Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 102408 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 512(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102408 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 512(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
I was a little tipsy, cheeks heated and feeling giddy as I danced with Chess. I loved dancing, and in my early teens I used to dance on the rooftop of our house with the radio blaring. I’d close my eyes and let the music take hold of me. Live it. Become it and everything else would slip away except the beat thrumming through my body.
As I moved to the music now, I let the feeling take over. This was what I wanted. To be able to dance when I wanted. To laugh. To feel alive. I’d missed years of feeling alive.
We weren’t alone for long as a couple guys danced with us. The music was too loud for talking, but we weren’t on the dance floor to talk.
Chess and I danced a couple more songs then refused the offer of a drink from the guys and headed back to the table.
I veered off to the washroom, which thankfully didn’t have a line out the door, went into one of the stalls, had a pee then came out and walked to the sink to wash my hands.
“Alina.”
I stopped, head snapping to my right. “Connor.”
He leaned up against the counter, arms and ankles crossed appearing completely at ease as if he were meant to be here. As if it were no big deal him suddenly appearing out of nowhere.
Twelve days.
Twelve days he’d disappeared and now he stood in the girls’ washroom at a bar like this was normal.
This wasn’t normal.
I looked around, frowning. The washroom was empty. It hadn’t been empty when I came in. There’d been a number of girls giggling in front of the mirror while freshening their makeup.
A girl emerged from a stall and squeaked when she saw Connor then quickly ran for the door. It took her a couple tries to escape because Connor had turned the deadbolt.
As soon as she realized, she unlocked the door and fled. Connor pushed off the counter, walked to the door, relocked it then he stalked toward me.
I had yet to move. I couldn’t move.
He stopped beside me at the sink then leaned over, pressed his palm down on the soap dispenser and a thick stream of pink squirted into his palm.
“Hands, baby.” He was perfectly calm as he patiently waited for me to do what he asked.
Maybe my inability to react properly had a little to do with the alcohol-induced haze. But mostly it had to do with shock.
I lifted my hands and he took them in his then caressed the soap into my skin. He did it slowly and gently, his fingers gliding between mine until my hands were covered with pink foam.
“What are you doing here?”
“Washing your hands,” he replied.
With one hand still in mine, he turned on the taps, tested the water and then urged me forward to put my hands under the steady stream.
I resisted. “Here. What are you doing here?”
He moved behind me, pressing his hard body into me, arms on either side enclosing me in his embrace and giving me no choice but to put my hands under the water.
I closed my eyes, soaking in the feel of him, breathing in his scent, his touch as he carefully rinsed the soap from my hands.
“Hey! What’s going on?” It sounded like a fist banging on the door.
“Fuck off,” Connor growled.
I jerked from my haze and looked in the mirror at Connor’s reflection.
“You can’t be in here. Connor, you can’t lock the door,” I said. His hands entwined with mine under the water as he gently continued to wash the soap off, but it was already long gone. “Please. You need to go.” The last thing I wanted was a scene and for something to happen to him. He’d had everything happen to him already.
“Open the door. I have to go pee, damn it,” a girl yelled.
Shit. There was a bunch of voices and then nothing. I was betting the bouncers would be pounding on the door next and I didn’t want to think how Connor would react to some guy forcing him to leave the bar.
Connor shut off the taps and moved away, but not to the door. He strode over to the paper towel dispenser, peeled off a few sheets then walked back and dried my hands before tossing the paper into the trash can.
He held out his hand. “Babe,” he said.
As soon as I linked my fingers with his, he tugged. I stumbled into him, a combination of too much to drink, high heels and still a little shocked. He swept my hair back over my shoulder then rested his hands on my hips.
He kissed the top of my head. “So beautiful. Fuck, you took my breath away out there dancing.”
My breath hitched and I tilted my chin up so I could meet his eyes. “You saw me dancing?”