Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
There was an eternity of silence. Until, finally…
“I need you,” the heir to the throne gritted out.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Lyric had never used either of the downtown apartments before. She and her brother had each been given one a while ago—a couple of years ago now—in recognition that they were both out of the change and probably should be living lives separate from parental proximity. Except neither she nor Rhamp had moved out of their rooms at the Wheel. Why bother, really. Rhamp used Shuli’s for his private endeavors, and otherwise slept where he always had. For her, she liked being in the community underground location. There was always someone to talk to, something to do, something to learn.
And she’d certainly not needed a place to go for—
“The Commodore?” Dev said as they rounded the corner.
The remark was a casual one, neither here nor there particularly, but she knew that the high-rise was the most luxurious in the city, the Caldwell equivalent of NYC’s the Dakota.
Well, if the latter were modern. And had been through a $100 million renovation about five years ago.
She glanced up at his profile. “It’s just a one-bedroom unit. Nothing fancy.”
“How long have you lived here?”
“I don’t—I mean, I live with my parents.” She paused, expecting him to ask… something, anything. “And my brother.”
As he made some kind of hmm sound, she wanted him to say something more, but again, that was so ridiculous. There were too many limits on what she could tell him—and anyway, if this was a real “dating”-type deal, details about families eventually led to inquiries about introductions.
And given that Rhamp wasn’t even speaking to her at the moment, the fact that her next-of-kin’s were all vampires was actually the secondary problem.
Oh, and Dev was moving, anyway. So… yeah.
Together, they walked up the building-wide steps that ascended to the refurbished marble entry. The Commodore looked more like a governmental office building with its concrete collar of steps that rose to the glass necklace of its entries, but there was only so much you could do to spice up twenty-five layers of windows rising out of the urban ground.
They mounted the half dozen snow-cleared levels, and as he put his hand on her elbow, she was reminded of his manners. And the mother who had died who he hadn’t liked. What was it about physical attraction that made you want to get into the mind of the other person? she wondered. Then again, with how intensely she was feeling, she did want to understand him, as if in doing so she could understand her own powerful response.
Although on that note, given the number of inquiries he hadn’t made of her, clearly she was on a one-sided quest in this relationship.
Situationship, rather.
As they entered the lobby, they stomped their soles off on the matting and their footfalls echoed all around. The security guy at the desk gave them a wave, and as they both returned it, she wondered if she was going to be asked for ID because it had been so long since she’d been here.
Except the security system no doubt had facial recognition software.
Over at the bank of elevators, Dev punched the button, and they waited together. In the reflection of the polished steel doors, she looked at the pair of them. He was calmly perusing the lobby they’d just gone through, his body relaxed as he wandered around with his eyes. God, how she envied him, especially as she watched herself jump as the arrival bing! went off.
“What floor?” he asked as he got in by the rows of glowing buttons.
“Fourteen.”
“You got it.”
There was a subtle bump, and then up, up, up, and away they went. When the next bing! came, she felt like it had taken a second and a half, but that was distraction for you.
“Here we are,” she murmured as she stepped out.
While she walked along the corridor, she kept an eye on the numbers by each door. They went down… until she got all the way toward the end. Then frowned.
“Oh, wait. Sorry, it’s back there. Sorry, I’m all turned around.”
“No problem.”
Lyric doubled back, taking them past the elevators again and down halfway to the other end. “Here we are.”
The copper key went in fine, but she held her breath, wondering if she had the right—
The bolting mechanism turned just fine, and she opened things up. The scent of fresh lemon greeted her nose, and she was surprised. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been in here, and yet it had clearly been cleaned recently. Fritz and his staff were just amazing.
The interior was dark, and she tried to be discreet patting around and searching for a wall switch. She ended up wandering out past the half bath and the entry into the kitchen, and wondered whether she shouldn’t just will things on and call it motion detection. Crap, she couldn’t remember if there were lamps or maybe it was track lighting—