Total pages in book: 52
Estimated words: 48378 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 242(@200wpm)___ 194(@250wpm)___ 161(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48378 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 242(@200wpm)___ 194(@250wpm)___ 161(@300wpm)
“Nope,” Maria corrected her from using the L-word. “It’s just a first date.”
“Even better.” Olga was clearly not deterred. “Loves just in first bloom. Enjoy before the shine wears off and you two are fighting over a diamond necklace he gives you, which belongs to his mother that you didn’t want, because it was so ugly.”
Oddly specific, but … “Okay.”
Leading, Olga took her to a side door that had an exit sign hanging above. “Stay here. I’ll see if he’s here and make sure the coast is clear.”
Waiting impatiently for Olga to motion for her that it was safe, she felt something inside her tingle. Fuck, am I nervous? Looking down at herself to see if she needed to fix anything, she didn’t know if she liked her decision of wearing designer jeans and the white, soft leather jacket. Her best asset was her long legs, and she always felt like it was a sin to cover them up so much. She couldn’t even think of the last time she had worn jeans, having had to pull them out from the back of her closet.
She toned down her usual clothes to something more … normal. Since Kayne hadn’t said where he was taking her, she was guessing it wasn’t a five-star restaurant. Plus, she didn’t want her clothes drawing attention to herself. Her father would swallow one of his cigars, lit end first, if he found out she had gone on a date with one of Leo’s teachers. She didn’t know what she was hoping for, but she hoped it kept her somewhat incognito.
Given the signal, she gave Sadie’s friend another hug before she slipped out the door.
The single pound of her heart radiated through her body at seeing Kayne leaning casually against a navy Dodge Charger, waiting for her.
“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting long.”
Kayne’s eyes brightened as they slid down her body. “Nope. You’re right on time.”
“Don’t get used to it. I’m notoriously late.”
Opening the car door for her, he smiled. “I like a woman who is honest.”
Sliding into the car, Maria didn’t reply to that, as honesty wasn’t exactly her middle name. She had already told him one of her faults; that was enough for a first date. She didn’t want to overwhelm him so soon.
Kayne didn’t close the car door yet, looking suspiciously at the back door that she had just exited from. “Why do I get the feeling you just ditched your cousin in there?”
It took her a second to remember that she had told him at the dance that Jerry was her cousin, who was staying close by her since the wedding fiasco. All she had given Kayne was an address and had told him to park in the back. He hadn’t figured out exactly where that was until he pulled up, finding out it was a spa, not a home. She had a strange feeling that “not overwhelming him” was going out the window.
“B-Because I did.”
“All right.” Kayne laughed, closing the door with a thud.
By how quickly he had accepted that answer, she carefully watched him slide in on the driver’s side. That rough boy in him was so evident when they weren’t on school grounds. She studied him, knowing Kayne wasn’t the slightest bit dumb.
“You know who my father and brother are, don’t you?”
“Yes.” Kayne didn’t even flinch, taking the key that he put in the ignition.
Sitting back, she continued to study him. “And you’re not scared?” A smart man wouldn’t want to take the mafia princess out on date behind her family’s back.
The engine was quiet when he started the car, as if it wanted to hear his next word.
“No.”
“Well”—Shit, he just got a thousand times hotter—“I like a man who’s honest.”
“Good to know.” He smiled slightly before he whipped the car out of the parking lot, quickly leaving the salon in the dust.
It took Maria too long to notice that he started driving out the city. “So, where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.”
That should have been the part where she thought twice, or even got remotely frightened, but Maria didn’t, wasn’t in the slightest. Call it …
ASPD.
Brave.
Naïve.
Flat-out fucking stupid.
In lust.
Or falling in L-word.
Maria sat in that fucking car, not really knowing who Kayne Evans was but not giving it a thought in the world that he would hurt her because, every time she was around him, her heart finally beat, telling her that he wouldn’t. Hell, she couldn’t have been happier that he was driving out of the city, not knowing the last time she had left the confines of her birthplace.
Focusing on the confident hands on the steering wheel, she stared at them, wondering if it was just her imagination or were those the exact same hands that had caressed her during her dream? The slightly misshapen pinky was the same one, which she was staring at now.