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)
Ever.
And yes… I trust him.
But down in the living room, with the cinnamon-scented pinecones decorating the mantle, and pumpkin spice everything being cooked up in the kitchen… it reminds me that Christmas is coming.
My parents were killed at Christmas.
I feel as if the days are passing like sand through an hourglass, and I’m not sure where we’ll be when the last grain of sand falls.
After we secured Skylar, I made a promise to Cain, and I always keep my promises.
I remember the conversation well. He was sitting in his office when he beckoned to me. He explained how he would help me find my parents and what he’d ask from me in return.
“What do you want from me?”
“I want you.”
“Me?”
“You. All of you. Carte blanche to do whatever I want to you, whenever I want to. Anytime, anywhere.”
“I have the distinct feeling I’d… both hate and love every minute of what you’d do to me… yes.”
“Yes?”
“Yes, Cain. I accept your terms. I’m yours.”
And I’ve given him… me. All of me. Over, and over, and over again, and no, it hasn’t been painful. Ours is a unique relationship, unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before, and it honestly goes far beyond mere sex.
There’s an intensity to Cain I crave. A fearlessness. One might label him an “alpha male,” but that only scrapes the very surface of who he really is.
What he really does.
Cain Master is a man in a camp of his own.
And I prided myself on understanding that. On understanding him.
At what cost?
Has he used me? Has he kept me here with him for companionship, never fully intending on helping me find my parents’ killer?
Or… has he found that there’s nothing but dead ends?
I don’t know what to expect. I don’t know what to hope for.
I don’t even know if I’m ready to face my parents’ murderer, but I know it was what brought me here, right to his doorstep, ready to barter.
I didn’t have the money he charged for a job like this. All I had to offer him was me.
My skills. My talents.
My body.
I never planned on whoring myself out, but now that I’m here…
No. No, I won’t let my mind go there.
Cain’s huge, rambling mansion of a house overlooks the Salem waterfront north of Boston. This time of year, the leaves have mostly fallen, leaving stark branches that warn of cold winter days and impending snow and ice, but a few brilliant orange maple leaves still cling with tenacity to low-hanging limbs. Cain brushes past them, and a few more flutter to the ground.
He yanks open the back door, and the smell of roasting chicken, potatoes, and Alma’s homemade bread wafts through the door toward us.
I hate the thought of leaving here. I hate the thought of starting afresh when I had the promise of everything I wanted right here. I hate the thought of leaving Cain.
But I’m too independent to wait on a man. Even the huge, hulking, alpha of a man plowing his way to his office right now.
“Dinner will be ready in thirty minutes, Mr. Master,” Alma calls from the stove, where she’s stirring a large skillet of greens.
“Might not be down tonight, Alma.”
Interesting. How much does he have to show me?
She looks over her shoulder at me, and I shrug at her. “Would you like me to keep the food warm for you?”
He shakes his head. “No, thank you. I’m not sure when we’ll be down.”
“I’ll send it up then.”
“Perfect.”
Well that’s promising. Maybe he’s got more to tell me than I expected he did.
We walk through the house, him a few paces ahead of me. My senses are assaulted by everything Skylar’s done to decorate. Scented pinecones on the mantle, rustic wooden orange pumpkins on the bookshelves, and a smattering of scented candles in yellows and browns on a little side table.
I should be happy she’s enjoying herself. The weeks following her abduction and assault were dark for Skylar. At first, she wouldn’t get out of bed or talk to anyone for days on end. I pushed through. I made her talk to me. I would bring her breakfast in her room and chatter away, even though she sometimes didn’t respond at all. It was days until she began to talk to me, and once she did, it seemed she had quite a bit to say.
Cain likes that we’ve befriended each other. He’s told me we’re the two women who mean more to him than anything in the world, and he likes that we’re here, under his roof. Can’t be that way forever, though, and we both know it.
Eventually, Skylar will have to be independent again. She’ll find a love interest, or a job that requires her to travel, or… something.
And me? I don’t belong here and never have.
I’m here to fulfill a mission. I’m here to fulfill my end of the bargain. And when that’s over… my heart hurts at the thought.