Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“Okay,” I agreed, exhaling hard. “Can you do me a favor?” I asked, grabbing my phone to take a picture of her phone.
“Stay here while I go and find someone to talk to about this.”
“Yeah. It’s not like I have anywhere else to be.”
“And can you do it naked?” I asked, getting a snorting laugh out of her.
“Seeing as I have no energy to get dressed, I think I can manage that.”
“Good. I’ll be back.”
I leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to her lips before climbing out of bed, pulling on my pants, and grabbing a shirt before heading out into the common area.
Where I nearly knocked over my brother.
“Where’s the fire?” Croft asked. “Got another super-secret adventure you’ve been keeping from me?”
“Still being a pain in the ass about that?”
“We’re supposed to be closer than that, that’s all I’m saying.”
“I got fifty bucks on you finding a woman someday who brings chaos into your life… and you deliberately keeping that shit from me too.”
His smirk went just wide enough to expose his dimple. “I find a woman every day of my life.”
“It’s different.”
“Yeah,” he said, watching me for a second. “I can see that. Fine. I’ll stop bitching. What’s going on?”
“I found out who did it. Who killed Vicky. Who has been targeting us. And how.”
“Who?”
“Carmen’s cousin,” I told him, showing him the picture from Carmen’s phone. “She went to Puerto Rico to find out what happened to her friend. Jon—or as she calls him, Jack—told her it was me. Gave her the whole story I did about that night, but he put the gun in my hand.”
“Bastard.”
“Yeah. And as it turns out, his brother—the one with the scar—is going to law school here. So…”
“So, it’s not a far jump to assume he was tasked with keeping an eye on Carmen to make sure she was taking you out. And then when she teamed up with you, to take her out with you.”
“That’s where my head is at, yeah.”
“Alright. It’s a good lead. I think Fallon is gone, though, so we will have to call him back.”
That was exactly what we did. Along with a few other club members who had been tasked with gathering intel. They still were. Just with a known target this time.
After that, I made a call to Junior to get him focused on the names of these guys.
And, finally, I tossed some money at Spike to order dinner before making my way back to the room.
I expected Carmen to be sitting up, contemplating all this new information, trying to wrap her head around the new morality she would need to claim as her own to allow her boyfriend to murder her cousins. Because she knew, even without my being able to explicitly confirm it, that this was the case.
They had to die if we ever wanted to stop looking over our shoulders.
But she wasn’t awake and waiting for me.
She was on her side of the bed, curled away from mine, the blankets pooled around her waist, so her bruised ribs were on display, her dark hair spilling over her back.
I expected the rush of desire. And that was there. But it was buried beneath something else. Something that was warm instead of hot. Something that felt like being wrapped in a soft blanket when you were freezing. Comforting. Familiar. Right.
I sucked in a deep breath and moved toward the bed, careful not to wake her as I slid in behind her and curled around her warm, soft body.
But it wasn’t long before she stirred anyway, jerking at having gone to sleep alone only to wake up with a man’s arm around her. And another part of his anatomy pressing against her ass.
Sure, I might have been feeling affection, maybe even something close to love when I saw her. But the second my body was against hers, desire had taken control of the reins.
“Rune?”
“If it was someone else holding you like this, I’d have to beat their face in.”
“You sound like a Neanderthal,” she told me, stretching as much as my closeness would allow. “I like it,” she added, finishing her stretch with a little laugh. “How long was I asleep?”
“Hour or two. Not too long. I had Spike order dinner. But if you want to finish your nap, we can—”
“Ugh,” she grumbled, making me stiffen. “Why are you still talking?” she asked.
Then, to make her point, her ass rocked back against me, her body wiggling until the head of my cock pressed between her thighs. A low moan worked its way out of her as she pressed backward until the whole length of me was pressed against her wet pussy, making my forehead fall to her shoulder at the sensation.
“I could definitely stop talking,” I said. My hand slid up her chest to close over her breast, her nipple pebbling at the touch. “Or I could tell you how fucking good you feel against me like this.” My hips rocked forward as hers pressed back. “Or how much I love the sound of you moaning for me.”