Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
At 4:13 on the dot, I sat up with a gasp, hand on my chest to settle my rapidly beating heart. Despite years of therapy and working on myself, I always had the same nightmare and woke up at the same damn time. Sometimes I went back to sleep. Today, I wasn’t sure I would, but I settled back into my pillow and tried. A few minutes later, I heard a door shut, and not long after that, the sound of a treadmill coming from the other room. I sat up. Was he seriously working out at this time? I got out of bed and stopped at the bathroom to brush my teeth and pull my hair back up into a ponytail before exiting the opposite door. On the treadmill, running at a super-fast speed, was a shirtless Dominic, and the only thing I could think was: holyyyy shit. His body was truly a work of art.
“You enjoying the view from back there?” he asked, still running, talking like he wasn’t out of breath at all.
“How’d you even know I was here?” I walked over and stood near the front of the treadmill. Big mistake. This angle gave me a full view of his chest, abs, and arms, the combination rendering me speechless.
“You can look. I won’t tell my brother.” He winked with a lazy grin. I felt myself go hot all over.
I crossed my arms and looked away. “Do you always work out this early?”
“I can never sleep past four.” He lowered the speed until he was at a walking pace.
My eyes snapped back to his. “Four?”
“Yeah.”
“Every day?”
“Basically.”
“Does that happen to Gabe as well?”
He scoffed. “You’d know better than I would.”
I bit my lip and looked down. “I wake up every day at 4:13, without fail.”
“Huh.”
“I can’t remember what time it all happened,” I said quietly. “But I assume it had to be around that time.”
He didn’t say anything as he stopped the tread and hopped off, wiping his face and chest with the grey shirt in his hand. I was trying really hard not to look. I wouldn’t. From my peripheral vision, I saw a large hand reaching for me and I froze, my gaze snapping to his. He didn’t touch my face but reached behind my head and pulled the hair tie from my hair. It fell and covered my shoulders, my back, and my breasts. Back then, I still wore it curly most of the time, and sometimes when he wanted to call my attention, he’d tug on individual curls. It was meant to piss me off, but the only purpose it served was to make my stomach flip, like it was doing right now. I wanted to ask what the hell he was doing, but I couldn’t find the words to speak. I dropped my gaze to his full mouth momentarily, and for a split second, I wondered what it would be like to kiss him. That was what made my eyes snap back to his. He licked his lips, gaze darkening. I had to be imagining the hunger in them. There was no way he wanted me, right? It didn’t matter. It really didn’t. That couldn’t happen.
“I always loved your hair. It looks good like this too,” he said, and I thought for a moment he might touch it. “It always smelled like flowers.”
“Herbal Essence,” I whispered, heart in my throat.
“I’ll make sure to get you some.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“But I will.” He brought his hand to my clavicle and ever so gently ran his knuckle along it, moving up to my neck. I shut my eyes, lips parting, and gasped when I heard him make a sound in the back of his throat that sounded like a mix between a groan and a growl. Whatever it was hit me right between my legs. I didn’t want to know what I would find in his eyes, so I kept mine closed, but I felt a shiver roll through me when he switched from his knuckle to the pads of his fingers. He moved them softly over the marks Anthony had left there, as if to erase them. “Who did this to you?”
My eyes popped open. “It’s none of your business.”
“I have two names in mind,” he said, bringing his hand up to my throat and covering it almost entirely.
It seemed like he was trying to measure the size of the hand that had been there. He just set it there, not squeezing in the least, but I felt like I couldn’t breathe as his thumb moved over my pulse in a slow caress. Of its own accord, my neck rolled back a little more, as if to give him more access. His eyes burned into me. He was looking at me like he could devour me, like he would if I just said the word, and damn it, I didn’t know what was wrong with me, but I really wanted to. I wanted to lean in so that he could press his lips to mine. I wanted to climb on top of him and wrap my legs around his waist. I couldn’t though and it had absolutely nothing to do with Gabe. That relationship, if you could even call a six-month relationship that, was buried way in the past. I had no one tying me down and was free to do what I pleased, but I couldn’t get involved with someone like Dominic. I would not get involved with anyone who did the very things I’d tried to stay away from. I’d already lost too much.