Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 148238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
“Ah, pumpkin.” A man with a large belly laughed. “He kept you at his place. We know he fucked ya. So… dish it up.”
Annoyance wrangled with mischief. The men, excluding Lighter Boy, watched me with eager amusement and intrigue. It was so nice to be around people again. I’d forgotten the ease of being in a group, of laughing with strangers who slowly became friends.
Friends were all I could gain with my mind like a giant sieve. I had no family.
But I do.
My heart swelled like a hot air balloon. For the first time in years, I wasn’t alone. I came from someone. I belonged to someone.
And it isn’t the boy from your dreams. He didn’t want me.
My spine straightened as tiredness fell over me. Kill still hadn’t showed up. What did that mean? That he still despised me? Still completely in denial that the woman he’d mourned for years actually was never dead?
Was that even possible?
“Come on, Sarah. Tell us—is our Prez a good fuck?” The guy with the belly elbowed another, winking at me.
I reclined in my chair, wishing I had a napkin for my greasy fingers. I embraced the side of the girl still hidden to me. The girl called Buttercup. The girl who would’ve laughed and joked with men similar to these all those years ago. “Well… what do you want to know?”
The men slapped their hands on the table. Their low timbre laughs reverberating around the table. “Oh, shouldn’t have said that, girl.”
“Tell us the kinky dirt.”
“Tell us something that’ll make you blush.”
My back tensed but I smiled at the rough gruff men, not afraid of them as I’d been raised by a brethren similar in some other time and place. I was as much a part of this world as any other—more so in fact: the smell of gasoline and thunder of a motorcycle was the lullaby of my past.
Fear skittered quickly.
So why, if you came from this world, do you fear it so much?
My fingers ached to grab my hair and shake. The questions were piling up and I had no answers to tame them.
Calmly Lighter Boy stood up, wiped his mouth, swigged the rest of his beer, and made his way around the table to leave. His brothers didn’t look up, transfixed on waiting for any gossip from me. But I couldn’t look anywhere else.
Opening the door he looked back, brown eyes locking with mine. His lips spread over his teeth, sending a shiver over my scalp. His eyes shouted that he wasn’t finished with me. Whatever he’d stolen me for had yet to come to pass.
Waggling his fingers condescendingly, he left the room, closing the door behind him.
My heart charged around my chest.
You need to remember. And fast.
My time had screeched to an end. I’d been sold. I would soon leave and never get a second chance. I had to fight.
Mo nudged my ankle under the table. “Tell us. It’s cruel to make a man wait.”
“Yeah, it’s called blue balls,” the prospect joked.
Masculine laughter rippled around the room.
Taking a deep breath, I asked, “You want details…”
“Hell yeah!”
Grasshopper grinned. “One tiny juicy detail. Come on, give it up.”
My mind raced with everything Kill had done—the way he’d made me feel, the vulnerability and brokenness he kept hidden below surly curtness. “Okay, one detail. When he took me shopping, he pushed me against the changing room wall and kissed me so hard his teeth punctured my bottom lip.”
My tummy fluttered recalling the passion, the confusion, and most of all the need.
The laughter died; men looked at each other with strange expressions on their faces.
Mo finally muttered, “As fucking if. Tell the story but don’t lie about it.”
Grasshopper threw me a look, stuffing his face full of pizza. I couldn’t read the message in his eyes.
A lie because he kissed me? Was that so hard to believe?
Yes, if what Grasshopper said is right. Bound, blindfolded, no touching—the only way Kill would sleep with a woman.
I lost the spark to interact with them, letting my soul sink down and down into the forgetful darkness inside. It wasn’t their business what their president did with me. Especially seeing as my answers unsettled them. And I wanted to hoard those precious memories—they were my only illumination in the dark.
“Try again, pumpkin. Something believable this time,” the guy with the belly said, swiping his mouth free of pizza crumbs.
Balling my hands under the table, I said, “What happened at Kill’s place—”
“Is none of your goddamn business.” That voice. Smooth but gravelly. Deep and powerful. An earthquake invoker—his words aftershocking around the room with force.
Awareness electrified the fine hairs on the back of my neck. Every inch of my body hummed.
The room went quiet. Achingly quiet.
I spun in my chair. My heart erupted into sparks and comets.
Kill’s face was closed off and angry, his hands fisted by his sides. His eyes were bloodshot and fresh bruising marked his face. Gone was the collected angry president, replaced with an exposed man searching for violence. “I trust you to do one thing and this is what I fucking come back to?”