Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 125517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 628(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 628(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
When Doom opened his mouth to say something, she shook her head at him.
“Don’t bother; it’s okay. You plainly have a different viewpoint on sex than I do. You actually did me a favor. I let my attraction to you overrule my better judgment.”
Doom’s eyes narrowed on her angrily. “What in the fuck does that mean? You’re no longer attracted to me?”
“I am,” she admitted, embarrassed. “But I have to quit letting my heart overrule my head. A woman died because of me, and despite what you say, I am responsible. If I hadn’t been working at the school for my father, I would have never moved in here, and Lizzie would still be alive.”
“More likely, both could be dead.” Doom looked at her, his exasperation showing. “Without you here, they would have been thrown out months ago. These apartments have the lowest rent in town, which is why you probably chose to live here. If they had been evicted, where would they have ended up? Let me answer that for you. Nowhere with a roof over their heads. Lizzie looked as if a hard wind would blow her away, and Andy doesn’t seem much better. I don’t know what led to them living here, but I know for damn sure it wasn’t you.
“Even putting that shit aside, you can’t say if you hadn’t been here, they wouldn’t have come out if the thieves chose another car. But I can say without a doubt I wouldn’t have been here to save Andy.
“I learned a hard truth when I was in the military. Shit happens. You can’t bear responsibility for what evil people do; you can only clean up the mess and hope none of the blood gets on you.”
Arden lowered her eyes to the jacket she was still wearing before glancing back at him. “Like you killing those two men?”
“Exactly,” he confirmed. “Those men were given the choice to run away when Andy confronted them and again when I showed up. They didn’t. They chose to take a life. Andy chose to confront them instead of calling the cops. All of them chose wrong. Each of them will have to live with their decisions for their rest of their lives. The only one who couldn’t choose how to react was you. When you saw Andy and Lizzie were being attacked, there was no way on God’s green earth you would have been able to stand back and watch from the safety of your apartment. Shit happens, honey.” Doom lifted his hand to show her the bloodstains on the arms of his jacket.
Arden began gasping for air, not wanting to cry in front of him. Then, unable to hold it in any longer, she burst into sobs. “I couldn’t bring myself to talk to Andy. He must hate me.”
“Tink, no one could hate you.”
“Don’t call me that nickname.” Arden arched away, using the sleeve of his jacket to wipe her tears away.
“Why not?”
“The other women are given nicknames, like Kat, Margarita, Siren. They’re sexy.” She crinkled her nose at the thought of the nickname Doom had given her. “I can deal with Honey.”
Doom shook his head. “Sorry, Honey has been taken. She’s in Treepoint currently, but she goes back and forth every couple of months.”
Figures. She should have known all the good nicknames were taken.
“Then why have you been calling me Honey?”
Doom started removing his jacket from her. “Tink might not sound sexy to you, but men find it very erotic.”
Not believing him, she aided him in taking the jacket off. “Yeah, right.”
“Let me clear up some confusion you seem to be having. I nicknamed you Tink because your tinkering around with the wiring saved The Last Riders from having a fire, which Wizard had already decided to give his vote for, but when you fixed the temperature of the beer, you had some of the brothers wanting to marry you. Any woman can act sexy, but damn… A woman who can fix anything she sets her mind to—whew; those are the ones who will get us killing each other over.” Doom tossed the jacket onto the couch to draw her tighter against him. “By the way, when I called you honey, it wasn’t as a nickname. I used it as an endearment.”
“Oh…” She was flabbergasted at what he was telling her. “You did?”
“I did.” His hand went to the nape of her neck to tilt it back.
She felt a blush rushing to her cheeks at his revelation.
Tearing herself out of his arms, she took a backward step. “I’m going to listen to my head and go to bed.”
Turning on her heel, she made for the bedroom, hearing his low laughter trying to lure her back. She shut the door and went into her bathroom to take a shower. Drained of energy, when she was finished, Arden grabbed the first T-shirt she touched in the drawer. The moment she managed to pull it on her still damp body, she threw herself down on the bed.