned. Loki’s friends all let out whoops as he walked through the room with her over his shoulder. Luckily, her hair was hanging down and hiding her face.
“Loki got one of them!” someone cried out.
“Spoils of war!” another screamed.
“Hey, give her back!” Kiesha yelled. “She’s ours.”
“All’s fair in love and war!” one of Loki’s friends yelled.
“No way!” Kiesha said loudly. “We’ll fight you to the death to get her back.”
“Loki, wait up!” Noah called out.
Whew. Noah could always be relied on to be the voice of reason. He would convince Loki to let her down.
“Got yourself into trouble did you, Isa?” Noah asked.
“Hey! I resent that!” Isa cried. “Also, yes.”
“I need the office,” Loki said.
“Sure. Probably the best place for you all. This place is about to erupt if you stay here much longer. Pretty sure Harry is having to hold Kiesha back from attacking.”
“Tell her I’m fine,” Isa said. Although she was getting a headache from all the blood rushing to her head.
“Pretty sure she knows that, darlin’,” Noah replied. “But she’s Kiesha.”
Right. She got what Noah was saying.
Then Loki was moving again and they headed upstairs.
“Don’t drop her,” Remy warned.
“I would never drop her,” Loki said in a low voice.
“Didn’t mean to insult you, man. Just looking out for her.”