Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 123672 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 495(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123672 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 495(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
Alex nods, and I place the tattoo gun down and quickly accept the call before it rings out. Nat’s face instantly appears on my screen, a glass of wine in her hand. “Girl, where the hell have you been?”
“Sorry,” I say with a cringe. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Scare me? Ky, you fucking terrified me. I went to sleep with you right beside me, and when I woke up, you were gone. Like fall off the face of the earth kind of gone.”
“I know, I’m sorry,” I say again. “I was feeling kinda off, and with everything going on, I guess I just misread all the signs. And then after you fell asleep, it just kinda hit me, and I didn’t want to get you sick too, so I went home.”
“Just like that?” she questions. “Just packed your bags in the middle of the night and took off without even a goodbye, right after you told me that your hot-as-fuck neighbor was your stalker.”
“I mean, I tried to say goodbye, but you were sleeping like the living dead,” I tell her, immediately feeling like shit about the lie while also trying to figure out how the hell I’m supposed to explain the whole Alex thing when he’s sitting right across from me. “As for the stalker, it turns out it was all a bit of a misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding?” she grunts, not believing me for even a second.
I spare a glance at Alex, noting how he watches me, wondering how I’m going to play this, and honestly, I don’t even know at this point. If I confirm all of my suspicions with her and tell her that everything we talked about at her apartment is true, she’ll think I’m insane. But I don’t like the idea of lying to my best friend, especially over something so huge. “Okay, so . . . maybe not so much of a misunderstanding,” I say, my brain scrambling for something to say. “I can’t really say much, but just trust that I’m okay. I’m safe and I’m happy.”
Nat stares at me through the phone, the silence dragging on a moment too long. “You weren’t sick, were you?”
I scrunch my face, hating how easily she can read me. “Umm . . . no.”
“So where the hell have you been?” she demands. “Did that guy do something to you?”
“No,” I tell her. “He did nothing that I didn’t ask for.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
I let out a heavy breath, realizing she isn’t going to be okay with any of this until she can finally start to understand. “Okay, calm down,” I tell her. “Alex kinda took me away for a few days and—”
“You mean he kidnapped you?”
I roll my eyes. “He didn’t kidnap me, or well . . . I suppose if you want to be technical, then yeah, maybe he kidnapped me, but I liked it,” I tell her, waiting for her to lose her mind. “He’s opening my eyes to things that I probably wouldn’t have explored on my own, and when I tell you that I trust him, I need you to really understand that. He’s not hurting me. Quite the opposite actually.”
Nat gives me another blank stare. “What the hell is the opposite of him not hurting you?”
Alex groans and reaches for my phone, snatching it out of my hand and turning the camera to face him. “I took Kyah away, chained her to my bed, and fucked her for three days straight,” he tells her. “Sometimes I fucked her hard and fast, sometimes it was slow. And sometimes, she was the one fucking me. Now, if you don’t mind, Kyah is trying to ink my chest, and I’m really trying to get through it without shitting my pants, so could you do me a solid and wrap this shit up?”
Alex hands me my phone, and I turn the screen to face me, finding Nat gaping at her phone. “I umm . . . okaaaaaay.”
“Are you good?” I ask. “That was a lot to take in.”
“I need more wine.”
“Okay,” I laugh. “But really, I have to go.”
“The hell you do,” she screeches. “Do you have any idea how many questions I have now?”
“I can imagine,” I tell her. “Are you working tomorrow night? Why don’t you come over? We can get wicked drunk at the bar across the street from my apartment and I’ll tell you everything.”
“Okay, you’ve got yourself a deal,” she tells me. “But when you say everything, I want everything, right down to what positions he fucked you in.”
I roll my eyes and can’t help but grin at my best friend. “I’m hanging up now,” I warn her.
Nat groans and rolls her eyes. “Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
A wide grin stretches across my face. “Love you.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever,” she says, and with that, ends the call.