Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Seeing me waiting for my invite, Colin waved me in as he got to his feet and went toward my chair at the end of the table, pulling it out for me.
Cody had never pulled a chair out in his life. Or opened a door. It was hard to believe, at times, that they came from the same parents. They were both just so different.
But as much as Colin’s manners were superior, I would have taken Cody’s laid-back lack of them any day.
At least, with Cody, what you saw was what you got.
With Colin, what you saw was a carefully cultivated mask of what he wanted you to see, not who he actually was.
“Let me get you a drink,” Colin said, moving off toward the sideboard where he poured himself some red wine, but opened up a bottle of sparkling water for me.
Heaven forbid I be allowed to have some alcohol to make these dinners more tolerable.
“Thank you,” I said as he poured the bubbling liquid into my glass.
I hated sparkling water.
I hated it even more that it was plain, unflavored, sparkling water.
Can’t have anything with any flavor. I wasn’t allowed to enjoy anything I consumed, apparently.
“Are you cold?” he asked, his icy fingertips grazing over my shoulder, bare but for the small silk strap of my dress. His finger toyed with it for a second too. As if he was saying that with one flick of his wrist, he could have me practically naked at the table.
He could, too.
And there would be nothing I could do to stop him.
My stomach tensed until his hand fell away when I shook my head.
“You showered,” he said, likely smelling the soap on me from being so close.
“I was informed that I smelled like onions and vinegar,” I told him, reaching for my glass just to have something to do as he got behind his chair, his intense gaze on me as his hands rested on the chair back.
“Excuse me?”
“I smelled like onions and vinegar,” I said.
“That is not what you said,” he told me, tone sharp. “Who informed you that you smelled like onions and vinegar?”
Crap.
See, this was what Massimo was talking about. I really didn’t have what it took to make decisions, to play God with people’s lives.
Larry was a dick, yes, but did that mean I wanted Colin’s notoriously wicked temper directed at someone for a nasty comment?
No.
The punishment should fit the crime.
“It was nothing,” I said, waving a hand, hoping it seemed more casual than I felt. “I was glad to be told,” I lied. “I didn’t want to show up to dinner smelling like that.”
Colin’s eyes narrowed as his hands clutched the chair back harder, his fingers going white.
“What else did he say?” he asked, tone biting.
“Colin…” I tried. I rarely used his name. Because I knew he enjoyed it when I did, and it was one way I was able to have a little power over him.
“Tell me,” he snapped, yanking up the chair a bit, then slamming it back down, making my whole body jolt. “If you don’t tell me, I will question both the guards who picked you up today.”
I knew what that questioning would involve. Blood, screaming, torture that the likes of Albert surely didn’t deserve, but would need to endure if I stayed silent.
“You know who it was,” I told him instead, refusing to say it.
To that, he exhaled hard, because he did know.
“Did he say anything else?”
Damn it, but my eyes darted down before I could stop them. It was a total tell. And Colin’s sharp eyes didn’t miss it.
“Tell me,” he demanded, tone dark.
When I glanced up his hands were spread out wide on the table, his body leaning forward.
A shiver moved up my spine.
“I really don’t want to repeat it,” I said, shaking my head, looking away.
I didn’t want to say it for two reasons. One, I didn’t want to give Colin’s savage anger any more ammunition to go at Larry with.
Two, I didn’t want to make any sort of sexual comment in front of Colin. I’d been really careful never to let anything even slightly dripping in insinuation came out of my lips.
“Cameron,” he snapped, slamming a fist onto the table, making our settings jump and settle out of order.
“I sassed him,” I admitted. “About his body spray,” I told him.
“And?”
“And he said something about my mouth.”
“That’s not it,” he said, reading me too well. “That’s not all of it,” he clarified. “You will tell me,” he added, and the way the hair on the back of my neck stood up told me that I didn’t want to make him make me tell him.
“He wondered what you were going to do with my mouth,” I told him, feeling queasy.
“Did he?” Colin asked, tone calm again, and I didn’t know if it was because he’d won, because he didn’t care about the comment, or because he would deal with his feelings on it later.