Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 126510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
“You are a priceless treasure, Evangeline,” he said, his eyes still gleaming with amusement. “And I pity the fool who ever tries to mess with someone you care about. You may look like a kitten and an innocent angel, but underneath you’re a ferocious lioness with deadly teeth and claws.”
Still chuckling, he reached for her phone. “Give me the names and numbers of the contacts you want me to enter before you start planning assault and God only knows what else and then Drake and I will have to bail you out of jail.”
She grinned, absurdly pleased with herself for being able to draw Silas out of his shell. And, well, she hadn’t lied. She liked Silas. There was something about him that reminded her of Drake. And she strongly suspected that Silas had endured a very hard life dating back to his childhood, and her heart ached for the boy he’d once been. Affection, someone standing up for him, someone liking him seemed such alien concepts to him, as though he’d never experienced any of it. And that pissed her off.
She gave him her parents’ names and number first and then provided him with Steph’s, Lana’s and Nikki’s cell numbers as well as the landline number in their apartment.
“That all?” Silas asked when she fell silent.
She nodded, a little self-conscious. “I don’t know many people in the city, and Steph, Lana and Nikki are my only friends. I didn’t exactly have much time to get out and meet people or make other friends because I worked as many hours as I could.”
She wished she’d just kept her big mouth shut because the smile was gone from both Silas’s eyes and his mouth. His lips tightened and he looked pissed.
But to her surprise, he didn’t voice his obvious displeasure and instead reached across the island and took both her hands in his, squeezing them gently.
“Well, now you have us. All of us. Warts and all. You belong to Drake, yes, but you also now belong to us all. Drake is the closest thing to a brother I’ve ever had, as are the others. And because you are his woman, our loyalty, protection and friendship now extend to you as well. You have friends now, Evangeline. Don’t ever think otherwise. Which is why I expect you to call on me if you have need of anything. If there is ever something I can do for you, it would upset me greatly if you didn’t feel as though you could reach out to me.”
“Do not make me cry,” she said with mock ferocity. “Me crying is not a pretty sight. Some women have perfected the art of a tear or two and a delicate, feminine sniffle. I’m an ugly crier. My face gets all red, my eyes swell up and my nose runs like a faucet. Trust me, you do not want to see that.”
Silas didn’t respond to her attempt at lighthearted humor in kind. His expression grew somber, and sadness chased across his eyes, gone almost before she even registered it.
“I would hate for you to ever have reason to cry,” he said in a pained voice. “You deserve to be happy, Evangeline. And I hope to hell Drake moves heaven and earth to make you so. Because if he doesn’t, he’s a damn fool.”
It was late in the evening, and even though Drake had clearly told her he didn’t know when he’d be home, she hadn’t expected him to be this late. At nine, she curled up on the couch, completely nude, because she wanted to wait up for him, no matter how late he came home, and though he hadn’t given her any instructions on how to be when he arrived or even that she was to wait up on him, she wanted him to come home to her. For him to know he mattered, that his needs mattered and that she wanted to please him. Wanted to see the warm approval in his eyes that she’d grown to crave so much that at times it frightened her.
She wasn’t aware of what time she drifted off, only that when she sleepily opened her eyes, Drake was standing in front of the couch, his gaze burning over her naked skin.
She immediately smiled, though she was still blinking away the vestiges of sleep from her eyes, and his face softened as he leaned down to kiss her long and so very sweet.
“You didn’t have to wait up on me, Angel, but I’m very glad you did.”
“I would never not wait up on you, Drake,” she said in a serious voice. “I wanted you to come home and for the first thing that you saw to be me, waiting for you. I’m only sorry I fell asleep.”
He put a finger to her lips. “Shh, my darling. It’s nearly eleven. There is no need to apologize for falling asleep. I didn’t call this time because I worried I would wake you.”