Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 44252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 221(@200wpm)___ 177(@250wpm)___ 148(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 221(@200wpm)___ 177(@250wpm)___ 148(@300wpm)
Needing a quick change of subject, I looked at Gabe and gave him a much-needed distraction.
“Do you get any of this for real? It’s all numbers and lines to me.”
Gabby sighed as her brother jumped at the opportunity to ignore everything she’d just said. And for the next twenty minutes, he made me see math in a whole new light.
“You’re amazing at this,” I mused. “I need to hire you as a tutor.”
“I’m free on Thursdays. I could come by your place?”
I’d been partially joking. I mean, I would like to have a tutor, but that’s not all he wanted. I’d just spent twenty minutes dodging his flirtations.
“Do you have a death wish?” Gabby interrupted with a glare aimed at her brother. “Do you know what they would do to you? What Judas would do to you?
“I don’t think Judas would care,” I muttered.
Gabe suddenly sat taller, looking at something behind me. I felt a heated aura a second before his hands landed on my shoulders and he spoke, his voice deceptively soft.
“Judas most definitely would care.”
“Sup, Dave,” Owen greeted, intentionally getting Gabe’s name wrong as he slid into the only empty chair at our table.
Seeing his happy face, I understood who the ‘they’ was Gabby had been referring to. Brianna and Gavin weren’t with them, though. I wondered why.
“What are you guys doing in here?”
“We can’t come see our new queen?” Owen asked in the same innocent way Audrey did when she was up to something.
“Sure, you can. Where is she?”
“You’re not funny,” Owen retorted, his grin still in place.
“It’s a long-standing tradition. You’ll learn all about it soon enough.” He winked then shifted his focus to Gabe, who looked as if he wanted to disappear.
Judas’ hands tightened and I tried not to flinch, but my right upper shoulder still had a dull throb in it.
“Can I talk to you?”
Was he asking permission? Now I knew hell was freezing over. I nodded and slid out of my chair, shooting Owen a look before I walked away.
He was eyeing Gabe as if he were about to flay him alive. Seeing the warning on my face only made him grin bigger, showing his pretty teeth and making a dimple pop that I didn’t know he had.
Judas led me up to the second level and then back to a corner that was obscured from below by the L-shaped shelves and a giant fake fiscus plant.
“Take your shirt off,” he demanded.
I stared at him in shock, and then anger. “That’s what you wanted to talk about?” I hissed lowly. “Go eff yourself, you perverted dick.”
His expression pinched into one of brief confusion, replaced by a skewed smirk and knowing glint in his eyes. “If I wanted you up here for that, the cock you fantasize about would already be meeting your gag reflex.”
I scoffed, then grinned at him deviously.
“Your ego is bigger than your dick is, Judas.”
He laughed lightly, genuinely for once. I turned into such a girl when I heard that, practically swooning inside. Without asking or waiting for permission, he stepped closer to me and began to undo my top three buttons.
I just sighed and rolled my eyes. I could only begin to imagine how spoiled he was growing up, since he had no idea what boundaries or being told no meant.
I studied his face, a mask of concentration as his fingers moved with agility and ease.
“Done this before, have you?”
“A few times.”
“It was rhetorical,” I stated solemnly.
He smiled at me, looking so good it wasn’t fair for a specimen like him to exist.
“Sound a bit jealous, principessa.”
I diverted my gaze to his shiny dress shoes so he wouldn’t see my scowl. A finger hooked beneath my chin to bring my gaze back to him.
“Always keep these pretty things on me.”
Pretty? I quirked a brow. My eyes were a simple, plain brown.
“And don’t worry,” he continued in the same gentle tone, “the only person who will be riding my cock and sleeping in my bed is you.”
I had a smartass remark on the tip of my tongue. It vanished when a look came over his features I hadn’t seen before. It took me a moment to place it. He was…angry. A different kind of anger than he’d been when I mentioned Dax.
I glanced down and saw the bruise he was staring at, but it wasn’t the end of the world. I hadn’t broken anything, and my shoulder checking volleyball girl hadn’t done me any favors.
“I had to be sure I was making the right decision. I am.” He touched my skin lightly, causing goose pimples to erupt everywhere his fingers trailed.
I looked back up at him questioningly.
“Audrey’s taking you home today. I’ve got something to do.”
“That something better not have anything to do with this. I’m not your problem or your responsibility.”