Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
It takes me a minute to get my bearings and before I can, Tess’s foot, still wearing the pointy ass heels, pushes into my side and she’s swimming back the way we came. I try to catch her, to keep her from getting away from me, but I fall back down. Fucking hell! I finally get back up and manage to grab hold of her leg and pull her back to me. Her head goes under, her arms beating against the water as she flails and tries to break free of me. Back over my shoulder she goes, and I don’t bother being gentle this time. I’m mad, and she’ll know exactly how mad as soon as we get to the other side. Can’t swim my ass! Afraid of the water! Damned little liar.
She squirms harder against me, and my anger is already amped up high. I brace my feet against the sandy bedrock of the lake. Then I shift her back against my chest, but not in a protective sense this time. I use one hand to grab her hair, most of which has fallen from the clasp she had it in. I wrap it around my fingers and pull her head back hard. She inhales from the pain, her eyes open wide as she looks at me. Lucky for her, she keeps her tongue in her mouth.
“You’ve just bought yourself a world of trouble, Kitten,” I growl, pulling her hair even tighter just to get my point across.
My heart is hammering in my chest. I’m breathing hard from the exertion of trying to get away from Max, but the fear rising in me has more to do with the look in his eyes. Still, there’s another reason. The feel of his hands in my hair, the clinching of his muscles around my body as he holds me to him, and the forceful way he has grabbed me, they all combine to excite me. How can anything about this excite me? How can I still have any kind of feelings for Max? What in the hell is wrong with me? He kidnapped me during a prison break. Kidnapped! I am a grown woman, with a history of working in the law field. I know better than most, what kind of people get put away in jail. Yet, I still managed to get infatuated with a man I didn’t know. Infatuated with a convicted felon, who kidnapped me and is threatening me. That reminder should wake me up. I find it doesn’t.
I don’t know why Max’s file spoke to me the first time I read it, but it did. It was heartbreaking. While I certainly can’t condone his actions, a part of me sympathizes with him and even understands his reasoning. When I looked at his pictures, something in his eyes felt like he was staring right at me. I know that sounds insane. It’s still true. Meeting him in person should have pulled me out of my dreamland. Meeting him like this, definitely should have. So what’s wrong with me?
He scares me, more than a little. He also intrigues me. My mind is whirling with all these feelings, questions and a healthy dose of panic mixed in, maybe that’s why I keep quiet. Maybe it’s because I know I’ve pushed him too far. Whatever it is, I don’t say another word until we make it to the other side of the water. He falls, somehow being careful not to let me hit the ground. I’m cocooned in his body. I can’t help, but take note of how he protects me with just that simple gesture. It reinforces that I’m safe with him. I’ve mouthed off to him constantly, and he’s not done one thing about it. In fact, had he not kidnapped me, I don’t think I would have survived the prison riot and break out. I can still remember the look in that other man’s eyes as he touched me. If I didn’t already have chills running through my body from the water, just that memory alone would be enough to chill me to my bones.
Max moves me off of him and rolls to his back, breathing hard. As further proof that I’m a little nuts, I instantly miss having him under me. I lie on the ground looking up at the crystal blue sky, praying the sun warms me. My thoughts are spinning, and I have no idea what to do or say now. That’s when I feel his large hand wrap around my ankle. I jerk and sit up watching him as he breaks the heel off my hundred dollar, Nine-West, gladiator heels that I got on sale for forty-nine dollars. I was so proud of these shoes! I mourn their loss and want to kill Max for destroying them!