Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
“Back in England?”
She shook her head. “I’m not doing this with you. You can’t have it both ways. I’ve sworn I’ll honor the contract. You can’t tell me in one sentence that I’m nothing to you and then be a jealous ass two seconds later.”
His face clouded as though he hadn’t thought about it. His shoulders came down and red stained his cheeks. “I’m sorry. You’re right.”
At least he could be reasonable. “Good. I’ll see you in the morning. Do you want me to join you for your run or Shane?”
He stared down at her for a moment. “You’re not planning on sulking?”
“I am totally sulk free.”
“Because it won’t get you anything from me.”
Jeez, who did he deal with on a regular basis? She couldn’t help but laugh. “I think I can forego the sulking. Can you do the same with this broody thing you have going on? I won’t try to kiss you or climb into your bed for cuddles if you promise to do this weird thing with your face I want you to try.”
One brow rose. “And that would be?”
She gave him her biggest grin. “Smile, Mr. Hunt. Just smile a couple of times a day and we’ll get along. I’ll let Shane run with you. I think I’ll make muffins in the morning and watch the ocean. Good night. Scream if someone’s trying to kill you.”
“Kayla,” he began.
But she was done for the night. Well, with him. She had another couple of men she needed to yell at before she went to bed. “Good night, Joshua.”
He was silent as she started upstairs and found her room. She closed the door and took a long breath. The room was as colorless and clean as the rest of the place. A designer paradise with nothing of the owner in it.
Joshua Hunt was very much like this place. Beautifully designed and vacant of real humanity.
She had to remember that always.
Chapter Six
Kay came awake to the knock on her door. Without thinking about it, she reached for the SIG she’d placed on the nightstand and eased out of bed. Sunlight crept in through the blinds, but it was only a hint at this point, the gray of predawn giving way to a stream of pinks and oranges.
She glanced down at her phone, but there was nothing there. No texts or calls. Dec or Shane would have contacted her first on her phone. So that meant this was likely Josh.
Still, she wasn’t putting the gun down until she had confirmation.
She glanced at the clock. Six twenty-two. He was an early riser. Damn CIA jobs. She could be all warm and cozy in her flat at The Garden, but no, she had to go back into the spy shit. They’d tempted her with patriotism and sex with a Hollywood hottie. When this was over she would have a long talk with her libido about toning it down and accepting that her true soul mate came with batteries and a detachable head.
Belting her robe around her naked body, she moved to the door as another, more insistent knock came.
She opened the door, her SIG still in her right hand. “Is there a problem?”
He was big and muscular, and there was that vulnerable thing in his eyes again that seemed to kick the shit out of her good sense. He stood in her doorway, a delicious piece of man meat, and all she could think about was the look in his eyes. Hungry. Wary. Unsure of his welcome. God, she was a sucker for that look.
He wasn’t dressed for a jog. He was still in a pair of cotton pajama bottoms and nothing else. Those wretchedly hot abs were on full display and yep, her libido was starting to groove about real-man loving. Her libido had very little common sense.
“Are you still mad at me?” Joshua asked, his voice husky with sleep.
Seriously? There was only one reason he would ask that question. He wanted some exercise that wasn’t a run. If they’d been trying a real relationship, she would have slammed the door in his face and told him to fuck himself.
But they weren’t. This was what she’d come here to do. She’d come here to gain some kind of power over him, and she wasn’t going to be able to do that by playing the outraged lover. Distance wasn’t going to solve her problem. Hell, she had to know if she could solve her problem.
Besides, the mere sight of the man did things to her pink parts. She wasn’t stupid. Her body already craved his. The trick was to keep her soul out of the bargain. He’d made himself plain the night before. It had been a kind of gift. She hadn’t gone to sleep dreaming about being in his arms or some shit.