Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 26493 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 132(@200wpm)___ 106(@250wpm)___ 88(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26493 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 132(@200wpm)___ 106(@250wpm)___ 88(@300wpm)
"To your basement?"
"Nope. Somewhere better."
"You know how ominous that sounds, right?" I ask as he hauls the passenger side of the truck open. "Drake! You know that sounds ominous, right?"
He ignores me. The big jerk.
And somehow, I still find myself eagerly climbing in, willing to follow him just about anywhere.
Lord have mercy. What is this man doing to me?
Chapter Four
Drake
"No way, Drake Whitlock," Madeline growls, her arms crossed and a dangerous scowl on her face. "There's no way I'm getting out of this—"
She squeals when I gently haul her out of the truck over my shoulder, being careful so I don't hurt her.
"Yeah, you are, unicorn," I say gently, resisting the urge to sink my teeth into her ass. It's right there in my face, taunting me. And goddamn, It's perfect. My dick has never been this hard. It's certainly never been this hard for this long. The motherfucker hasn't gone down since she grabbed him. "We did your thing. Now, we're doing mine."
I probably should have mentioned to her that mine involved parading across a cemetery to get where we're going, but I didn't realize she was going to freak out about it.
"Yours is in a cemetery," she hisses, biting me on the shoulder. "Mine was not in a cemetery, Drakius Crazy Man Whitlock!"
"That's not my name."
"It is if you think I'm going into a cemetery on Halloween at midnight," she sniffs as I swing her upright in my arms.
"What are you afraid of, baby? I promise not to fuck you over a gravestone."
She opens her mouth and then snaps it closed to growl at me.
"What are you afraid of?"
"What am I afraid of?" She holds up both hands, all ten fingers extended. "Death. Dying. Ghosts. Being murdered by a ghost. Being haunted by a ghost. Seeing a ghost. Falling in a grave. Ghouls. Zombies. And worms." She puts down a finger as she lists each item, and it takes everything I have not to burst into laughter. But she's serious, so I don't laugh.
"Anything else?"
"We do not have that kind of time, Whitlock," she says. "We'll be here all night if I have to list everything I'm scared of, and I do not want to be here all night. So let's just go with everything. I'm scared of everything." Her bottom lip actually quivers.
I stare at her for a silent moment, trying to wrap my head around the fact that this brave little goddess is afraid of so many things. The spiders were an easy bet. She made no secret of that. But everything else? Didn't see it coming. She's been practically fearless all night.
"Why does everything scare you, unicorn?" I ask, treading carefully.
"Because fear is terrifying," she says sarcastically. "It's right there in the name. Fear."
"You placed your hand in mine and left the bar with a complete stranger," I remind her. "You told an Army Ranger to sleep with one eye open. You dragged me out trick or treating without knowing whose house we were at or if it was even safe. You're fearless. So why do these things in particular scare you?"
"Steele is an Army Ranger?"
I narrow my eyes on her. "Do I need to get creative to get the truth out of you, unicorn? Because I wasn't an Army Ranger, but I watched a helluva lot of porn when I was younger. I learned about fifty different ways to tie knots."
"Really? You can learn that watching porn?"
"Yes."
"I have not been watching the right kind of porn," she mumbles, making me smile.
"Madeline. Focus."
"Fine," she huffs. "Remember how I said I had trauma, too? Well, maybe this is part of my trauma."
"What happened, unicorn?"
"Nothing like what happened to you," she mumbles, avoiding my gaze.
"Tell me anyway."
"My parents would give me anything I wanted just to one-up the other. When I was thirteen, I asked to go to a haunted house. My mom took me." She huffs out a breath. "It went fine, but my dad was pissed because he didn't get to take me. So, he found an even better one, according to him."
Dread coils in my stomach when she pauses. I can already guess where the fuck this is heading, and I don't like it.
"It was one of those really terrifying haunted houses. The extreme ones where you have to sign a waiver," she whispers. "They grab you, hold you down, scream in your face, and chase you through the dark. They tied us up and left us in the dark. They sprayed us with water. We were chased through the dark and grabbed by men in masks. I was put inside a coffin, and it was padlocked shut."
"Your goddamn father took you there?" I growl, my blood boiling.
She bobs her head, refusing to look at me. "It's stupid, I know. The whole point was to be scared, but I had nightmares for months." She shrugs like it's no big deal. "Scary and I haven't really been friends since then. It gives me a lot of anxiety."