Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 59804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
“I’d make it six.”
“Noted. And second?” he asked.
“I’m not afraid of you,” she admitted. “And I think you like that fear; I think you need it in order to be you. It’s the one thing I can’t give you, my fear. You have too much of my respect for fear to take hold.”
“That’s okay; my fear of you cancels out your fear of me.”
“You aren’t afraid of me!”
“You literally got me married within days of meeting me and almost got me killed… twice.”
She giggled.
“It’s not funny!”
“It’s kind of funny, just a little bit?”
He rolled his eyes and reached for my knee through the bars, pulling me roughly against the cold steel. I liked it. I needed it. “I swear I’ll find a way to save us.”
“I know.” At least I knew he would die trying. But maybe if I gave in a bit, maybe if I seduced his brother or did something to catch him off guard, I could save us too. I just didn’t know what.
Santino’s hand inched up my bare thigh. “Enough talk of death. Imagine you’re on the beach, a drink in one hand, nachos in the other.”
“Why nachos?”
“Don’t ruin the dream,” he muttered and smacked my thigh lightly. “You have nachos with olives—”
“Without olives.”
“My dream, we get olives. Now stop interrupting.”
“Sorry.” I giggled, loving this side of him. “Keep going.”
“And on this beach, it’s just us and the ocean. We can swim naked with dolphins, though highly not recommended because they’re horny bastards, but we could at least skinny dip under the sun and the moon. Nobody’s after us. Only light, no darkness, only the heat from the sun and the light from the moon after that, for days on end.”
“Take me there. Promise?” I asked.
His smile was so pure and beautiful I wanted to cry all over again. “Of course.”
Both of us knew things weren’t looking good.
The clock behind us gave us all the reminders of why. A devastating agony took over my entire body when I realized how fast time really was going with Santino in that jail cell next to me.
I reached for him again, and I held on tight. I wasn’t saying goodbye; at least, that’s what I told myself.
“I’m going to lie to you,” I whispered.
“Good,” he replied. “Good, lie to me then.”
“Everything’s going to be okay.” I managed a small smile. “And because of that, we should probably enjoy each other as much as possible, right? I mean, I am wearing this beautiful nightgown.” I pointed down with my free hand. The garment was torn and filthy; I looked like I was homeless.
Santino gripped the bar with his right hand while holding my hand with his left. “You’re stunning.” I opened my mouth to say something, but he kept talking. “Even that day when you were afraid and had blood all over you, and you nearly drowned, you were stunning. When you were in the SUV with me owning your pain, you were stunning, and right now, sitting in a dark wet prison cell, I don’t think you’ve ever been more beautiful.”
“You wait to say that…” I licked my lips. “…when there’s bars between us?”
“Bars aren’t a deterrent.” Santino reached for one of my ankles and pulled it until my leg was nearly completely through the bar, and on his side, he did the same to the other until I was completely bare to him, with the bar in the middle. My lingerie had inched up my ass.
He reached a hand between my legs, pressed his fingertips against my right thigh, then trailed his fingers toward my core. I didn’t speak. The moment was full of hunger and sadness, nothing existed but us… and the bars between us.
I gripped both of them and pulled myself as close as possible as he inched a finger inside me and then another.
My body seized under the pressure and pleasure of his fingers. He pinned me with a drowning stare, one that took me completely under his spell.
“You’re mine,” he proclaimed. “Mine.” His fingers moved faster, deeper. Tremors built with each movement. “So when he touches you, know that you belong to yourself and to me. Nobody can take that away from you, do you understand?”
I nodded. Trying again not to cry. His words soothed me, his fingers claimed me, and as if my body knew the vow I’d just made, my release came. The best orgasm of my life.
Between prison bars.
From an assassin, who would soon face the other end of the gun.
My husband.
He pulled his hand back, but I grabbed it. “Can we just stay like this, where I imagine I’m in there with you a little bit longer?”
“Yeah.” He leaned his forehead against the bars. “Let’s just stay like this—forever.”
“I’d like that.”
“Me too.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“A guy told me one time… don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.” —Neil McCauley