Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 108119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
“He terrifies me,” she confessed. “I feel like I should be running, and every time I start on the path away from him, it ends up leading exactly back to where I shouldn’t be. In the monster’s arms.”
I smiled at that. “Yeah well, sometimes the monsters are better in bed.”
She laughed.
“I’m not kidding.” I shrugged. “Men are mortal, and monsters…”
She locked eyes with me. “They’re more.”
“So much more,” I whispered. “You need to decide, and soon. Once you’re in deep with him, I can’t do anything.”
“And my other option?”
I stared through her. “I make you disappear, give you a new name, new identity, I give you everything you need to start over. Away from this life.”
Her eyes lit up
Shit, he was going to hate me.
“Really?” She was going to take me up on it.
Fuck.
“Really.” I nodded.
“Can I think about it?”
“You have twenty-four hours.”
She gave me one final small nod.
I started walking away and then stopped. I knew she was watching, listening to me. “Something to think about…”
“What?” she asked in that soft voice of hers.
“You would be his first.”
“First?”
“Everything.”
“I don’t understand.”
“His only.”
“What are you saying?”
I looked back over my shoulder and made sure I had her full attention. “Deep down, you know.”
“Maybe you should just explain it so—”
“The first woman to bring him to his knees, the first woman to keep him there, the first woman to touch him where no one’s allowed to even look, the first woman to take what’s left of his innocence while handing him the remnants of yours,” I whispered. “He would give you the final pieces. And if you took them and left, you would be doing more than leaving a monster — you’d be unleashing on the world absolute fucking chaos.”
I walked away.
I didn’t want to see the shock on her face.
Or the truths etched there.
Because I wasn’t sure what would happen if she did walk away.
If she chose herself over something with Andrei.
And when I made it back to Bee’s side, I knew she saw the strain in my face, the energy that had left me completely exhausted.
“You okay?” she whispered, laying her head on my shoulder while Andrei and the guys ordered more drinks.
“Never,” I answered honestly. “I just learn how to deal.”
“I know.”
“What do you love about a man like me?” I wondered out loud in a moment of temporary weakness, vulnerability.
And then my wife turned to me and kissed me softly on the lips. “I love the man. I embrace the darkness, I feed it, I soothe it. You ask me what I love about a man like you? You’re not merely a man, Phoenix Nicolasi. You’re so much more than that. I love every dark twisted part of you, and I would search the depths of Hell for your soul if I had to. It would be easier to ask me what I don’t love…”
Stunned, I stared for a few seconds then said, “What don’t you love?”
She grinned up at me. “You steal the covers.”
I burst out laughing and pulled her into my arms. “Is that all?”
“Well you haven’t kissed me in an hour, that’s pissing me off.”
I kissed her.
And then I earned a glare from Tex.
I just shot him a middle finger and kept kissing his sister, my wife, wondering if Andrei would ever find the same happiness, when he was so hell bent on pushing everyone away.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Andrei
Alice returned around ten minutes later, her skin a bit flushed and her eyes distant. Whatever Phoenix told her; it wasn’t good.
“Did you kick her after you killed her spirt or before?” I mumbled under my breath reaching for another shot.
What was that? Seven? Eight?
I eyed her damn dress again.
Did it even matter at this point? I downed the shot and waited.
“I just gave her some…” He shrugged. “Perspective.”
“God save us when you’re the one giving perspective,” I grumbled and then felt myself smiling.
Phoenix stared at me a bit longer than necessary. “How much have you had to drink?”
Alice laughed at something Trace said as I reached for another shot. “Not enough, not even close.”
“Alcohol makes it hard not to…” He started using his hands why the hell was he using his hands like that? “I wouldn’t suggest it.”
“You didn’t even finish your sentence and I’m the one drinking too much?” I snorted into my vodka shot.
It was smooth.
Clean as I tossed it back.
“We’re headed home.” Nixon approached, hand outstretched. “Thanks for the interesting night. We’ll talk next week about the De Lange girl.”
Shit.
“We will,” I agreed, shaking his hand while Trace gave me a drunken finger wave. One by one everyone left, finally, including Phoenix and Bee.
“Water.” Phoenix tossed me a bottle. “And try to just…” Why was he looking at me so damn funny. “To just trust… the moment.”
I gave him a blank stare and then burst out laughing. “The fuck? Are you giving me sex advice?”