Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24688 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 123(@200wpm)___ 99(@250wpm)___ 82(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24688 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 123(@200wpm)___ 99(@250wpm)___ 82(@300wpm)
“You better make yourself clear before I put a bullet in your head.”
“Pace, stop!” I climb into his lap and wrap my arms around his neck, squeezing tight to keep him from shaking, but the shivers passing through his powerful body only seem to gain intensity. “She saved my life. I was dying!”
“No, you weren’t! Don’t you dare say that ever again!”
“I’m only the messenger for the goddess,” Maura says, her attention ticking between me and Pace curiously. “She will live, but there will be consequences. The goddess does not return a person to life without exacting her pound of flesh.”
“No one is exacting anything from her,” Pace seethes, his big chest heaving against me. “There are no consequences for angels, especially mine.”
“I’m sorry,” Maura says, coming to her feet with serious effort. “I’m sorry, I only thought to help. I am very glad the girl will live.”
With that, the woman runs from the room, the door slamming behind her.
I remain in Pace’s embrace for long moments, reeling from what he said. The passion with which he said it. There are no consequences for angels, especially mine. Does he think of me as his? Secretly, I’ve always thought of him as mine, too, despite the constant friction and confusing feelings between us.
“How on earth did you hit your head enough to…” He shudders, holding me closer, like I’m going to vanish into smoke. “Enough to lose all this blood? My God, Magnolia.”
“I can’t remember,” I lie, without missing a beat.
Pace is silent for a heavy moment. “I’ve lived across the hall from you for six years. Shared meals, watched you become a woman, obsessed over your thoughts, night after night. Do you think I can’t tell when you’re telling me a fib?”
Before I can answer, Pace is standing up with me still wrapped around him. He walks slowly around the pool of blood toward the window, stopping short when he sees the beginning of the homemade sheet rope. His breath shallows and quickens, his heart knocking at a frenetic pace against mine.
“Magnolia. Did you climb out of this goddamn window?”
I bury my face in his neck, shaking in fear. Not necessarily over what he’s going to do to me, because he wouldn’t harm a hair on my head. No, I’m scared of the pain and fear this is going to cause him, after the fact.
“Where did you go?” Pace asks me very quietly. And when I don’t answer, he shouts the question again. “Where the fuck did you go?”
I’m struck by the mallet of anger. It hits me like a lightning bolt and suddenly, I’m indignant and outraged over having my whereabouts and decision questioned. I’m nineteen years old…
And Mateo.
Oh God, I’ve been so scared of losing my life and saving Maura’s that I forgot about Mateo, the beautiful, patient, sensual man who made me lose my senses in the woods.
No. The liar.
“I just wanted to get away for a while. You’ve trapped me here! You’re going to marry me off, install me in some loveless marriage—”
“I’m going to ask you one more time. Where. Did. You. Go?”
“There was a man,” I whisper. And for some reason, I can’t find it in me to jeopardize Mateo’s life. Not after he seemed so genuinely concerned for my safety. Maybe there is cause to be concerned! “In the woods. I talked to him for a while and I came back.”
Pace makes a sound that lands somewhere in between a humorless laugh and a groan. He walks slowly to the bed and pins me to the mattress. “Ah, my sweet Magnolia,” he says in a strangled whisper, madness spinning in his eyes. “There isn’t a man on the face of this earth that could simply talk to you and send you on your merry way. Do you think I’m stupid?”
“No,” I hiccup.
He tilts his head. “Do you think we aren’t aware of the Fed hanging out in the woods?”
My eyes widen.
“So you know he’s a Fed,” Pace says, his tone turning dangerous. “And you weren’t going to tell me? Have I inspired so little loyalty from you? Or did he just inspire more?” Teeth bared, he presses his forehead down on mine. Hard. “How did he inspire more? Did he fuck you?”
“No. No, he didn’t.”
“What. Did. He. Do.”
“He kissed me.”
A choked sound leaves Pace, bathing my mouth in a harsh puff of air. “Where?”
“On my mouth.”
“Motherfucker!” He punches the mattress with a straining fist. “Between your thighs, too, huh, baby? How could he even stop himself, right?”
I nod—and that final eruption of insanity plumes behind his irises. But there’s something else. There is…a fog bank of heat. Like he can’t help but be a little turned on, imagining another man kissing me between my legs, despite the malice it inspires in him.
“Did he spread your legs nice and wide, baby?” Pace whispers.