Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 103852 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103852 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
The difference between getting hurt and not. My ability to stay alive and the complete opposite.
While everything in me revolts against the idea of going anywhere with him, my survival instinct rushes forward.
Dinner is definitely much better than being killed in a parking garage and having all traces gone in the morning.
Besides, he awakened something inside me earlier by merely sitting in the audience. I chalked it up to coincidence, but now that he’s standing in front of me, my legs tingle with the need to move, to do something, anything.
If I have to do this, I might as well find out why someone like him, a dangerous criminal, was able to draw that reaction out of me.
“I need to change,” I say, tactfully avoiding his gaze, not only because of its intensity, but also because he seems to peer into me whenever we make eye contact.
“Then change.”
“You need to leave for me to do that.”
“And allow you to call for help or escape? I don’t think so.”
“I won’t call for help. If that was an option, I would’ve done it already.”
“You would’ve done it already,” he repeats, rolling the words over his tongue with that sinful accent.
“Yes, and I won’t escape either. There’s just one door.”
“There’s a window in the bathroom that you can climb through.”
God. He already went over this entire place, didn’t he?
“I won’t escape. Just go. Wait outside the door.”
He pulls the chair and sits down, his long legs stretching in front of him before he crosses them at the ankles.
“I’m going nowhere, Lia. Now, change.”
5
Lia
My knee-jerk reaction is to yell or somehow run from him.
But I’m logical enough to know that won’t deter him. If anything, it could—and would—put me in danger.
However, if he thinks I’m changing in front of him, he has another thing coming. He may be a terrifying monster, but I won’t be his willing prey.
I loosen the pins in my hair, then remove them and throw them on the dressing table beside him not so gently. I’m sweaty from rehearsal and in desperate need of a shower, but that will have to wait because there’s no way in hell this stranger and my naked body will exist in the same room.
My dark locks loosen, falling to my shoulders, and I resist the need to sigh in relief.
He’s watching my every movement like he did when he sat in the audience. His gaze zeroes in on my actions instead of my body in a mechanical kind of way, and although he doesn’t seem to be weighing me up sexually, I’m suddenly self-conscious about my skirt that barely covers the crack of my ass and my leotard, which molds against the curve of my breasts.
I open my locker with unsteady hands and retrieve one of the dresses I keep here, then throw it on over my clothes. He raises a brow when the material falls to my knees. It’s tight at the top with a full skirt.
I give him what I’m sure appears to be a smug look as I reach back to close the zipper. The pervert must’ve believed he’d see me naked and even sat down for the show, but I just abolished his plan.
He stands and I jerk against the locker, my victory dance coming to a screeching halt.
“I thought you said you were going to change.” He stops a foot away.
He’s so close, like that day when he held the gun to my forehead, and even though the weapon is currently absent, it’s as if its cold muzzle is there again.
My senses are so heightened that I feel every intake of air and the goosebumps breaking out over my bare arms. His smell shoots straight to my head and nothing prepares me for the subtle mixture of woods and leather. On the surface, it’s a harmless scent, but on him, it’s a translation of his lethality.
Despite my need to cower, I lift my chin. “I did change.”
“That you did.” He grabs me by the shoulder and spins me around. Then he holds my hand that’s still on the zipper, sending a shiver down my spine.
I expect him to pull it down and force me to get out of the dress, but he uses my fingers to zip it up. The sound reverberates in the silence of the room and I gulp as his lips lower to the shell of my ear. “It’d be wise to not provoke me. I dislike it and I’ll make sure you dislike it, too.”
He releases my hand and swiftly turns me back around to face him. It’s completely unfair that a devil like him has such an intimidating physique and a handsome face to go with it.
“Shall we?” He motions at the door.
After changing into flats, I grab my coat and bag, then follow him.