Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Core opened his mouth to command his dog to stop, but Hellen didn’t rear away.
She buried her pink-tipped fingers in his fur and scratched.
Nanook licked her again.
Core decided he needed to keep his eyes on the road.
She said nothing, even when he pulled into his garage.
He got out.
Nanook, not dumb by any stretch of the imagination, hopped down behind Hellen.
Core walked toward the door to the house, hit the garage door button, it started trundling down, and he opened the way to the house, sweeping his arm to invite her inside.
She went in.
She strutted through his laundry room and stopped in his kitchen.
She glanced at the steak, but otherwise didn’t look around.
Nanook’s head swung between the two of them as they went into a stare off. Then, with a groan, he hedged his bets and sank down to his belly between them.
She finally spoke.
Lifting her hand in front of her, palm up, she asked, “May I have my phone now?”
“How pissed at me are you?”
“There is no quantity yet invented to measure the intensity of how pissed I am at you.”
“Say they were onto you.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t excuse—”
“You in a skirt and high heels. Maybe five of them in that house. You and Marcy nabbed first, your friend comes over the back fence thinking she’s good, they get her next. What do fucks like that do to women who are not toeing their line?”
He saw her jaw bulge as she ground her teeth.
But she stopped doing that to say, “Christos wasn’t there, obviously. We knew that. He knows Marcy and me.”
“So four on three. Four men, three women. They still got you and you know it.”
She glared at him.
She knew it.
He kept at her.
“To answer my question, they teach them how to toe the line, and sweetheart, they do it in a way you never forget. Eight called me, that was all that was in my head. I have spent five years cleaning up the trail of misery left behind from women who have been used by men like that. If they realized what you women were up to, you become someone else. The you standing here, pissed at me, is gone. That was why I was so fucking furious.”
“I can cogitate, Core. I figured that out when you shouted in my face.”
“It was an honest reaction.”
She nodded sarcastically, and yeah, she could do that because he didn’t miss the sarcasm.
“It was something.”
“Tables are turned, I do something jacked, you telling me you wouldn’t be that pissed at me?”
She ground her teeth again.
She’d be that pissed at him.
“Shout in my face? Make your anger clear? And then when it’s done,” he tossed both hands to his sides, “get me someplace good to work it out?”
“Is that what we’re doing? Working it out?”
“I’m gonna grill a steak. I’m gonna grill you one too if you haven’t eaten. We’re gonna have some beers. You’re gonna tell me what a dick I am, I’m gonna admit I was a dick, because I was serious pissed, but I recognize I went over the top. Then I’m gonna take you to your car and follow you so I know you’re safe home.”
He said something there, something that penetrated, because her head ticked and the feel of her eyes on him changed from hot as lasers to hot as weaker lasers.
But she said, “I’d rather call an Uber.”
He shook his head. “Those aren’t safe for a woman alone, baby. Are you nuts?”
That was when it happened. Something clicked for her then, he saw it. This wasn’t a minor thing. The way she was watching him completely changed.
Then she said, “It’s late. I’ve already eaten.”
“I haven’t.”
“Well then,”—she indicated the steak on the counter—“eat.”
He wanted to smile, but he didn’t.
“You still mad?”
“Yes. Very.”
He opened his arms. “Wanna come here and hug it out?”
She took a step back, and a little bit of his sassy Hellen could be heard in her, “No. Thank you.”
That was when he smiled and finally went back to his steak.
He dug her phone out of his pocket, put it on the counter and invited, “Help yourself to beer.”
“Is that your way of saying you want me to get you a beer?”
He turned his head her way. “I got opposable thumbs. When I’m ready for a beer, I can get my own. You’re offering to pop one for me, knock yourself out. But I’m doing something right now so I can’t drink it. In other words, no, that was my way of saying, if you want one, grab a beer.”
Now she was studying him like he was an alien.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she murmured and headed to his fridge.
Meat was involved, so Nanook got up and sat by Core’s leg while he finished seasoning.
He gave up on the grill and decided to pan fry.