Total pages in book: 187
Estimated words: 184867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 924(@200wpm)___ 739(@250wpm)___ 616(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 924(@200wpm)___ 739(@250wpm)___ 616(@300wpm)
I take in a deep breath and turn around.
Only to run face-first into the chest of a giant.
My hands slowly creep up his chest, fingers trembling across each thick slab of his muscles that protrude right through that white button-up shirt he’s wearing, as my own heart rate shoots up while I listen to his. Time almost comes to a stop.
But I still manage to lift my head and gaze up, following a trail from the partially opened buttons to the shark tooth necklace dangling from his neck, all the way up into the eyes of the most handsome man I’ve ever seen, his chiseled jaw and sharp cheekbones in stark contrast to the flowy, curly hair on his head.
Oh God. It’s Blaine.
“Hello there, darling.”
Blaine
I have never been more pleasantly surprised than I am right now.
What a coincidence. I come here to read a sexy smut scene in my new romance book, and the second I’m about to sit down on the bench underneath this tree in the middle of the rose maze in a place no one ever visits because it’s too damn hard to find, this gorgeous girl bumps into me and falls head over heels for me, and then we kiss in the moonlight.
Oh no, wait, that was just my overactive imagination.
But I can make it work.
She looks up at me like she’s seen a ghost and swiftly shoves herself out of my grasp. Not so violent now, after that whole scene with Caleb’s car.
“Aw, don’t be afraid,” I muse. “I won’t bite.” A devilish smile worms its way onto my face. “Unless you want me to, of course.”
“What are you doing here?” she asks, getting all flustered.
I frown, smirking. “Well, I could ask the same from you, no?” I tap my finger against my cheek. “This is public property, after all.”
“I … I …”
She sure has a lot of trouble finishing her sentences around me.
“You, what?” I tilt my head and step closer. “You were looking for something?” She seems frozen to the ground as I tower over her. But this girl almost looks like a goddamn princess when she’s scared, with those big doe-like eyes and that pink skirt.
I grab a strand of her hair and twirl it around my finger, mesmerized by her beauty. “Or maybe you were looking for… someone?”
“I wasn’t,” she says, her breath faltering when my fingers reach her collarbones.
“You and I do a lot of bumping into each other, don’t you agree?” I muse, brushing past her chin so it lifts, and I can look into those gorgeous green eyes of hers. “It’s almost as if it was fate.”
Ares and Caleb truly have no clue what kind of a jewel they’ve tried to defile.
My eyes slide down her body, and my tongue briefly darts out at the sight of that long-sleeved white cotton top through which her nipples peak and that short, bright pink skirt underneath.
“What a feast for the eyes you are,” I murmur.
She blushes and looks down, but then tugs at her skirt, her hands briefly skimming past a red mark near her thighs, and my eyes narrow.
That mark … it definitely looks like fingers.
Poor girl really didn’t know what was coming for her.
I did try to warn her.
“He hurt you, didn’t he?” I ask, curious if she’d tell the truth. “Are you trying to hide?”
Her lips part, and she sucks in a breath, but she immediately attempts to step away from me, so I grab her wrist. “Please. Don’t go.”
She pauses, conflicted.
“I won’t hurt you.”
She swallows, visibly concerned. “You’re a part of their group,” she says. “I can’t trust you.”
“I understand,” I say. Still, I pull her closer and lift my hand to tear a rose from the bushes, and I tuck it behind her ear. “If it were up to me … I’d treat you like a queen.” I lift her wrist and press a soft kiss on the top of her hand.
She doesn’t jerk away as I slowly lower it again, and the blush on her cheeks clearly gives away she’s enamored by me as much as I am by her.
She can’t be any taller than five feet, judging by how small she seems compared to my six feet nine inches. She even looks fragile, just like the roses surrounding me. But just like them, she is a bud ready to bloom, something to admire and cherish. Ares and Caleb don’t appreciate her beauty. All they want to do is crush it in the palm of their hands just so they could be the last to hold it.
I lean over to whisper into her ear, “Now, take a left, then a right, go straight ahead, don’t stop until you see the red lantern, then two more rights. That’ll get you to the side exit near the gates.”