Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Phoenix winces again.
“Blood!” My voice raises, and I throw my hands up. “I don’t even know what Baron did to him.”
“Well, in my experience, anyone Baron hurts has it coming.”
“Nyet. This guy did not have it coming! He’s just some new student like me, who happened to invite the wife of a bratva prince to have a drink with him on the first day of school.”
Phoenix scrubs a hand over his facial hair. “The thing to know about Baron is that he’s ultra-protective of the people he cares about or feels responsible for. And he believes that in order to keep everyone safe, he needs to control everything around him.
“I’m sure having a wife to protect is next level for him. Here I was afraid he was going to drive his little sister crazy this year.”
“I didn’t need his protection! I don’t need his protection.”
“Yeah. Well, maybe in the future, communicate with him when you’re meeting with someone, so he doesn’t go off the deep end.”
I frown, and Phoenix holds his hands up in defense. “I don’t mean to butt in or give advice. I’m here anytime you want to talk. I can give you my perspective, or you can tell me to shut up, and I won’t say a word, I’ll just listen.”
The defensiveness rising up in me softens. Phoenix really does seem like a good guy. “Thank you.”
A door opens, and Benjamin emerges. It’s a door to what I thought was a closet, but now I see the flash of an inner door guarding the entrance to stairs descending downward. A secret staircase!
Was he in the dungeon?
With that girl?
But no one else emerges.
His gaze flicks over to the couch, but he doesn’t acknowledge either of us, he just walks up the stairs.
There’s a heaviness in his walk. Strain in his expression. For a moment, I don’t see an aggressor–I see a young man with far too much weight on his shoulders.
Chapter Twelve
Baron
I walk up to the bedroom after studying in the dungeon. It’s soundproof down there, and I needed a place to concentrate.
I needed to be away from my looping thoughts about what went down at Whisper’s End. Wrestling between my anger and guilt.
I had the heads’ up from Leo that Denis the fucking menace had asked her to meet him, and I have a tracker in her phone, her purse, and every pair of shoes she has, so it was easy to find her.
Still, I wanted to kill that little mudak for even breathing the same air space as my wife. I hope he’s only here to find out if our marriage is real. But the part of me that has to go through and plan the very worst possible scenario foresees Brash kidnapping Lara and ransoming her life in exchange for Adrian’s full future cooperation with the Rostovs.
I can’t let that happen.
On top of it all, I need to make sure I’ve covered every base for Friday’s party. The Titan House wants to shut us down this year, which means they’ll call the cops or the fire marshall or the Chancellor with noise complaints or over-occupancy alerts or whatever they can think of to shut our party down prematurely.
In the bedroom, I stop and stare at Lara’s open suitcase, which she still hasn’t unpacked. I ordered the dresser for her, and it should be delivered tomorrow. Somehow I doubt it will make this room feel any more like it belongs to her.
She’s uncomfortable.
It was probably wrong of me to insist she share my bed.
I can’t bring myself to make any other arrangements, though.
Last night, I tasted her. She came riding my fingers. I would’ve come too if I hadn’t fucked things up.
The door opens, and Lara steps in. She doesn’t ignore me, as she did this morning. She just stands there, looking at me. There’s an uncertainty to her stance that activates the dom in me.
“Come here.” I open my arms.
I give it a less than twenty percent chance she’ll accept the invitation, but to my shock, she walks forward.
I meet her halfway, wrapping her up in my arms and dropping my face into her hair. It smells like her butterscotch shampoo, which makes my dick chubby remembering I was the one who washed it.
“Let me kiss you,” I murmur. I know we should talk, but I can’t think of what to say. I can’t explain why she needs to stay away from Denis, and I’m not going to apologize for doing what I had to do.
All I know how to do is touch her. That’s what I’m good at. After last night, it’s what I live and breathe for.
I celebrate my blessings when she lifts her face. I cup her cheek in one hand and lower my lips to hers, my other arm wrapped firmly around her back. The first kiss is soft. Exploratory. My lips moving across hers lightly.