Total pages in book: 235
Estimated words: 224334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1122(@200wpm)___ 897(@250wpm)___ 748(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 224334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1122(@200wpm)___ 897(@250wpm)___ 748(@300wpm)
“The only places people are permitted to remove their clothes is in the communal room or one of the private suites.” Her frown smooths out. “The ground floor, spa, and sports facilities are run like any other exclusive resort. I don’t run a brothel, Ava,” I go on. “My members pay a lot of money to enjoy everything The Manor provides, not just the privilege to pursue their sexual preferences with likeminded people.”
Her lip slips between her teeth, her mind spinning. Come on, baby. Ask me. “What’s your sexual preference?” she asks, pensive, quiet, and I can’t help but smirk. This isn’t just about The Manor and what goes on there. This is about me. Just as I can’t stand the thought of Ava amidst the sexual activities, she can’t bear to imagine me there. She’s nothing to worry about. I am off the menu. But we both know that’s not always been the case, and that is part of the problem for her. Is she showing signs of possessiveness?
Interesting. I break off a piece of cake and slip it past my lips, relishing in her sudden squirming. I have one preference these days. “You.”
She nods slowly, her lips twitching to smile. “Just me?”
“Just you, Ava.” She needs to stop looking at me like that. We’re not in a place where I can bend her over and fuck her until she believes nothing else.
“Good,” she says happily, chomping into her muffin, her appetite obviously found. I shift in my chair, blood surging south. I don’t think there’s anything in this world that could turn me on more than Ava being possessive over me. But as I watch her, fighting to control my urge to jump her, thank her, tell her she can be as possessive as she likes, because I definitely will be, I realize she’s not actually said she’ll come.
“You’ll come?” I ask, making sure I pose it as a question, watching her chew slowly. “Please?”
She huffs quietly, her eyes taking on a sparkle of life. “Only because I love you.”
Those words make me grin like an idiot. They also fuel my raging hard-on. “Say it again.”
“What?” she questions, smiling. “That I’ll come?”
“Oh, you’ll come all right.” And scream until she loses her voice. Fuck, yes. Then, no work for Ava today. “No, tell me you love me again.”
“I do. I love you.”
“I know you do.” And her love is life. “I love hearing you say it.” Getting up, urgency replacing my satisfaction, I haul her up into my arms. My work here is done. But my work back at Lusso is yet to begin. If we make it to Lusso. “If you had kept running,” I whisper, pushing her wet hair from her face, scanning her sparkling eyes, “we would be at home by now, and I would be lost inside you.”
I kiss her hard and with purpose, a silent message of what to expect once I get her home. Fuck, it’s going to be a long ride. I groan under my breath and dip, hoisting her up onto my shoulder and pacing urgently out of the café, and she yelps then laughs. A man up ahead watches, alarmed, as I carry her out, holding the door open for me. Good man.
I search for a cab and thank every god that ever existed when one rounds the corner up the street. I raise my arm, feeling Ava’s palms wedged into my lower back, and open the door when it pulls up to the curb, lowering her in and nodding at the cabbie when he looks back, his eyebrows high. “St. Katherine Docks, please, mate.” I drop to the seat next to her, keeping my eyes forward. It’s the safest way. “And make it snappy.” I give him a tight, telling smile, clearing my throat as I reach down and adjust myself.
The cabbie grins. Looks across to Ava. He should stop that immediately. “Yes, boss,” he says, returning to the wheel and pulling off as fast as a black cab can manage.
I peek down at Ava’s hands pushing into the leather of the seat, her fingers clawing. Restraining. I can feel her eyes on my profile. “Don’t look at me,” I warn, doing the unthinkable. Moving away. And I look out of the window, willing the cabbie to hurry the fuck up before I send his vehicle up in smoke. My foot starts tapping, every piece of me restless as I count down every mile back to Lusso, cursing every light that turns red, every car that pulls out, every bus that pulls over at a bus stop, stalling us.
By the time we make it to Lusso, I’m dizzy with impatience. I throw some money at the driver, seize Ava’s hand, and haul her into the lobby, one gear off breaking out into a sprint.