Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
“Are you okay?” Carter asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, yes, in most ways I’m more okay than I ever thought I would be. I’m here with you and you’re…tolerating me.”
“I think I did a little more than tolerate you out there.” He tilted his head toward the woods.
“Maybe. Although you tolerated me like that before everything fell apart.”
“You knew back then that it was way more than tolerating you. I was obsessed with you.”
“Maybe, but it’s damn good to hear you say it.”
“Tell me what you were thinking about just now,” he said.
“That I don’t deserve this. That it’s too good. That it’s all going to fall apart.”
“Come here, sweetheart.” He turned his chair to face me and opened his legs. I walked over to him and knelt between them. When he pulled me to him, I laid my head against his chest and let myself relax into him. One of his hands rubbed my back while the other slid into my hair, holding me against him as if he was afraid I would pull away. That wouldn’t happen. I was always happy for him to touch me.
“What do you want when all of this is over?” he asked.
“That depends on you.”
“No, it doesn’t. You want what you want. I can say yes or no.”
I pulled back and looked at him, taking hold of his chin, tilting his head down until our eyes met. “Can you?”
“Jesus. I don’t know. Apparently I’m not very good as saying no to you.”
I grinned. “That’s one of my favorite things about you.”
He shoved at my chest. “Shut the fuck up.”
“I think you like it too. You like how easy I make it to say yes.”
“We’ve said it before. There’s never been anything easy about this.”
I couldn’t deny that. “Maybe there could be if we come out of this alive.”
He narrowed his eyes. “There aren’t any other options. We will survive this.”
“Someone out there wants you dead.”
“But I’m alive. I have friends and resources, and I have you.”
“I won’t let them hurt you.”
“I won’t let them hurt you either,” Carter insisted. “Therefore, there are no other options. So, what do you want when it’s over?”
“You, here, naked, doing whatever I want, ready for me whenever I desire you.”
Carter rolled his eyes. “You know that’s not what I meant. Although I can think of worse ways to exist.”
“Yeah, me too. I want us together. I want time like this where it’s just us.”
“You’d like to live out here, wouldn’t you?” he asked.
“Are you inviting me to move in?”
“I thought you already had.”
My heart beat wildly at those words. He thought…. He was letting me…. “You’re right. I have.”
“You don’t want to live in the city, do you? I can’t see you there in a condo.”
“Working alongside you? Fighting with Miles every day?”
He huffed. “You need to learn to get along with him first.”
“Do I?”
“He a good guy. He cares about me.”
I knew he was right. “Fine. I can probably come to terms with him.”
“You’re going to have to anyway if we’re going to work together to defeat my family and the cartel.”
“He’s just so—”
“Arrogant? Domineering? Spoiled?”
“Yes.”
Carter grinned. “That’s all part of his charm.”
“I’d hate to hear about his detractions.”
“I think you’ve seen some of them already.”
“I sure as hell have, but if that’s what you want, me working with you, then that’s what I’ll do. If you want to live in the city, that’s where I will be.”
“What do you want?” He brushed the back of his hand over my cheek and the tender gesture made me shudder.
“I’d like to live here. I like that there’s nobody around. I like that I can chase you through the woods and make you cry for me.”
“That was—”
I glared at him. “If you’re about to say anything but fucking amazing, then stop right now.”
“It was dangerous and stupid, but also fucking amazing.”
“And you’d do it again.”
“For you, yeah.”
I couldn’t hold back a smile. “Good. What was it like here for you after you got back?”
“I thought you were spying on me.”
“I got word that you were alive and your friends were taking care of you. That’s it.”
“Promise me you won’t ever go back to that life. Even if the CIA changes its mind and begs you to, I want you to stay right here with me. We’ll figure out the details, but I want you here, or in the city, wherever I am.”
I took a shaky breath, determined not to cry in front of him again. “With you is the only place I want to be.”
“If you want to tell me about what it was like for you with the cartel, I’ll listen. I’ll want to go and tear some people apart, but I’ll listen.”
My initial reaction was to say no. I absolutely did not want to talk about it, but Carter was one of the few people who could understand. “Maybe eventually, but not now.”