Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
“I did my part. More than my part, really,” I said, chin jerking up, daring him to claim otherwise.
Since, you know, I wasn’t actually his maid.
“You had me out here looking for you.”
“You didn’t need to go looking for me. I’m a grown-ass woman.”
“Who’d just overheard a man in my organization plotting against me,” he said, and a new thought started to take root.
Had he been… worried about me?
“I put your ass in danger,” he said. “I need to know where you are because of that.”
I had never been a woman who swooned over men and their sort-of alpha tendencies. I knew all my cousins ate that up. Maybe because they came from mostly alpha men and therefore expected that from future interactions with the opposite sex.
Personally, I’d always found it kind of condescending. I could take care of myself. I didn’t need any man worrying about me.
But when that man was Andres Alcazar, apparently, it was a different story entirely.
Could that just be because everything about A always seemed so calm and laid-back, the proverbial duck with everything rolling off his back?
Yet, somehow, he was worried about me?
No.
That was stupid.
He was probably just worried that if something happened to me because of him, half of the criminal organizations in Navesink Bank would be coming for him.
He might be a big, bad cartel leader and all, but we both knew he wouldn’t stand a chance against the bikers and bomb experts and mixed ex-military personnel.
“If it makes you feel better, my family doesn’t even know I’m working this case. You don’t have to worry about them coming for you if it goes south.”
“Wasn’t worried about your family, mama. I was worried about you,” he said, head tilted to the side a bit, his gaze intense.
Fuck.
I wasn’t prepared for the way his words made my insides go a little liquid. Or the strange sort of warm sensation in my chest.
I mean… what the hell was that?
Maybe Luna was just… turning the A.C. off little by little or something. That seemed like her. She was so non-confrontational. She would have a hard time kicking people out directly. But slowly making it intolerable to stay in the library? That seemed like her.
“Now, back to this,” he said, flipping the book open.
“No,” I said. Too quickly. Too sharp and desperate sounding.
“No?” he asked, his slow smirk telling me he was reading way more into it than I wanted him to. “Why not?” he asked.
“It’s stupid,” I insisted.
“Stupid? See, what I’m seeing is this guy is grabbing his secretary, turning her, and bending her over his desk,” he said, and the visions I’d conjured up myself from reading it came flooding back. Only, this time, I wasn’t so much picturing fictional characters. And was picturing myself. And Andres.
“Don’t seem so stupid to me,” he said, leaning a little closer, voice dropping a bit, and I swear it somehow shivered over my skin.
And then he continued reading.
“‘Mikhail’s hand landed a hard slap to Holly’s ass, making her yelp and jolt, but then arch back for more.
“His hand snaked up her spine, slipping into the hair at the base of her neck, curling, and yanking as he slammed inside of her.’”
“What about you, mama?” he asked, snapping me back to the present, but slowly, like a fog being pulled back, leaving me a little hazy.
“What about me, what?” I asked.
“You like it like that?” he asked.
“Like what?” I asked again.
But it was the wrong thing to say.
Because he stepped forward, his hand going behind my neck, his fingers slipping into my hair, then giving it a tug hard enough to make my head snap back as a delicious sort of pain pricked across my scalp, making me suck in a breath as my lips parted. “Yeah,” he said, smirking, his face close to mine. Too close. “I think you like that,” he concluded, giving me another little tug. Even though I knew it was coming this time, I couldn’t seem to hold in the little whimper that escaped me.
It would have progressed.
I would have let it progress.
If it weren’t for someone not far away snapping their laptop lid a little too loudly.
No.
Not too loudly.
Just loudly enough to snap me right back into my right damn mind.
My hand shoved into A’s chest, sending him back a foot, but that light didn’t leave his eyes.
Because he knew he had me.
The bastard.
“I’m leaving,” I declared, turning to do just that.
I didn’t have to turn to know he was on my heels the whole way back to the front desk.
“You didn’t find anything?” Luna asked, looking crestfallen that I could not find a single interesting book in a building full of nothing but them.
“Oh, we found something we both liked,” A announced, making my stomach drop as I turned and saw him drop the damn book onto the counter.