Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 108362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 542(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 542(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
“What time are we collecting Zara from Roan’s?”
I checked my watch. “Soon, actually, we should get going.”
“Okay.”
We quickly said goodbye to everyone, and then we were alone in my car. Like usual, I was sober, but Shannon had put away a couple glasses of wine at her friend’s apartment, plus she’d mentioned that she’d slept terribly all week. She was exhausted, so it was no surprise that she was fast asleep only moments after she’d settled into the passenger seat.
It had been a stressful few days.
I still felt unknown levels of anger when I thought about that car swerving towards her. If anything had happened to her, I would’ve burned the world down to find the culprit. The fact that we were still completely in the dark about who was behind the attack was even more infuriating.
My dad’s Garda friend had managed to get some CCTV footage from a newsagent at the end of Shannon’s street, but it only showed the car speeding by, not the occupant. Not that we could determine much since they’d obscured their face anyway. They’d tried seeing if any of the neighbours had doorbell or security cameras, but there was none at the angle we needed. It was almost like they’d scoped out the street and determined where they could park without being caught on camera. I hadn’t told Shannon any of this yet because I felt like such a failure. This person had tried to harm her, and they were still out there, living their life. Free to try again when we least expected it. To add to this, I had Cai’s memorial to attend tomorrow, which was an emotional rollercoaster all on its own. The last time I’d spoken to his parents was years ago, and at the time, they’d hated me, considered me the reason their son was dead.
“Mammy’s asleep, so we need to be quiet,” I told Zara, holding her hand as I led her out of Roan’s place.
“Oh, she must’ve had a big night,” Zara said, peering into the back of the car as I strapped on her seatbelt.
“She did.” On top of a week looking over her shoulder every time she left the house. “We better get her home to bed.”
When we arrived back, I carried Shannon in while Zara ran ahead to open the front door. Settling Shannon on the couch with a pillow under head—so fucking pretty—I went upstairs to help Zara get ready for bed. By the time I returned to check on Shannon, she was awake, sitting up on the couch and rubbing at her temples.
“Did I fall asleep in the car? I have this awful headache.”
“Poor baby, come here,” I murmured, lowering next to her and pulling her fingers from her temples, replacing them with my own. My heart pounded when she practically melted into me, her back to my front. Every day I longed to be close to her like this, but we weren’t there yet.
“I didn’t know you could do Indian head massage,” Shannon commented tiredly as I ran my fingertips along her scalp.
“I took a lesson once at a retreat I stayed at during my rehabilitation.”
“Oh?”
“You can do it to yourself, but it’s not as enjoyable as having someone else do it,” I explained, and Shannon emitted a quiet chuckle. “I’ll say.”
“Now I know this must be a really bad headache. Lucid Shannon would never make a double entendre in my presence.”
“That’s because lucid Shannon has to keep her wits about her around you,” she replied candidly, and I smirked.
“Oh, yeah?”
“Mm-hmm. Otherwise, you might offer to give her free orgasms again, and this time, she might take you up on it.”
My cock hardened just hearing the word “orgasms” emerge from her perfect lips. “Did she want to say yes the first time?” I knew it was a dick move to ask her this when she was tired and in pain, but my curiosity won out.
“She wanted to say yes sooo badly,” she confessed. “Why have you stopped?”
I realised I’d completely ceased the head massage because I was too busy trying to get my erection under control. Shannon wriggled against me, and it made things even more difficult. Well, it was my own fault for asking questions when she wasn’t in full control of her faculties. I continued the massage, and when she let out a pleasured groan, it was all I could do not to come in my pants.
“Okay, I think that’s enough for tonight,” I said, my breathing laboured as I gently tugged her up to stand.
“But I was enjoying that.”
“I’ll give you another one in the morning. You need to get to sleep.”
She pouted, and I swear I was two seconds away from biting that bottom lip. “Come on. Up we go.”
I made sure she was in her room, prepared to leave when she said, “Jace.”