Total pages in book: 184
Estimated words: 186756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 934(@200wpm)___ 747(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 934(@200wpm)___ 747(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
“Yeah.”
“Because my dresses are always short?”
“Because their eyes are always filthy.”
“I wore this dress for you,” I confess.
“I know.”
“To hurt you.”
He looks into my eyes. “I know that.”
“It shows off those two dimples and my mole.”
The pads of his fingers dig into my bare flesh. “Along with the crack of your bouncy little ass.”
I moan lowly. “I checked to make sure.”
“Which is why”—he kneads my flesh—“you’re going to wear my jacket when you leave here.”
I want to say no. I want to stomp my foot and act all diva-like.
But I decide to let it go for now.
Just for now.
It doesn’t mean I’m still not angry with him, just for the record.
“Okay,” I give in.
“Good.”
“But let me tell you that you’re not my bodyguard.”
“Don’t really give a fuck about labels.”
“No bodyguard behaves like this,” I point out.
“Yeah, so then what am I?”
“The way you behave?” I raise my eyebrows. “My daddy.”
My eyes go wide at what I just blurted out.
And his flash.
Then, squeezing my waist and fisting my hair, “So then that’s what I’ll be. I’ll be your bodyguard, your protector, your fucking daddy”—I shiver at that word—“if it means you will be on that bus the day after tomorrow.”
Oh, that.
I completely forgot about that.
“I—”
“Promise me, Dora,” he asks, all serious.
“It’s not really that bad. I—”
“Fucking promise me,” he seethes.
And so I give in to that too. I give in to him because he looks so intense. He looks as if he’ll lose it if I say no. “Okay.”
A look of satisfaction comes over him.
It’s crystal and it’s clear.
Along with a look I’ve never seen before on anyone, let alone on him. It makes his features all sharp and cutting. His cheekbones even higher and his bruised jaw even more square.
Almost animalistic.
Possessiveness.
It’s possessiveness.
It says that I’m his. I belong to him. For now and forever.
Which also reminds me that that’s not true.
I’m not his for now and forever.
I’m someone else’s. His brother’s.
And the fact that I forgot that fact—the very fact because of which we kissed in the first place—is so fucking jolting to me. It’s so fucking jarring that I kissed another man because I got engaged and then forgot about the fucking engagement is…
Oh God.
Oh God.
Oh God.
I kissed another man. I kissed him.
“I’m…” I whisper, my left hand, the hand with the ring, unfurling on his chest. “I’m engaged, Stellan.”
I say the same thing that started it all, but my tone is different.
My tone is scared. My tone is small but full of guilt.
He notices that. He notices the change and for some strange reason, his possessiveness only increases. His grip on me increases too. His fists in my hair tighten. His chest ripples as if he thinks I’ll fly away but he won’t let me go.
“You—”
“I’m engaged. I’m…” I snatch my hand away from his chest and bring it up to my tingling, swollen mouth. “And I… You… My mom’s right, isn’t she? She’s right. She… I’m a slut. I’m…”
I have to be.
For doing what I did.
It’s not a surprise, but I also didn’t know I was capable of something like this. I have committed so many heinous crimes in the past. I’ve hurt Shepard so badly and out of the goodness of his heart, out of love, he decided to fix me and this is what I do the first chance I get.
“Hey.” He grabs my face, squeezing my cheeks. “Hey, Dora.”
“I’m—”
He squeezes them harder. “No, not one word. Not one fucking word in favor of that fucking bitch, all right?” My mouth parts, but he keeps going, “Not one fucking word. Or I swear to God, I’m going to go out there and I’m going to fucking choke her to death. I will suffocate the life out of her. Do you understand what I’m saying to you? I will end her godforsaken life for hurting you, for making you think you’re anything other than perfect. So not one fucking word or I will lose it.”
He will. I can see that.
So gripping his wrists again, I whisper, “But she said she’ll… She’ll do something, something bad to you and to him if I—”
“I’d like to see her try,” he growls.
I grip his wrists harder. “He’s… He’s not going to like what we just did. He’s doing this to help me. He’s doing this because I told him I want to move on. I want to move on from you. From… He’s—”
“And he will. He will help you. He will fucking help you. And for that”—he grabs me tightly—“I want to tear him apart. I want to beat the shit out of him but the fact that he loves you is his only saving grace. But that’s it. That’s all I can give him. He’s going to have to deal with the rest,” he says firmly. “He’s going to have to fucking deal with the fact that I stole a few moments of heaven with you because he’s getting you for the rest of his life.”