Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 129986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Glancing at the nearest of Anae’s bimbos, I tell Mallory, “Go get her a towel.”
Mallory’s gaze flits to Anae but doesn’t linger long enough to see whether or not she supports my order. She comes back a moment later with a fluffy turquoise beach towel and hands it to the girl with a meek, “Here you go.”
The girl looks at Mallory for a moment, then snatches the towel and mutters a thank you as she drapes it over her back and pulls the ends around her shoulders.
Finally, the girl’s gaze flickers to me.
She studies my face, a frown creasing her brow. “You’re not an angel.”
A smirk tugs at the corners of my lips. “No, I am not.”
Her gaze flickers to the tattoo covering my right shoulder, a crow with spread wings. She looks down and breathes in, placing a hand on her chest.
Addressing the crowd, I say, “Someone call her an ambulance.”
“No,” she says quickly, shaking her head but not looking at me. “Thank you, but I’m okay now.”
“You still need medical attention. There was water in your lungs. You need to be looked at by a doctor. You could still die.”
“I won’t die,” she says almost dismissively. “I have too much to do.”
“I don’t think being busy is enough to keep you alive.”
She shakes her head, pulling the towel off and trying to stand.
Her legs go out from under her instantly. I’m right there, catching her around the waist so she doesn’t fall.
I pull her into my lap since her little ass doesn’t want to listen. Looking directly at Scofield, I say, “Call her an ambulance.”
“No,” she objects again, struggling to move off my lap.
My cock stirs as she struggles to get away from me, but I ignore the heat kindling low in my gut and lock my arm around her even tighter.
Scowling, she turns her head and looks me dead in the eye. It feels intimate since she’s on my lap, but she ruins it by being mad as hell and looking like a drowned rat.
A cute drowned rat, but a drowned rat all the same.
“You’re wasting your energy,” I tell her. “You’re going to the hospital.”
“I am not. I appreciate you saving me, but you’re not in charge here, and I am not going to the hospital.”
“You are on my property; you nearly drowned in my pool. You are going to the hospital so they can check you out, make sure your poor little family can’t sue my father for your wrongful death, and then we can all get on with our lives.”
Her jaw drops open. “You… you’re just worried about me suing you?”
“My father would be pissed,” I tell her simply. “I’m also of the opinion that dying out of sheer stubbornness is idiotic. Are you an idiot? I’d hate to think I ruined my shoes saving an idiot.”
Fire ignites in her blue eyes. I guess she’s feeling better.
“Let go of me,” she says, clawing at my hands.
“Joke’s on you, mermaid; I like to be clawed at.”
Her wide eyes fill with open horror but her hands still. “What is wrong with you?” Since she’s not getting any help from me, her attention shifts to my girlfriend. “You want to do something about your boyfriend?”
It’s cute that she thinks Anae holds my reins.
Anae doesn’t like admitting she doesn’t, so I’m sure she’s relieved when I take the focus off her by telling the almost drowned girl, “This isn’t that kind of relationship. What’s your name?”
“You don’t know my name?”
“No.”
“I know yours.”
“Of course you do. I’m somebody. You’re clearly not, so… your name?”
“Fuck you,” she says, dismissing me with her gaze and turning on my lap to get her feet on the ground.
I let her go this time, mostly out of curiosity to see if she’ll be able to stand on her own two feet. She wobbles, but regains her footing. She looks frustrated at the reality of not being able to trust her own body just because she nearly died, insulted at the notion that she has such practical vulnerabilities.
She has extremely high standards for herself.
Seems to be stubborn, too. If I let her, she’ll wobble her ass to the car and get behind the wheel, and then if she isn’t as well as she wants to be, she’ll drive off the cliff and into the ocean. I won’t be able to save her, then.
That would be idiotic, and it’s not happening on my watch.
I’m not letting her leave unless it’s in the back of an ambulance.
Of course, since I already commanded it, an ambulance is on the way. I just have to keep her from leaving.
I stand, grabbing her hip to pull her close, then I drag her with me on the way to retrieve my shirt.
“What are you doing?” she demands, looking down at my hand on her hip, her body close to mine.