Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 101872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
“What did he do? Where does it hurt? I’m gonna fucking kill him.”
“No one is killing anyone,” Saxon said calmly. “Opal, what happened?”
“I’m fine,” she said.
Renard cupped her face between his hands, gently tilting her head back. He was careful to only touch her face, unsure of what was hurting.
He leaned in close to her. “You can lie to Saxon, to the Malones, to the whole fucking world if you want, but you do not lie to me. What. Hurts?”
She stared at him, her lips a deep, dark red. Damn, he wanted to kiss her mouth.
You can’t.
She isn’t for you. Remember? You have plans.
Only his plans didn’t seem so important when he was around this fucking gorgeous, spiky, amazing woman.
“Well?” he demanded.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “How long have you been here?”
“Long enough to see that dick wasn’t the right match for you and I don’t know why no one stopped this. Now, where are you hurting? And do not lie.”
“It’s my back,” she told him in a pained voice.
That didn’t make much sense. He’d grabbed her arm to move her, but it hadn’t been a sharp movement. How had it hurt her back?
“He hurt your back? Do you need the doc?”
“He didn’t hurt it,” she told him. “I mean he hurt it, but I hurt it last night. He simply upped the pain level by grabbing me.”
“And did you tell him about that?” Saxon asked in a serious voice.
“That would be a no, rubber-ducky,” she replied.
Right.
She definitely needed to be punished.
11
Opal glanced over at Renard.
He was awfully quiet. Which seemed to be an unusual occurrence for him.
His hands were also tight around the steering wheel of his truck. He’d been pretty quiet since she’d told him that she’d hurt her back last night.
And she wasn’t quite sure why.
Yeah, she got that she’d fucked up. But why did he care? She’d expected an admonishment from Saxon. Maybe a punishment or for him to kick her out of the club.
Which would damn well suck as it was the best BDSM club she’d ever been to. Filled with mostly decent people.
After Saxon had made sure that she didn’t need a doctor, he’d disappeared.
Then Renard had steered her out to his truck and carefully helped her get into it.
And now here they were.
Sitting in fucking silence as he drove to her place.
Something she did not like.
“So, are you going to do it or what, because I’m getting real tired of waiting.”
“Do what?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Yell? Tell me what an idiot I was? That I made a mistake? Are you gonna tell me why you’re mad at me?”
“Not mad at you, Opal.”
Yikes. She was Opal not Gem?
She didn’t like that. Not one bit.
“If you say that you’re disappointed in me, I’m gonna have to remind you that you’re not my Daddy. He fled before I was even born. Took off for pastures greener and I’ve never seen hide nor hair of him. But if you say it, then I’m likely gonna tell you that you’ve got about as much right to be disappointed in me as he has.”
“Really? I’ve got as much rights as a no-good asshole who abandoned his baby girl?”
Well, hell.
She hadn’t thought that through properly, had she?
“I might have just realized that I spoke too hastily and without thinking,” she muttered.
“You think?” he said sarcastically. “Because I think I have a damn sight more right to be disappointed in you, Opal. Although what I feel isn’t really disappointment so much as worry. What were you thinking?”
What was she thinking?
That was the question, wasn’t it? What had she been thinking when she’d said yes to dating the football hero at her school? What the hell had she been thinking when she’d gone to that dance? What had she been thinking when she’d said yes when Stefan asked her out on a date? What had she been thinking when she’d agreed to the deal he’d given her? Why had she thought that being with Stefan would be better than being in a jail cell?
What had she been thinking?
Truth of it was that she wasn’t certain she’d ever thought straight. Not until she’d helped the two girls that had become her family escape hell.
And tried her fucking best to keep them safe ever since.
That responsibility sat heavy on her gut.
So, yeah, she didn’t know what she’d been thinking tonight. She opened her mouth to say something bratty. Something that would likely send him running. Because most men couldn’t handle her attitude or her mouth.
“Maybe I was just hoping for a few hours where I wouldn’t have to think.”
Shit.
Fuck.
Why’d she go and say that? Why’d she have to open up like that?
“Or maybe I just wanted to be a bitch,” she added with a grin.
He drew up her driveway and she reached for her buckle, trying to stifle her wince of pain. It didn’t really work though, as a small, pained gasp left her mouth.