Total pages in book: 211
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Eric isn’t going to tell anyone but me what that message means, and he doesn’t even want to tell me.
I finish dressing and pull on my socks and shoes to find Eric watching me. “We need to go shopping so you have some things of your own.”
There’s a pinch in my chest, with the thought of my cute little house in Denver, that will never feel like home ever again. I can’t believe how fast my life has changed. Everything I knew was there. Now everything I want is here. My eyes burn for no good reason and I cut my gaze, afraid Eric’s going to misread my state of mind. Eric steps in front of me and tilts my gaze to his. “I don’t want you to go back.” He pauses as if for effect. “Ever.”
This is what I want to hear from him, maybe even needed to hear from him, I realize. I don’t want to go back to Denver; I just don’t want to leave my mother behind, but as I study this handsome, brilliant man, I set that aside for now. I’m focused on him and the undertone to his words. I’m focused on a hint of trepidation in him, the uncertainty I think I see in his eyes. Does he really think I’d leave him? Does he really think I’m anything but one hundred percent here with him? Yes, I decide. He thinks I’m going to leave, if not now, one day. He thinks I’m somehow too good for him and this tells me that my man, my beautiful man, is so very damaged by this damn family.
There’s another knock on the door. “Maybe it’s urgent,” I say, starting to get concerned. “If it’s Savage he knows we’re safe now and he’s still being pushy.”
“Right. I’ll go.” He’s already walking toward the door.
I hug myself and step deeper into the kitchen to watch him close the space between us and the entryway, all long-legged grace and confidence, but there’s a sharpness to his spine, a tension in his shoulders. The connection between us got him out of his own head, but it was short-lived and we never dealt with whatever set him off.
There’s nothing I can do about it now though. Eric’s already opening the door and Savage steps inside, and just the brute size of the man is a force when entering a room. “Grayson’s in a hired car that just pulled up downstairs,” Savage announces, shutting the door. “I tried to call and warn you. We couldn’t stop him from coming. He said it’s critical that he talk with you.”
Eric grimaces, his hands settling on his hips. “I thought you were taking him home?”
“We did,” Savage confirms. “He made it all the way into his apartment and then he figured out that you weren’t joining him and he wasn’t having it. He said he needs to talk to you in private, one on one.”
I hug myself a little tighter now and digest this news. Grayson was worried. I know that. He had reason to be worried but this feels over the top. Or is it? Would I let Eric get away with shutting me down if I was worried? No. I wouldn’t. Well, outside of sex on the kitchen island, which distracted me, but that wasn’t meant to replace conversation. And yet it has. I can’t talk to him now.
Eric runs a hand through his hair, an act of utter frustration that he rarely displays. He’s a man of control and between myself and Grayson, we’re practically wrestling it from his grip. That can’t sit well. “Bring him up when he gets here.”
Savage’s phone buzzes with a text message and he glances at it and then Eric. “That would be now.”
Eric’s lips thin. “Of course it is. Is Mia with him?”
“No. Grayson made her stay with one of our men and,” he glances at me and then Eric again, “he seems to really want to talk to you alone.”
Eric turns away from Savage and just leaves him standing there. He walks right by me, through the living, to the bar area just beside his patio door. Shutting us out, claiming an empty space that I believe he lives inside far too often. Eager to fill that space, I cross to join him, watching as he pours himself a drink.
“Talk to me,” I whisper, aware of Savage nearby, and wishing he’d just step back into the hallway.
“Not now,” he says softly, and he still doesn’t look at me. “Later.”
The doorbell rings and he downs the amber liquid, setting the glass on the bar before he turns to me, his hand cupping my neck as he drags his mouth to mine. “There’s much unsaid and undone between us, too much, but not for long.” He kisses me, a deep, drugging kiss that is over too soon. Suddenly, he’s set me aside, and he’s gone, his long legs eating away the space between him and the door again.