Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
It was me who was losing ground.
Me who couldn’t find his footing when I curled her into me, bringing her back to my chest as I swayed us side to side. The next step would have been spinning her back out.
But what did I do?
I banded a greedy arm all the way around her front and tucked her back tight against my chest.
My mouth went to her ear as lust smacked me in the face. “You were born for this, Raven. Fuckin’ perfect on those feet.”
“Born to dance with you.” It was a breathy murmur from her mouth.
I tried to play off our words with a laugh, though I doubted I was pulling off casual, since I pressed my nose to her neck, breathing in the soft flesh at the sensitive spot behind her ear.
Inhaling the overwhelming scent of moonflowers.
As sweet and fragrant as honeysuckle.
Before my urges got away from me, I forced myself to spin her back out, thanking fuck that something on the stove was starting to spit and sizzle. “Looks like we have a bit of an issue on the stove.”
A shaky giggle slipped out of Raven as she turned back to quickly stir the vegetables. “You’re distracting. Get out of here before you make me burn the place down.”
She waved the spoon at me.
I rumbled a chuckle, though it was half in pain. “You know you love it.”
“Of course I do.” Her voice was softer than it should have been.
I cleared my throat, the levity squashed when my thoughts moved to the reality of what was coming. What I was about to do.
“Going to take a shower really quick before we eat. Have a job I have to run tonight.” Could barely force the words off my tongue. “Gotta leave after dinner, and I probably won’t be back until sometime tomorrow night.”
Sticky shame engulfed me when I said it.
It toiled with the dread.
Confusion bound her brow when she looked at me. “For the club?”
I rubbed my palms together like it could wipe away the guilt. The very indignant part of myself screamed that I was doing it for her, too.
That they deserved this.
Revenge.
Justice.
The part of me that wished I would have been the one who got to end them all that night when they’d come for me.
But I couldn’t quell the disquiet that whispered like ghosts in my senses.
“Nah. Have a job for the distributor.”
Her frown deepened. “Oh.”
That guilt amped so high it was suffocating.
Hated lying to her.
But I couldn’t lay it straight. I had to do this on my own.
“Going to have Jonah keep a lookout.”
Jonah was one of the bouncers at Kane’s. One of the few who had the inside of what we did. I trusted him to watch over her while I was gone.
Raven scowled. “That’s not necessary.”
“I think you know it is.”
She huffed a small sound with a shake of her head. “And just when I think I’m getting my freedom…”
I was an idiot, across the space separating us in a flash, the woman a magnet that I couldn’t resist. I took her by the chin and forced her to look up at me. “Want you to have that, Raven. A normal life…”
One outside of Sanctum so she wouldn’t have to constantly be looking over her shoulder. A life where we didn’t have to post guards any time we left. But after we still hadn’t picked up a trace on whoever had spray painted her window at Moonflower?
I wasn’t going to take that chance.
“I love this life,” she whispered.
My head shook and I forced myself to step away. “Only because you haven’t known anything else.”
Disappointment filled her expression. “Don’t ever tell me how I feel, Otto.”
Fuck.
I kept messing everything up. Pushing into the spaces I couldn’t go while trying to dredge up a mountain between us.
I gestured toward the room behind me. “Going to hit the shower.”
In an instant, her eyes went molten. Her gaze dark.
Like she was immediately picturing me naked beneath the fall.
Fuck me.
She was nothing but a temptress.
She had no fucking clue what she was doing to me.
My need for her might have been easier to ignore if I couldn’t feel what radiated from her.
If I didn’t know.
If I didn’t recognize the way her heart sped whenever I was near.
The way the energy shifted and intensified. Desire distinct in the depths of those ink-kissed eyes.
This attraction that blazed.
But it wasn’t quite that simple.
It was deep and earnest.
Easy and light with the familiarity we’d always shared.
Sweet with the friendship we’d forged.
Bruised with the grief and pain we’d suffered.
It was close to two decades of history.
But I could never go there.
Could never take my best friend’s little sister, the one woman I’d been forbidden to touch.
Swear it.
Could still hear the finality of those two whispered words bang in that closed-in hall where River had had me backed against the wall.