Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 41143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 206(@200wpm)___ 165(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 206(@200wpm)___ 165(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
"No."
I slam my hand against his window, and he jumps again.
"OK, Jesus, alright." The driver's door clicks open, and I grab the handle, nearly tearing it from its frame. "I don't…"
"Why are you here?" I get that the staff has looked after her for years, that some of them have gotten close, but this is too much. "Why didn't you leave?"
"I'm trying to now." He rolls his eyes, and it does nothing to kill the feeling he's hiding something.
"Don't play. My bullshit detector is going off."
He doesn't fight me when I take his collar and haul him out. "I thought Leah might need me, that's all."
I take a deep breath. There's no fear in his face, just a set to his jaw that says he's been handled rough before and outlived it, but he's telling the truth. Military training taught me to read people.
I relax my grip, and he rolls his collar straight like I never touched it. "Do you know who I am?"
"Yes…"
"Say it."
"You're Decker's friend. Allister."
"What else?"
His eyes move over my face, slowly, taking inventory. I don't like the way he's looking at me. There's something there, and I can't quite work it out. I'm about to tighten my grip again when he speaks. "You're the one who rescued Leah."
"That's right. And I'm going to take care of her, because that's what I do. So you'd better get used to that." I lean forward. Not too much, just enough to let him know I'm in charge.
Something flickers across his face, there and gone, but then he nods, and I let go and stalk away. I need to get back to Leah. Thoughts of her flood back in, and I forget Wilson on the spot. I remember what it felt like to kiss her, the cum still sticky inside my boxers, sliding against my cock as I go hard for her again.
My heart is wreaking havoc on my chest wall. Fighting the bones, hammering to get out. I've never had heartbeats hurt before, but these do, because they're mad as hell, and I don't blame them. No one's tugged at my heart before, not like this. No one. Not ever. And I just left her there.
I suck in a breath and break into a run, back to the door and down the hall, bursting into the bedroom like a sheriff into a saloon to lay down the law.
She's on her feet, her arms secure in the metal bind of her crutches. Her deep brown eyes match the shine of her hair, and my throat nearly closes at the sheer beauty of her standing in front of me.
"Let's go." Her voice is tense, and that's my fault.
"Precious, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have run out like that." I'm on her, hands settling gently on her shoulders, my thumbs rasping over the softest skin I've ever felt at the curve where her neck meets them.
She shifts her body, tense, leaning slightly away from me.
My head's got two weeks of new growth on it now, dark and short over a scalp I kept shaved for years. I stopped the day she whispered to May that the bald guy scared her, that all the bad guys in fairy tales are bald. So no more bald for me. I remade myself so I'd never be the one who scared her, then walked out on her anyway.
"Stop calling me that. It's fine. Let's go." Her words are sharp, her lips losing the softness that printed her somewhere deep in my soul. Her flavor was like finding an old friend and a new day. She needs to know that one kiss has bound her to me. She doesn't know it yet, but she's never getting away.
Never.
"No, it's not fine. Listen. Sit down." I pull gently at her elbow. There's a question in her eyes, but I urge her on anyway.
She sighs and follows, taking two tentative steps before I lay a hand at the small of her back and ease her down onto the edge of the bed. She frees her arms from the metal crutches, the aluminum clinking as I take them and set them aside, then drop to my knees in front of her and gather her hands in mine.
"That kiss…" I falter, heat climbing from deep inside, my cock bent painfully in my pants, never mind the sticky, drying cum reminding me how desperate I am for this girl. I go for broke, complete honesty. "I kissed you, Leah, and it was the best feeling in the world. And…" I pause, make sure she's looking at me, and squeeze her hand, leaving my ego at the door. "And it was so good, I came in my damn pants."
Time stops.
My throat tightens, and my balls tingle as I look into her warm, dark eyes, waiting for her to smack me and send me packing. The next seconds feel like a year. Then a sparkle catches in her eyes, a light deep in the dark that slowly spreads over the rest of her face until she blossoms into a smile that lights up my soul, and a little girlish giggle escapes her lips.