Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54836 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54836 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Not the woman.
That man.
Objectively attractive, but I couldn’t even appreciate that with how obsessed I suddenly found myself with Wells.
I mean… I knew I’d caught feelings, and had even been falling a bit for him.
But sometime between last night and this morning, it wasn’t falling anymore. I’d fallen. Head-over and all that cheesy stuff.
My body felt finely tuned just to his hands, every touch setting off a symphony of pleasure and joy. I’d never experienced anything like it before.
When I was with him, I was completely consumed with him. Nothing else existed in the world.
It wasn’t just the sex, either.
I mean, good sex was hard to come by. Phenomenal, actually. But I wouldn’t be so obsessed if it was just sex, just orgasms.
It was him.
By all markers, a genuinely good man. The more we talked, the more I was sure of that.
He’d admitted that he’d first gone into law enforcement based on a high school aptitude test that said he would be well-suited for it.
“That, and when I looked into the salary in the state, I was sold,” he’d admitted a bit sheepishly.
As if physical therapy was my passion in life. I really just wanted a secure income at a job that wouldn’t feel like it was sucking out my soul.
I understood making practical decisions for your future.
He’d been lucky, though, in finding that he was not only good at it, but passionate about it. He really was eaten up by every case he hadn’t been able to solve, and gained so much satisfaction from solving them, from giving families closure, and putting away the bad guys.
I liked, too, how objective he was.
In his mind, there was a hierarchy of crime. Not every criminal was thought of as the same. To him, rapists, pedophiles, domestic abusers, and family annihilators were the worst of the worst. On that, I think everyone would agree.
Senseless murders came next, people who killed for thrill or through stupidity, like driving under the influence.
And he seemed to accept and even understand that some killings were almost… acceptable in society. Women who kill their abusers, and that sort of thing.
And while he didn’t condone the organized criminal syndicates in Navesink Bank, he didn’t concern himself too much in their business, so long as it didn’t impact innocent people.
He was in support of the move to legalize marijuana, claiming he was sick of people getting locked up for having a joint on them while other people could be too wasted to stand up, and he didn’t have to take them in, save for maybe to throw them in the sober tank for a bit if they weren’t capable of getting home safely.
I liked how he wasn’t all “law and order,” but still wanted to get the truly bad guys, so they stopped hurting others.
I could also relate to his family dynamic. And how he clearly loved them, but wasn’t super close with them either, claiming they’d grown apart a bit when they moved away, and he stayed behind.
Also, his love and commitment to Boss said a lot about him. His old partner, turned furry best friend.
Everything about Detective Wells Vaughn was steady, stalwart, standup, and good.
And hot.
God, so so incredibly hot.
Just the memory of the things he said to me when we were touching was enough to bring a blush to my cheeks.
“That for you?” Kyle, one of the other physical therapists, a man maybe in his forties with five daughters he adored to the moon and back, asked, nodding toward the police cruiser.
“Oh, yeah. I got a little spooked last night, thinking someone was following me,” I admitted. “And I was alone, and I just… I asked for help,” I told him.
“You were alone?” he asked, eyes darkening. Again, because he had a wife and five girls, and was constantly concerned for their safety. So it wouldn’t even be possible for him to leave a woman alone at work at night. Period. And definitely not one who’d just been attacked by a damn serial killer.
“Laurie had a family thing,” I defended, not wanting her to get a talking to when, clearly, she was just lost in her own stuff. I knew better than to think I was the star in anyone’s life but my own. And in Laurie’s life, her family took priority.
“Still,” he grumbled, shaking his head. “I will not be walking out of here until you are ready to go,” he told me. “And I will be walking you right to your car door, then waiting to make sure you pull away safely.”
“You’re a good man, Kyle,” I told him, meaning it.
“Will the cruiser be following you home?” he asked.
“No. I am… I’m staying with a friend for a bit,” I told him. “So, I won’t be alone and afraid,” I added.
“Good. That’s good. I’ve been worried about you. I hate to admit this, but my girls are a little… starstruck that I work with the survivor of the Silent Sadist.”