Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“I don’t get what it is about you two.”
“I don’t know what you mean, and frankly, I don’t care.”
“Oh, you care. You want to know why he’s helping you just as much as I do.”
“You should ask him then. I’m not the one with the secrets.”
“Angel keeps secrets to protect the ones he loves. What’s your excuse?”
I didn’t answer.
I was the one people kept secrets from, never the keeper. Lucas wanted an explanation that he wasn’t owed. That was his problem. Not mine.
Z came back with pizza that smelled and tasted just right for my empty stomach. I ate silently while Lucas and Z placed bets and argued heatedly about a football game playing on TV. After I was full, I fed Caylen and cleaned him up. I wanted to go outside for fresh air, but knew it would be with company or not at all, so I passed and settled for taking a long, hot shower. It was the only alone time I was going to get.
I was alarmed when the shower curtain ripped back as I was shampooing my hair. Z then stepped inside wearing only a smile.
“What are you doing?” I crossed my arms tight to cover my breasts and backed away from him. The shower was tiny, leaving only a small space between our bodies, and leaving me under the spray.
“Wanted to make sure you weren’t calling for help.” He lacked the menace his brothers’ wielded ruthlessly, but I had the gut feeling he was just as threatening and dangerous.
“In the shower?” I resisted the urge to knee him in the balls.
He shrugged powerful shoulders and reached for my soap. I watched him pop the top and take a sniff before waggling his eyebrows and squirting some in his palms. He then ran soapy hands over his body, but suddenly, stopped. His mocking gaze was trained on my arms still covering my breasts. “Are you shy, princess?”
“A little bit,” I replied sarcastically.
“I’ve seen you… and felt you.” His eyes trailed over my body slowly. “You have nothing to be shy about.”
“That may be, but privacy is well appreciated.”
He didn’t respond, and I hated myself when my eyes dipped to his hard abs as he ran my peach-scented soap over them. The light scars made him look enticingly rugged. “I can pose if you like.”
My gaze moved away to study the dingy shower curtain. “That won’t be necessary.” I turned my back on him to finish my shower as fast as I could. I could feel his eyes on me as I finished washing my hair and he continued defiling my soap.
“You didn’t have to run,” he blurted as I started running my sponge over my body.
“Yes. I did.”
“The senator is powerful and relentless, and so is Angel. You can’t run forever.”
I forgot modesty when anger forced me to turn and face him. “Angel was never going to let me go after he kills the senator.” Z glanced away, so I turned and finished my shower. I quickly wrapped my body in a towel and practically ran from the bathroom, but my escape was thwarted when I bumped into a very hard and hairy chest.
“Whoa.” Lucas’s hands closed around my bare arms. “Where are you going in such a hurry?”
“I was just going to check on Caylen.”
He looked back at my son blowing spit bubbles and babbling happily at the dirty, cracked ceiling. When he faced me again, his frown was deeper than I’d ever seen. “I’d never do anything to hurt him.”
“It’s not that,” I rushed to assure him. His face softened as he released me.
“Sorry,” he mumbled before stepping around me and closing himself in the bathroom with Z. I chose not to fixate on them closed in the tiny bathroom together and hurriedly dressed while I had the privacy. Z emerged minutes later with his feet and chest bare and his signature black jeans riding low on his waist. He was scrubbing a white towel through his hair as he moved around the room. I hummed to fill the tense silence while rocking Caylen to sleep. When his eyes finally drifted shut, I put him down for the night.
Through the thin wall separating the room from the bathroom, I heard the shower shut off and listened as Lucas moved around. He came out moments later wearing less than Z had. The white fluffy towel was wrapped around his waist as hot shower water dripped from every tanned inch of him.
“You should get some sleep,” he ordered when he found me sitting cross-legged on the bed.
“Afraid I’ll run away?” I pretended not to notice the way the water glistened on his tan skin. I was pretty sure he had a thing for my best friend, and I was definitely sure she was in love with him.