Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Pulling the blanket up and flipping to my back, I kept my eyes closed and hoped like hell I could convince my brain to drift back to sleep.
All at once, I bolted upright.
It should have been pitch black in the closet. It was easier to pretend that way. It was a delicate balance between the past and the present. The carpet reminded me I wasn’t back in prison, but like a newborn in a crib, I used the confining walls to lull me into a sense of security. I’d tried that cushy bed, but it felt like it was going to swallow me whole, and as much as I liked the idea, I wasn’t going to be able to sleep through it.
Short of the light that peeked in under the crack of the door, there should have been no sun in that closet with me. When I sat up and saw the woman wrapped in a comforter and sleeping just outside the threshold, the door being open was the least of my worries.
Thea.
Memories from the night before hit me like an avalanche.
Her sexy mouth whispering my name.
Her full breast filling my hand.
Her ass circling against my cock.
And then…
Her pleas for me to stop.
The bite marks on her neck.
The tears rolling down her cheeks.
Fuck.
My stomach soured and I sat up, scrubbing a hand over my eyes, hoping she’d disappear.
What the hell was she doing? My teeth marks still marred her neck, yet she’d broken into my room and slept at my feet? God, if that wasn’t bad enough, she was sleeping on the floor of my fucking makeshift prison.
She wasn’t supposed to be there. And not because of the bullshit lies I’d told her about not loving her, but because I’d spent half of my life fighting myself—the biggest demon of all—to make sure she never had to be.
Without a second thought, I rose to my feet and scooped her off the floor in one fluid movement.
She woke up with a squeak, hooking her arms around my neck. Her voice contained the proper amount of fear as she asked, “What are you doing?”
“You don’t belong there,” I replied, marching to my bedroom door. “You don’t sleep on the floor, Thea. I sleep on the floor. You sleep in a fucking bed. Got it?”
She shook her head. “You don’t belong there either. But I wanted to be with you.”
Cradling her in front of me, I bumped her legs on the jamb as I leaned in close to twist the knob. I used my foot to kick the door open. “What the fuck for? You need a matching bruise for the other side of your neck?”
“You didn’t hurt me. That’s not why I told you to stop. I wanted to see your face. That was all.”
The vise in my chest eased a fraction. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Bullshit. We matter, Ramsey.”
Right then, the only thing that mattered was getting her out of my arms. My damn peripheral vision was giving me a show down the gaping front of that flimsy tank top I swear she only wore to torture me. Gritting my teeth, I stomped from my room, turning sideways to clear the doorframe as I walked across the hall into hers. I’d never been in her room and I sure as shit wasn’t taking the time to look around while I was in nothing but a pair of boxer briefs, nature’s lie detector tenting the front.
Get in. Get out. Take a cold shower. And then consider narcing on someone from the inside so I could secure a spot in the witness protection program. STAT.
Bending at the hip, I deposited her on the yellow-and-green floral bedspread that I hated almost as much as those damn skirts she insisted on wearing to work.
That should have been the end of it.
But this was Thea and the shitshow was just getting started.
“You have to talk to me at some point,” she yelled, scrambling off the bed after me.
“No, I really don’t.” Long, heavy strides carried me to my room, but she was hot on my heels, so I didn’t have time to lock her out.
Goal number two was to beeline to the bathroom.
Oh, but fucking Thea, she charged around me, ducking under my arm and stopping me dead in my tracks.
“Move,” I rumbled.
She rested a hand on my chest and I swear it singed my skin. “Look at me, please.”
Nope. Not fucking happening. She was still wearing that tank top and I did not have the strength to see her nipples—or look her in the eye without kissing her fucking face off.
“Get out of here. I need to take a shower.”
I realized my mistake the minute I’d said it and it was only one of many for the morning. I’d told Thea how beautiful she’d looked on her knees when I was in the shower. It was not a lie. She was a mythical beast I couldn’t tame or bring to fruition.