Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 71212 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71212 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Damn. And here I was thinking I was the wordsmith. “I’ve never really thought about it, but you’re right. They are impossible little birds, aren’t they?”
“Very. And I live for the impossible.” His grin was an easy one to throw back. I didn’t think I’d smiled this much in a while, definitely not since my whole ordeal started. And for all intents and purposes, after the shitshow that tonight had been, a smile should have been the hardest thing to muster.
But it wasn’t. Not with Gabe around. Smiling was easy, forgetting about the world was easy. Everything felt easy, even though there was someone out there who wanted me dead. How did that work? What kind of magic was Gabriel working on me?
“How about yours?” Gabriel asked, leaning in to look at the tattoo on my forearm. It was a black-and-white line-drawn image of two palm trees side by side.
“I found out I got my first book deal when we were on vacation in Miami Beach, so I got these two palm trees to commemorate it. The leaves touching there look like an M for ‘Miami’ but also for the title of my first book: Mad Love.”
“It’s beautiful,” Gabriel said, doing something that surprised the fuck out of me.
He traced it. With his finger. Only briefly, but enough to make me swallow a massive lump of… something. Nerves? Lust?
“So,” I said, clearing my throat, my thoughts steering back to the issue at hand, “what have you figured out? Anything yet?” I glanced over at Gabe’s lap, where the case files sat.
He looked down to the files, acting as if I had snapped him out of something. “Yeah, actually. I’m honing in on the chemical this person is using to make his kills. It’s rare, and it’s not something you can just order off of Amazon.”
“What is it?” I asked, perking up and leaning over to get a closer look at the files.
“It’s a type of poison found only in sea anemones. One particular sea anemone, to be exact: Rhodactis howesii. It’s so toxic that just eating it uncooked will send the person into a paralytic shock, where they later die from pulmonary edema.” I gave him a blank look. “They drown in their own fluids.”
I winced. That part I understood. “Shit… a sea anemone? What the fuck?”
“It’s not the only toxin they use, but it’s the primary one.”
“Okay, well, that’s a good thing, right? There can’t be tons of Red-dicktus Hawaiis around, right?”
Gabe arched a brow before laughter bubbled up his chest. “I’m narrowing down a few suppliers of these Red-dicktus Hawaiis,” he said with a wink.
“Alright, listen here, buddy. I might be a best-selling author, but I don’t have a zoology degree. I don’t know how to pronounce that shit.” I smirked and elbowed Gabe’s side. I could handle jokes and often made fun of myself before anyone else, but getting ribbed by Gabriel felt different. Not in a bad way, either.
Hold up… how’d we get so close? I could feel his breath on my cheek. I could almost feel the body heat radiating off those firm muscles. I licked my lips, suddenly aware of the rapidly quickening beat of my heart. My chest filled with a flushed sensation as blood went everywhere but my brain, my thoughts becoming hazy with something I could only describe as lust.
His eyes. They were on mine, searching through mine. For what, I had no idea. But I allowed it, looking back into those deep pools of ocean blue twinkling with light that rivaled that of the stars. Handsome didn’t even touch half of what this man was. Adonis? Greek god? Perfection?
The space between us disappeared. I wasn’t sure who made the first move, me or him or both. All I knew was that the earth quaked when our lips met for the first time. A tremor that extended up through the floor, through my feet, up my spine, shaking my entire being.
I parted his lips with mine, my tongue slipping in, finding his. He gripped the nape of my neck, his fingers applying a pressure that almost unwound me right then and there. I moved closer to him, pushing him up against the arm of the couch as our kiss deepened, the tidal wave of our chemistry cresting over the horizon, its monstrous size ready to devour us.
A thought struck me and froze me in place, like a bucket of ice being dropped over my head.
Gabriel opened his eyes, stopping the kiss. “What? What’s wrong?”
“This isn’t against the rules, right? Are there rules about hooking up with your bodyguard?”
Gabriel’s smirk was glistening. “It isn’t exactly encouraged, but there’s nothing explicitly said about it.”
“Okay, great, keep kissing me, then.”
He licked his lips, his cocky smile nearly knocking me to my knees. “Gladly.” He grabbed my head in his hands and locked his lips with mine. Heat bloomed inside my core like a rosebud on fire, its petals singed with flame. Gabe must have felt the same passion because his kiss became more aggressive, more hungry. He pushed a leg underneath me and grabbed my hip, pulling me onto his lap, pushing his hips up so that he was sure I felt how turned on he was.