Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
She was healing nicely. She had a long way to go, but the surgery was holding. He needed to get her legs and hips moving so there was no chance of blood clots. Now that he wasn’t as weak, he could go back in and boost her antibodies against infection and make certain each organ affected by the bullet would be strong enough to hold while she moved around. In a hospital, with normal surgery, she would be discharged in three days to a week if it was just her spleen removed. Her stomach and small intestine had also been compromised.
He sat back, eyeing her sternly. “Do not give me your cute smile and expect I’m going to let you talk me into letting you up.”
Her perfect bow of a mouth curved, drawing his immediate attention. That got him right in the gut. Women were attracted to him. He never went looking; they found him. He always made it clear it would be for a night. He had no interest in adding a woman to his life. Never. Until now. There was something about her he had a bad feeling he might not be able to live without. Anything different in his life put him on edge. Leila was as different as it got. And his reaction to her was a mystery to him.
“What?” Her voice was low, creating an intimacy between them. “Tell me. I’d rather you be honest with me.”
Her palm found his wrist. He felt her fingers slide over his pulse. That small, telling gesture was enough to set his heart stuttering. It made no sense that he was so attracted. If he’d been eyeing her for one night, he wouldn’t have given it a second thought. She was beautiful and funny and obviously intelligent. Courageous. He could go on listing her qualities, and that was the problem right there. That reaction was completely foreign to his nature.
Diego had a bad feeling that everything he’d ever wanted was right there, lying on the small bed he’d made for her. Looking up at him with those eyes of hers. She was everything he wanted without knowing he wanted it.
“You’re unexpected.” He decided honesty with her was the only recourse he had. He had no idea why he made that decision when he wasn’t honest with his brother, the one person he loved and held in the highest regard. “I’ve lived in the wilds a long time, and my enhancements include many predatory animals. That’s made me have more animal instincts than is probably good.”
Her brows came together. Of its own volition, his finger rubbed along that little frown line, smoothing it out.
“What are you thinking? Is something wrong?” Her voice was tinged with worry.
“Not with you. You’re healing nicely. I’m just in unfamiliar territory. I like to think things through before I make a move.”
“Do you think I’m a threat to you? You saved my life. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for me.”
He had the unexpected urge to brush his lips against hers just to see what she tasted like. To inhale her breath, take her inside him where he could study her from every angle and see what it was that he found so intriguing. That alone made her dangerous to him, whether she thought so or not.
He asked himself if it was possible she’d been paired with him. He knew that was an ongoing experiment Whitney enjoyed. He would use scent to enhance an attraction between two people, especially if he thought he would be able to get a child from his soldiers he deemed worthy.
“You were never given to Whitney?”
She shook her head. “If I had been, I would have killed him. He didn’t raise me and remove all my filters the way he did my sister. She’s a mess, and he deliberately did that to her. If I’m ever introduced, I would consider it a worthy exchange: my life to take him with me.”
His ability to breathe stopped. His lungs felt raw and burning. His heart did that weird stuttering thing in his chest that actually hurt. He found himself shaking his head. “No, you’re not going to get killed just because you get a shot at him. You’re a bloodthirsty, hotheaded little thing. It looks like I might have to stick around you and keep you from doing anything crazy on the spur of the moment.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You did not just call me a ‘little thing.’ There’s nothing little about me.”
He felt the grin before it flashed through him. “You’re right, Leila. My mistake.”
“Has anyone ever just wanted to carve a small reminder not to be arrogant into you? Not kill you, just give you a few cuts making up some symbol so you learn to behave?”
“Actually, yes.”
“And I don’t mean enemies. Someone you live around and know very well.”