Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 95080 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95080 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
“He said you’re easy,” I repeated to Matt in case he’d missed it.
He flipped me off.
“Okay, so him first, then me,” I summed up.
“Yes.”
“Groovy.” I was getting really tired all of a sudden. “Go ahead and get him out. I’m not pissed about being last or anything.”
“No, no,” Breckin barked at me suddenly, and my eyes snapped open. “Don’t fall asleep. Not even for a minute.”
I hadn’t realized my eyes had closed until I jerked back awake. I didn’t usually fall asleep so fast. Looking around, though, I realized that it really wasn’t so fast. Matt was gone. There was only the doctor and me.
“Is he okay?”
“Matthew will be fine.”
“You’re sure?” I prodded, looking him square in the eye.
“I am,” he said gently, and his eyes softened as he looked at me. “What import-export company?”
“What?”
“You said earlier that you worked for an import-export company. Which one?”
“Zhabin Daher. I work with my partner, Dimah Mashir.”
He squinted at me. “No wonder you didn’t just say it. That’s a mouthful.”
“Is it? I’ve never had any trouble.”
“Wait now. Dimah Mashir? How do I know that name?”
“I have no idea,” I lied.
“Didn’t he just go to prison?”
“In fact, he did not,” I informed him haughtily. “All charges were dropped. It’s a shame everyone just reads sensational headlines and doesn’t follow the whole story.”
“Is that right?”
“Well, clearly,” I said, trying to gesture at him, but my arms were too heavy. “You read the bad parts but not about him being innocent.”
“Fair enough.”
“Now, in your defense, there was a lot of coverage of his arrest and practically nothing about the FBI letting him go.”
“The FBI?”
“Just, never mind.”
“Didn’t he put some guy through a wood chipper and use him for chum?”
“Oh dear God,” I groaned, and he started laughing.
“Wasn’t there some informant they found with a Colombian necktie?”
I gave him the most pained look I could manage. “That doesn’t even make sense.”
“What?” He chuckled at my irritation. “I heard he’s a very bad man.”
“You have to stop getting your news from Twitter.”
“No, that was real.”
“Was it?” I scrunched up my face.
“Fine,” he allowed, putting a hand on my cheek. “I really don’t like how dilated your pupils are, so I’m going to go talk to—”
“Wait.”
“What?”
I coughed. “Since I’ll never see you again after today, I’m gonna tell you something that I wouldn’t otherwise.”
“Go ahead and talk, but you must open your eyes and look at me.”
Again, I hadn’t realized my eyes had closed until I opened them back up.
“Perfect,” he said, all soft and lazy, the drawl clear in his voice. I loved the sound of it, all slow and sultry and warm.
“I bet you get this all the time, but you’re gorgeous.”
“I do,” he agreed, grinning at me. “I hear that a lot.”
“And you smell really…good, and…well, I’m really a scent kinda guy, so that’s all good, and your voice is like…” I trailed off, not because I was embarrassed, but because I could no longer collect my thoughts. I wasn’t sure if it was him being so close to me or if I was losing blood somewhere.
“I hear all that a lot,” he teased me, tilting my chin so I had to look into the dancing blue again. “Tell me some more.”
“Whatever,” I groaned, lifting out of his gentle hold. “I’m over it now.”
When he reached for me, I let him take my hand.
“I think it’s the accent that does it,” he said, raising my hand to his face and placing my palm flat against his cheek. “Men—and women—dig the whole Southern-gentleman thing.”
“Even though you’re not from the South anymore.”
“That’s right.”
I was having trouble breathing. “Are you doing this to keep me awake?”
“Why? Is it working?”
“It is,” I confessed, and tried to pull my hand away.
He held tighter, and I asked him to call my brother Alex if I died. Not my dad, but my brother. Better Alex told Dad than the other way around. My father had been the one to have to make the calls when my mother died. Let him be second this time around.
“You’re not going to die,” Breckin promised me. “I won’t let you.”
“Hardly fair of you to use all your charm on unsuspecting men,” I said, pulling my hand free with a good hard yank.
“Yes, sir,” he said slowly, his eyes twinkling. “I promise to refrain from doing so in the future.”
“I don’t think it’s possible.” I was miserable all of a sudden. “I bet you’re married or about to be married, aren’t you? I bet you’re not even gay.”
He shook his head. “No on both counts, and I’m bi, actually.”
“Yeah?”
“I swear.”
“Have you had more boyfriends or girlfriends?” I didn’t really care. I just didn’t want him to leave, so I was making conversation.
“About the same.”
“Huh.”
He started laughing.
“I just—and I don’t mean this in a bad way, but most guys I know who swear they’re bi, I’ve never seen them with women.”