Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 108988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
I gave orders to Lassiter and Levi. Lassiter was supposed to get something from Spence, Octavia’s manager, for me. How he did it was up to him. Levi’s order was to keep an eye on the rest of Blake’s group.
She was starting to let them in, and I didn’t want anything to happen to them. For her.
I reached up to cup the side of her face, halting her in the mission she had in mind when she brought me to this private booth. She went still in my hand. Her eyes lifted, finding mine, and whatever she saw in my own eyes, I didn’t know, but she licked her lips before her mouth opened slightly. “What are you doing?”
I gave her knife a pointed look. “I could say the same to you.”
She bit down on her bottom lip, folding her head down, and rested her forehead to my chest.
My hand returned back to her waist, pushing up underneath my sweatshirt. It was warm in Octavia, but sometimes girls had different internal thermometers. As long as she was comfortable.
I felt her entire body draw in some air, as if she needed courage, and tipped her chin to me. Blake was giving me the feeling that we were two adversaries facing off across a boardroom.
I tugged her hips closer and rocked up into her.
She bit down on her lip again, one of her hands falling to my chest and her fingers splaying out. “Don’t.” Her voice caught as I moved her over me again, slower, intently. She could ride me like this. We could grind against each other until both of us came. Making out as if we were in high school would be fun.
She groaned and leaned back a little. “Creight.”
I stopped.
Her eyes grew hooded, which I didn’t like. I tipped her head up again, needing to see her. My thumb smoothed over her cheek softly. “What is this, Quokka?”
Pain flared over her features. “Don’t. Don’t call me that, Eight.”
I didn’t like that. “Why does that name bring you pain?”
She didn’t grimace when I used it in the past. Once upon a time, she used to love it. Now it brought pain? I didn’t like that. I shouldn’t have pushed the endearment, but she called me Eight. I wanted my own name for her.
She shook her head. “I don’t want to get into that now. I—” She raked her teeth over her lip again, bracing both of her hands on my chest. She pushed herself as far back as the table allowed. Her eyes were still hooded, but at this distance, she was more shadowed. I tried drawing her closer, wanting to be able to read her if we were going to hash something out, but she resisted. She gave a slight shake of her head. “No. I need this.”
As I waited, I contented myself with pulling down the side of her leggings, just enough so I could smooth my thumb over her hip bone.
She shuddered, lust swimming in her gaze. She cleared her throat, and tried blinking away the desire. I repositioned my hand so my thumb tunneled lower under her leggings, but pulled it to cover my palm.
Her lips tugged down. “I know that you’re going to go after Marshall.”
I paused. That’s what all this was about? For him? I wasn’t a fan.
The hand still holding her knife to my stomach trembled. “I made Lassiter promise not to hurt him on your orders, so if that’s what you were intending to do to get around what I made you promise, you can’t. I’m going to make Levi promise too.”
“I’d never give that order to them.”
“Yes, you would.”
I would. She knew me well. I grinned faintly. “Someone else, maybe. Not your housemate. His suffering is my Christmas present. Thank you ahead of time.”
She huffed out an annoyed sound. “Don’t thank me for that.” Her grip tightened on the knife. She pressed it harder against me, and I knew it broke through some of my skin. I didn’t think Blake was aware. “We came to an agreement once before.”
She wanted to save people’s lives. I remembered that with fondness.
“I want to do that again, but for Marshall instead.”
The fondness vanished. “He’s that important to you?”
“No.” She held my gaze steadily. “But I don’t like when you hurt people because of me. I can’t live with that, Creighton. If we keep going how we’re going, I need to compromise on some things, but so do you.”
My hand shook as I tried to rein in my anger. “You would ask that of me? To not protect you? To not avenge you if someone hurts you?”
“You take it to the extreme.”
“You can’t put a leash on me.”
“Compromise.” She rolled her hips over me.
I stopped her and fixed her with a cold look. “Don’t do that.”