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)
“Not to me.”
She quieted, playing with her hands between our bodies for a moment before her shoulders slumped. “Yeah. I get that you don’t see a difference, but there is one. In normal people world, there’s a difference. A big one. In Creighton world, I get that harm is harm. You don’t see the difference, but . . .” She took hold of my shirt and fisted it again. “I live in normal people world. I’m affected by what you do in normal people world. Not just for—my housemate, but for everyone that you would hurt on my behalf. You don’t feel it, but I do. Everything you do to them, I feel. I carry that weight. I’m not saying never avenge me, just scale it back. Compromise. I can live with that. Learn the difference between a small slight and someone who’s going to rob me, or do something worse.”
A growl left me at the thought of either of those happening to her, but she was trying. This was important to her.
I angled my head to get a better read on her.
Then I saw it. This was the big obstacle for us.
I shook my head. “You are lumping two separate items together. A compromise on everyone who harms you versus scaling back on your roommate.” I wanted to tell her she couldn’t ask for both, but I couldn’t go that far. I would lose her. “What you are asking is for one favor and then another bigger favor from me. What are you giving for both of them?”
She cursed under her breath, glaring at me. Her hand turned inward, and I could feel her nails through my shirt. I grunted, my hand pressing down on her thigh as I bucked up underneath her.
She expelled an annoyed growl. “How do I give you permission to hurt a friend of mine?”
“I’ll run it by you.”
“What?”
I let go of the back of her neck and skimmed my finger down her throat. She shivered in its trail. “I will present you three options, and you can approve one.”
“And if I don’t like all three of them?”
“I’ll present three new options, but you will have to approve one.”
She cursed again, her entire body beginning to shake in my arms. She had begun to move her hips over me. I could see she didn’t know she was doing it. “Fine. What do you want from me in exchange for that?”
I considered her. I couldn’t push too far with this request, but it would need to count. “I want to know why you don’t want me to call you Quokka. You used to like the name.”
Panic flared from her before she blanketed it. “What? No.”
I caught the back of her neck again, but my touch was soft. “I am scaling back, for you. Give me this in return.”
Her next curse was whispered, but she jerked her head in a nod. “Fine. Yes. I’ll tell you.”
The darkness in me shifted aside, knowing the void that was in me, the one that she seemed to fill when she was near me, a flicker of something good sparked there. That was her. Her tiny ray of sunshine that had somehow lodged itself in me and refused to leave. It was doing a little dancing jig.
I’d never tell, though.
She grinned at me, blowing out some air upward over her own forehead. “You make me sweat something fierce.”
“Stop,” I taunted. “You’ll make me preen.”
Laughter burst from her, and that dancing jig inside of me quaked before it exploded, growing triple in size. She was so goddamn beautiful, in every way that mattered to humanity. I loved her. I was sure of it.
I wanted to tell her my feelings.
They were there, pushing to escape, but I kept them locked up. She wouldn’t believe me. I was obsessed. That’s what she would say as she rolled her eyes, but then she’d stare at me as I was always staring at her, and I’d feel the connection between us grow once more.
It was only with her that I felt this link.
She made a mewling sound and moved for me at the same time I lifted my mouth.
She panted against my lips. “I need you.”
“Then take me.”
Her hand moved between us, and her hips lifted up enough so she could palm my dick through my jeans. I was ready to go. This entire exchange had been foreplay for me. I needed to be buried deep in her slick heat.
“Eight,” she whimpered.
If this was my nightclub, I’d strip her bare in a heartbeat, but it wasn’t. I didn’t mind fucking on camera, but I knew Blake wouldn’t want that. Scowling at where I guessed the camera was located and pointing at us, I stood from the booth, clasping Blake easily to me.
She made a surprised sound, but wound her arms and legs around me.