Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 21386 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 107(@200wpm)___ 86(@250wpm)___ 71(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21386 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 107(@200wpm)___ 86(@250wpm)___ 71(@300wpm)
I swallowed as I forced my eyes up to his deep, dark green ones, fixed on me like a hawk.
“I’m sure you’re missing something important at school, Everclear.”
I blushed at the nickname, biting my lip as I looked at him.
“Math? Chemistry? World History? Lunch?”
I giggled. “Eh, I’m sure it’s fine. I mean it’s just summer sch—”
“What about writing?” he said, his voice heavier this time. And something in his eyes sparked, taking my breath away. “What do you think, Everly?” he purred. “Maybe some lessons in letter writing?”
I froze, a soft, delicate, teasing tingle running down my spine.
What had he just said?
My jaw started to fall before I forced it back shut, my body tightening. No. No way. He hadn’t meant anything by it. It was just my guilt at knowing what I had written about him in that decidedly x-rated letter messing with my head. But then, he kept looking at me with that hungry, fierce gaze of his. His lips turned up in the corners as he drank me in, like he was amused at watching me squirm like this.
“I— maybe I should go back to school,” I said quietly. I started to turn, my mind whirling and my confidence crumbling, when his voice rumbled through the air between us.
“No.”
The word growled from his mouth, and I actually gasped as I stopped short and turned back to him. Channing slowly shook his head, sitting back in his big leather chair with his beautiful, fierce green eyes locked on me. Slowly, he raised a hand, and my eyes went wide as I watched him beckon me with a crook of his finger.
“Come here,” he purred lowly, those eyes flashing at me as he crooked his finger one more time. “You’re not going anywhere, princess.”
5
Everly
My body trembled as Channing’s piercing green eyes locked on me, his finger slowly curling as he beckoned me towards him.
“I— I should get back—”
“Why are you here, Everly?” he growled, stopping me as I started to turn for the door. I closed my eyes, a shaky breath rattling through me.
“Just wanted to say hi to your stepbrother,” he let the word sizzle out like it was something scandalous. But then, in my mind, it was.
“You decided to randomly skip school and come over here to Ken’s firm to just see how I was doing?”
I turned, my nerves jangling as my heart pounded in my chest. “I— I don’t know, I—”
“Yes you do.”
The heat bloomed in my cheeks, and I tried to swallow back the lump that formed in my throat.
“Channing—”
“See, you know what I think, dear step-sister?” he purred, that cocky smirk on his face as his eyes blazed right into mine. “I don’t think you came here just to say hi.”
“No, I did, I just—”
“You forget how to use a cell phone, Everclear?”
I blushed deeper, biting my lip between my teeth as my fingers rubbed together nervously.
He doesn’t know. Of course he doesn’t.
There was no way. He was just being Channing — just messing with me for skipping summer school. That was all. Anything else was just my dirty mind and guilty conscious playing tricks on me, I knew it.
“So if that’s not it,” he stroked his chiseled jawline with his fingers. “I wonder,” his hand dropped to the jacket he’d draped over his office chair and slipped into the pocket. “Could it be…”
His hand slipped out, my eyes went wide, and my whole world tilted on its axis.
I was aware of Channing’s eyes fiercely locking on mine as he set the letter — my freaking letter — right there between us on top of his desk.
“I was wondering if maybe you came here to talk about this, princess.”
My whole body folded, my shoulders slumping and my heart sinking through the floor as I dropped my burning face into my hands. I could feel the tears start to well up when his voice cut through the roar in my ears.
“Look at me,” he growled.
I shook my head with it still buried in my hands.
“Everly.” There was a softness to my name as he said it this time. “Look at me.”
I swallowed, sniffing back the brim of tears as I slowly raised my head to face him. Our eyes locked, but where I was expecting anger, or for him just to make fun of me, I saw something else.
Hunger.
Raw, fierce, jaw-clenched tight, eyes blazing hunger.
“Come here,” he growled, crooking his fingers again as he pushed away from his desk, still sitting in his chair.
“Channing, I—” I shook my head. “That— it’s just this prank thing. I— I mean, it’s not—”
“Come here,” his voice rumbled through the room, silencing me with a small gasp. The fierceness of his commanding voice sent something hot and tingling through me, making me shiver as something warm teased between my legs.