Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Oz nodded. “When I lower this gun, you’re gonna walk out of this apartment. You won’t look at her. You won’t talk to her. You can tell whoever the fuck you want about this. But tell ’em the Savelles said hi.”
“Okay,” he said.
I held my breath, waiting for him to lower his gun, and prayed Alec didn’t do anything stupid.
“When she’s coming on my cock, it’s my name she’s screaming.”
“Okay,” Alec replied.
Oz stepped back, taking the gun off Alec, then lowering it slowly. “You can go.”
I didn’t watch him. My eyes stayed locked on Oz. He hadn’t put his gun away. It was still in his hand that hung at his side. I didn’t know what I’d do if he raised it and shot at Alec. I didn’t want Alec to die, but I wasn’t taking a bullet for him.
When I heard the door open and close, I let out a breath, but the turmoil churning inside me didn’t ease. Oz’s gaze moved to mine as he put the gun in the holster at his back. He didn’t say anything, but I could see remorse in his eyes.
I didn’t want to ask because, in my gut, I knew. But he knew I was going to. I couldn’t pretend otherwise.
“Where did you get a key to the door?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. “I only have one.”
He looked as if my words had caused him pain. Yet he steeled his expression, and determination moved in.
“I took yours and had it made.”
“Why didn’t you ask me? I would have given it to you. Why hide that you had one from me?”
He took a deep breath. “Because when I took it, you wouldn’t have given it to me then.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”
He licked his lips, flashing the metal bar. “I know. And I intended to tell you. I was just struggling with how.”
“Tell me what, Oz?”
Had he done this before he abducted me? So he could search my apartment or get in if Perry was here? I thought I could live with that since it was all behind us. I just wished he had told me he had it.
“When I brought you back from Louisiana,” he began, “I didn’t want to. I wanted to keep us both locked up there in that house with you upstairs so that I could be around you. Get to know you. Figure out why you were under my skin. But it was done, and I had to bring you back. I brought you in here, and while I stood over you, watching you sleep…I felt peace. The same way I had when I watched you sleeping in that room the first time in Louisiana. I just wanted to stand there. Make sure you were safe and watch you sleep.” He paused, his eyes searching me, or maybe he was waiting on me to talk, but I couldn’t do that just yet. I needed to hear all of it.
“I left. Couldn’t get you out of my head. Whether I was awake or asleep, you were there in my every thought. So, I came back. Broke in. Watched you sleep. The peace was back. You looked like a fucking angel, and I was fascinated by you. I kept returning, and I knew it was an addiction. Something I would need. I took your key and had a copy made.
“A week later, you left a candle burning, and it scared the shit out of me. The what-ifs. I justified my coming every night because I was protecting you. Making sure you hadn’t left a candle burning.” He ran a hand through his hair. “And you did. Too often. But it was okay because I would put it out for you.
“I wanted to know you so bad; it was owning me. The need clawing at me. That’s why I read your texts. To see who you were when you weren’t with me. Who the rest of the world, the people you didn’t hate, knew. The woman I wanted to know.
“The day at the festival, I was there because of you. I had known because of your texts, and I couldn’t stand the idea of you being there with some guy, even if you didn’t seem to like him. And like I said before, when you looked at me at the festival…well, standing in the shadows of your life wasn’t enough anymore. I wanted to know you. Not just watch you sleep, but hold you while you did.”
He blew out a long breath. “That night, you weren’t blackout drunk. You fell asleep on the sofa with the ice cream dripping onto the rug and the damn candle still lit and entirely too close to you this time, and I carried you to bed, cleaned up the ice cream, put out the candle. Then, I got a phone cube charger and changed it out with the one in the living room. There’s a hidden camera in it. That way, it wasn’t where you bathed and dressed, but if you needed me, I would know.”