Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 114260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
“I’ll take a rain check.”
“Name the place, babe.”
An hour later, we’re stationed outside of Monstraut. Mrs. Fontaina’s given us the full tour of the estate, and Violet intentionally kept her eyes off mine as she did so. Later, she’ll give me the full rendition in Fontaina’s high-pitched, nasally voice. “The glass staircase accesses the primary suite with water views, marble bath with a soaking tub, and private, ocean-facing deck.”
I didn’t know anyone hated pretense more than I do until I met Violet.
I recently tried to gift her a diamond tennis bracelet, and she told me that it was lovely, but could I please get her a gun instead?
I did.
That’s my girl.
When we’re alone on the deck, Claude stationed at the front of the house and Joe on the bottom floor overseeing a small group of my men, I nod my chin toward the office. “You’ll be my lead in checking for bugs. Let’s go.”
“What makes her think her place is bugged?” she asks, her brow puckered with curiosity.
“No fucking idea,” I mutter. “Could be she’s delusional. Who knows?”
We go through the standard routine, sweep the closets, the corners of the room, under the desk.
“I remember I once thought I was being watched,” Violet says with a self-deprecating snort. My heart stops for a full beat.
There was absolutely a time she was being watched. By me.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. I swear I always felt eyes following me, but it was just in my head.”
“Oh? When was this?”
“Few months before I came to see you.” She’s crouched on the floor beneath the desk, checking for bugs. She rises when she finds nothing, then sweeps across the desk for another quick go.
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her the truth. I can imagine it, her sidled up close to me while I tell her everything. I have files and files of videos I took of her, photos I shot, reams of background history. Everything locked up tighter than a vault.
One day I’ll tell her, but today is not that day.
“And what if you found someone was watching you?”
She looks over her shoulder at me and laughs as if the very thought’s preposterous. “Why would anyone want to follow me?” She shakes her head. “Honest to God, that’s the silliest thing. I’m nobody.”
I cross the room to her. The look in her eyes tells me she’s wary of me, that she knows she’s pushed it by calling herself a nobody.
“Okay, so I’m not a nobody,” she begins, in an effort to backtrack that I’m not buying. We’ve been together now for a few months, but I’ve known her longer than that.
“You are not nobody,” I tell her when she’s within my reach.
“Cain,” she murmurs, her eyes focused over my shoulder at the door. She’s afraid we’ll get caught like this, but I couldn’t give a shit. She shakes her head, flustered and frazzled, until I tug a little lock of her hair just at the base of her scalp. Her eyes widen, and her lips part as her gaze meets mine.
“Not here,” she whispers, begging me not to dominate her where someone could see us. She gave me her word when we closed our first case together that she’s mine. That she’d devote herself to me, give me carte blanche in exchange for my serving her vengeance on a platter.
“Violet,” I warn. She promised me. She gave me a vow that she’d give herself to me, and giving herself to me means I take her wherever, whenever, and however I want. I use that to my full advantage. Never said I wasn’t an asshole.
“You are not nobody,” I whisper in her ear. “You are the most brilliant, the most mesmerizing, the most intriguing woman I’ve ever met.” And I love you, I mentally tack on, but I can’t say it aloud. If I do, she’ll run. I’ve worked every day since the minute she stepped foot on my property to build her trust, but we’re not there yet. She still occasionally flutters her wings like a caged bird, ready to flee when the door opens.
“Well,” she murmurs, placing her hand on my shoulder in an attempt to calm me. It works. “That still isn’t reason enough to follow me. So the very idea’s preposterous, Mr. Master.” She cocks her head and gives me a teasing smile. “Since the only person who finds me so enthralling… is you.”
My heart stops. For one raw moment I think she’s actually hit on the truth. But no… she can’t know.
The handle to the door behind me turns, and we quickly go back to work. I’m distracted, though, as we do our detail.
Does she suspect anything?
The night goes on without a hitch, other than one minor incident involving an intoxicated ex, but Claude escorted him off the property so effortlessly, the crowd at the beach never knew what happened.