Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
But what if she can’t come up with something I can use as leverage on Reeves or Navarre? What’s my next step?
The man deserves a proper burial, certainly. And I won’t leave until he has it. But I need to stop Green Street first. If I don’t, and I’m arrested, I won’t be able to protect my family. Or Quinn.
I stayed because the rumor of the land being developed forces me to face this. I stayed because Green Street has grown, and they’re a danger. I stayed because I love the Falls and I’m nothing without the people here in my life.
But really, it was Quinn. I stayed because I can’t walk away from her.
She hurts me when she’s angry, and she hurts me when she’s soft.
I have tunnel-vision with her.
Fucking tunnels. Long, and dark, and the only way out is through.
I shake my head, clenching my teeth. God, I wanted to fuck her tonight. I loved being back in that town and knowing that the tattoo would empty that room in an instant. I loved the power, and I hate that I loved it. She’s turning me into that man again.
I may as well have fucked her, given that Jared, Madoc, and Jax won’t see any difference between me being inside of her and me taking off her clothes tonight.
I reach into my pocket and pull out her panties, staring at the white cotton. Pulling back my comforter, then my sheet, I lay them in my bed, the fantasy that she’s there, naked and ready, making every single muscle hard. Every one.
I should’ve brought her home to the Falls with the blackout in Weston. I just didn’t want another fucking fight.
Taking out my phone, I open the app and check the cameras, still not detecting any lights. Front door is closed and better be locked.
Maybe I should go back. What if the blackout was on purpose? I don’t trust anyone over there.
But as I check the one near her bedroom window, I see her on her bed inside her room. What looks like a camping lamp sits on the bedside table, and she wears my dark gray T-shirt as she sits alone, staring at her lap.
My throat tightens, but I can’t tear my eyes away. I didn’t point the camera at her bedroom, nor did I point the one on the front of the house into the living room. Maybe it was wind. Maybe it was her, but as soon as I saw she was having a party earlier with Noah and Farrow in attendance, I didn’t care. I kept watching.
And when I saw her head upstairs with Noah, I slammed on the gas, lucky I didn’t get pulled over with how badly I was speeding to get there.
She was doing it on purpose, but I wasn’t entirely sure how far she would go to prove how grown up she was, so I let her fucking have it. I’m not sorry.
My chest warms at the sight of her bare legs crossed in front of her, her light-colored panties peeking out between her thighs.
Then, I see it. So quick, I almost missed it, but it’s unmistakable. The little swipe of her fingers across her face, and then immediately under her nose, before she puts her hand back down on the bed.
Why is she crying?
Tapping the Call button, I dial her and put her on speaker, so I can watch her. My line rings, and a moment later, she’s turning and patting the bed to find her phone. She looks at the screen and answers, holding it to her ear.
Her breath curls into my head.
“Still up?” I ask before she says ‘hello.’
“No.”
“Liar.”
She straightens one of her legs, drawing in a breath. “You’re watching me?”
She glances to the camera maybe twenty feet away outside her window.
“I can’t stop, it seems,” I whisper.
I knew she’d find out about the cameras. If she didn’t notice them, someone in the neighborhood would’ve seen me installing them this morning and warned her.
“What’s wrong?” I ask in a low voice.
She drops her head, and I can’t tell her facial features clearly enough to see if she’s still crying.
“I’m so hot,” she pants.
Hot?
“You…don’t have AC?” I ask.
“That’s not what I mean.” I hear her swallow as she places her hand on the inside of her thigh. “It hurts.”
I close my eyes, my cock twitching. “I know.”
My groin throbs, warm blood flooding my legs, and I should hang up. For both our sakes.
I sit back down on the edge of the bed again, my elbows on my knees as I stare at her.
“I loved everything you did earlier,” she tells me in the smallest voice, cracking with tears. “You’ve felt that with other women. I never have, and I feel like I’m sinking to the ocean floor, farther and farther from air. You just made it worse.”