Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 45284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
“Wow,” she murmurs. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
I keep my arms around her. “I’ve been a dickhead, haven’t I?”
“I wouldn’t put it like that,” she says with a small smile. “Does this mean you believe me now?”
I swallow, wanting to tell her yes.
“Tommy…” She leans back into my embrace, narrowing her eyes. “I promise she was just being a dork. Telling a silly joke. It doesn’t mean anything.”
I kiss her on the forehead. “I know. I believe you.”
“Is that the truth?”
“Yes and no,” I sigh. “Come on.”
I gesture into the car, then climb in after her. We hold hands as the driver pulls out of the spot, one security car ahead, one beside us, and one tailing us.
“Yes and no?” she asks, squeezing my hand. “How does that work?”
“I believe you. I don’t think you’re lying to me,” I tell her, “but at the same time, there’s this feeling inside of me. Pathetic since that stuff with my dad happened years ago, but it’s still there.”
“It’s not pathetic,” she whispers, laying her cheek against my shoulder, “but it’s also not true. I was thinking last night…”
“Yeah?” I say when she trails off.
“About… us. If you had no money, I’d still want to… date? Is that what we’re doing?”
More than that, I nearly growl. I’m claiming you for life.
“It’s as good a word as any,” I say gruffly. “How are things at work?”
She gives me a look, her young eyes perceptive. “Does that mean you haven’t been keeping tabs, huh?”
I grin. “All right, guilty. I heard the meeting with the client went well. They loved your drawing.”
She beams, and I’m so proud. Now that I’m with her, it feels impossible that I could ever stay away for three days. Somehow, I could close off my mind, but it’s so much more difficult when we’re together in person.
“There were a few notes, but yeah. It’s more than I ever could’ve expected.”
When her voice falters, I tenderly kiss her on the cheek. “That’s all you, Ami. I don’t have any input in the day-to-day running of Realization, and I definitely can’t control how their clients react.”
She squeezes my hand. “Thank you. We both need to make an effort to believe, huh?”
“Let’s do that then,” I say. “Trust each other. No more coldness.”
“Does that mean…”
She trails off. The car has come to a stop at a red light. Behind her, the morning sunlight causes a tall building to glisten, the windows shining. In British terms, today is downright tropical.
“Go on,” I urge.
“Will you tell me what happened with you and Oliver?”
“As in… recently or before?”
“Both.”
I almost tell her no, but she deserves this. I start with the easiest.
“I didn’t pay him anything,” I explain, “and I won’t.”
“Instead,” I go on, “I found out where he and his mates are staying. It’s a crack den in a bad neighborhood. They’ve been trying to follow both of us, leaving the house in a beat-up old car and hanging outside yours and my flat. With the security, there’s nothing they can do, but it’s pissing me off, honestly, them even thinking about hurting you, and Oliver’s threat has stuck with me.”
My voice shakes, my fist clenched as I think about Oliver and his druggie mates doing anything to my woman.
“So what are you doing to do?” she asks.
“I’ve contacted the police to see if there’s anything they can get them on. If not, I’ll have to find a way to make them back off, but bloody hell, it’s hard.”
“What is?”
“Resisting the urge to hurt these motherfuckers. To make them realize there are consequences when you threaten a man’s woman.”
She looks up at me, her lips slightly parted, her eyes wide in that just-Ami shocked way. “Is that what I am, Tommy? Your woman?”
“Yes,” I say fiercely, though I can’t share all of it, the future, the family, the growing love. “Have you got a problem with that? And be careful. Remember, or you might get punished.”
She flushes, glancing at the driver’s partition.
“Don’t worry,” I tell her, smoothing my hand down her leg, stopping near her sex. Even through the denim of the dungarees, I can feel the heat of her excitable body. “It’s soundproof back here, and the driver can’t hear us. It’s a necessary precaution for business meetings.”
“I don’t consider that a punishment,” she says, placing her hand on mine.
For a second, I think she’s going to guide me higher up her leg, to the perfection between her thighs, her soaked slit that has been in my dreams every night we’ve been apart, but then she holds my hand in place.
“What happened between you and Oliver before? Why is he doing this?”
I almost turn away and tell her no, but she deserves the truth. I’ve played with her head enough as it is.
“He’s doing this because he’s a junkie and an arsehole,” I tell her, “but if you’re asking what he pretends his reason is, I’ll tell you. It’s a depressing story. Not exactly the stuff made for a fun Saturday of sightseeing.”