Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 94546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“I’m safe anywhere that I am with you. You don’t need to purchase a penthouse apartment for me to feel that way.”
He tugs me in close, stealing any further objections from my head. I can’t be so near his devastatingly handsome face and act nonchalant. “I need this, Octavia. I need to know if you want to run, you have somewhere safe to flee to and gather your thoughts.” After staring at me long enough not even my head can form an objection, he adds, “I won’t force this on you. I will never force anything on you, it isn’t who I am, but I need to know you have somewhere you will feel safe and protected even while believing you’re not.”
“Jack…” I should say more. I need to say more. I just can’t. You couldn’t hear the unbridled devotion in his voice and the unvoiced promises that he will never hurt me. You couldn’t see the truth in his eyes when he said he won’t force anything on me, and you also couldn’t feel the turmoil his words caused my stomach because there is no one else in the world right now but Jack and me.
It is just us.
After a beat, I ask, “Will you use this place too? Will you let it be your private sanctuary if things become too much for you too?” When he shakes his head, I breathe out sullenly, “Why not?”
“Because I can’t hide who I am from you, Octavia. I tried tonight and look where it got me—”
“Buying a ridiculously overpriced apartment to give me an unneeded safe haven?”
Dark locks of hair fall into his eyes when he shakes his head while muttering, “Worried I’ll lose you forever once you know the real me.”
The shame in his voice kills me.
It is worse than a thousand bee stings.
And since it was most likely a monster like my grandfather who put it there, instead of telling him he’s being outrageously showy, I balance on my tippytoes and seal my lips over his.
“Nothing you could tell me will change how I feel about you, Jack,” I talk over his lips. “Nothing at all.”
CHAPTER 23
JACK
Shivers cascade through our conjoined bodies as I walk Octavia through the penthouse I purchased with the hope the glitz and glamor will hide my hideously ugly insides when she learns about the real Jack Carson.
Although this isn’t why I brought her here, I should shut down the intense need to have her at all hours of the day and night immediately. I wasn’t lying earlier this week when I said Octavia has my head in a tailspin. I’ve never acted so heedlessly before, but I also wouldn’t change a thing. The man I’ve been the past week is the man I’ve been trying to portray for the past twelve years. I don’t want to waste another second acting like they’re not the same person.
Views of the Seattle skyline stretch as far as the eye can see when we enter the main suite of the penthouse. Elaine was seeking a suitable location for me to bunk during my prolonged stopover in Seattle, but the instant I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for Octavia. It is close to her work and has enough space that no matter how suffocating my secrets become, she’ll never feel claustrophobic.
“Are we allowed in here?” Octavia asks through kiss-swollen lips when I plonk her onto the large bed in the middle of the room before moving to close the shutters.
This building is one of the tallest in Seattle, but I don’t want to take any risks. The media was already sniffing out a scandal when I failed to board my private jet last week. Mercifully, they never considered searching for me in the headquarters of a magazine I was disbanding purely because of the fluff piece a journalist wrote about me late last year.
I could have ordered a retraction, but rumors I had birthed three children with two baby mommas within a month of each other overtook rumors that I was on a no-sex sabbatical, so I decided it was best to divide and conquer instead. I disbanded the glossy gossip magazine seeking any associates of mine who hadn’t signed a non-disclosure agreement before meeting with me, then I shifted my focus to Seattle Socialites.
Thank God I take jabs at my private life personally or the ravishing image of Octavia splayed out before me with an erratically panting chest and slightly parted legs may not have occurred, and I’d still believe I was born with a broken appendage.
God, she is perfection. Her body is tight and compact, but her tits are so luscious, I had to constantly remind myself the past week that the purpose of my assignment at headquarters was to rid the predators from the team, not become one.