Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
He glanced at me.
Energy cracked in the dense air.
Those green eyes sharpened with a threat. “You’re doing it again.”
My brow furled in question.
He released a cruel chuckle that skated over my skin, a harsh, seductive caress. “Looking at me like you have the right to know.”
“And you act like I’m not going to wonder.”
Pushing out a sigh, he let the words fall as if they were trivial. “It was a long time ago.”
“Yet it feels like yesterday.”
Only an eternity had been woven in between.
He shrugged a nonchalant shoulder that weighed a million pounds. “Yesterday…a lifetime ago…it doesn’t matter, does it, Aster? Not when it can’t be undone.”
“But you haven’t forgotten.” I didn’t know if it was a question or a plea.
He came to a quick stop at a red light, and he whirled on me. A gasp rocked from my lungs when his hand curled into my upper thigh. The flesh burned hot when he dug his fingers in and squeezed. “Do not toy with me, Aster.”
My mouth went dry, and I gulped on the scorching air. On his anger. On his hurt. “I’m not.”
His hand moved to my face, his thumb on my jaw, far too gentle for the darkness that reigned in his eyes. “Such a sweet little liar.”
The light turned green, and he skewered me with that gaze for the barest flash that felt like he could see through to the marrow. Penetrate and cut me down to nothing.
Then he turned and accelerated through the intersection, that powerful body slung back so confidently, but there wasn’t anything casual about it.
Fierceness radiated from his pores, spilling free like brutality.
Suffocating.
Compelling.
I didn’t know if I felt hollow, wrecked and ravaged and laid to waste by that single glance, or if for the first time in seven years, there was a part of me that felt alive.
That blooming of what I shouldn’t allow to take root.
I forced my attention out the window. I had to be careful. Guard myself, or I wasn’t going to come out of this better on the other side.
This was my chance. I had to use it right. I couldn’t allow myself to be crushed any more than I already had been.
I’d been caged for so long. Held in chains of torment and pain.
If I was going to stretch my wings, then I was going to fly.
We crawled along the busy stretch. The silence that rained between us was heavier than stones.
The street was filled with tourists, the snow on the ground and coating the rooftops a draw for those who had flocked here for a winter escape.
We traveled only a short distance before Logan made a quick left into the side drive of a large building that sat close to the street.
It was seven or eight stories, I would guess, modern, yet it still exuded a warm, cabin-esque vibe. Dark woods and even darker panes of glass that glinted against the frosty rays of sunlight that blazed from the clear, blue sky.
The first floor housed a steakhouse and a couple boutique shops, and I could only assume there were apartments on the floors above.
We followed along the drive lined by snow-covered shrubs before Logan pushed a button on his visor and a gate opened for us to enter a parking garage in the basement. He whipped down the short slope. The sun faded behind us, dimming the atmosphere to a hazy glow of yellowed lights that illuminated the dank space.
In an instant, it felt as if the walls had closed in.
As if I had been sentenced and was being led into punishment.
But that’s what this was, wasn’t it?
Punishment?
Because there were few things that hurt as badly as looking at the man I loved with all of me and never being able to admit it. Few things that hurt as badly as the loss that had eclipsed my heart in vacant shadows.
My heart throbbed.
I thought maybe he was being punished, too.
He pulled into a spot reserved for L7E, put it into park, and killed the engine. For a second, I stared ahead, fidgeting because I wasn’t sure where to go from there. I hadn’t planned beyond this, but I refused to believe it was a mistake.
“That’s your cue to get out.” Logan’s voice was hard.
Fumbling, I rushed to unlatch the door and stepped out into the frigid cold. Goosebumps crawled up my legs and burrowed beneath the dress. Thank God for the jacket, but it did little to shield from the cold that seeped all the way to the bone.
Logan was already there by the time I shut the door. He reached out and grabbed both sides of my coat, drawing the lapels up close to my chin.
My eyes widened in shock, and my stupid, frozen heart thawed at the gesture. At the energy that whispered and called.