Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
“No, baby. I didn’t want to take advantage of you. You were too young, Starla, too hurt by the fellowship. I needed to keep things platonic between us.”
Heat flares in my chest. I’m struck with the sudden need to smack him. “Is that what you thought? You jerk. I would’ve given anything to— for you to—”
Bringing his other hand up, he cradles my face in his hands. “Do this?”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Starla
I melt against him. I’m boneless the second his lips touch mine, my body almost completely out of my control. My mouth parts and he takes it more fully.
“Starla,” he growls. “I don’t know how I can keep my fucking hands off you.”
Every time he touches me, it feels like someone’s stoking an inferno. The embers glow red-hot, ready to ignite—
“Timeo,” I say, tilting my head back. “We’re in a sex club. Do you mean to tell me you can’t find a condom somewhere?”
“Jesus, you think I want to wear some heart-shaped condom they used for Valentine’s giveaways? Yeah, no, baby.”
“Surely the Montavio Brotherhood has a solid supply of condoms?”
He growls. “Gonna earn yourself another spanking, teasing me like that.”
We’ve managed to make it back to the bedroom, but it seems we were safer in the kitchen. Fewer chances for skin-to-skin contact.
Not that it’s impossible…
I roll over on his chest and stretch, feeling sated and pleased but wanting so much more. I want him.
In me.
Now.
Frowning, Timeo pulls out his phone. “Still no service. Shit. This is not good.”
“Why not?” I stand and head toward the ladies’ room to use the facilities.
He raises his voice enough for me to still hear him as I walk away. “I’ve got business to do and the people I’m working with aren’t patient.”
“Oh.” Huh. Interesting. “Who?”
He’s only just gotten back. How could he have business to do already? Hardly anyone even knows he’s here.
Except… except the people that brought him back.
I turn back around and look at him curiously.
Could he… have been the one that made those boxes fall? Stacked them in such a way they’d fall after a little while?
Could he have been the one that tampered with that surveillance footage?
“What?” he says, frowning. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I say, grimacing, because I have definitely watched too much reality TV.
I shut the restroom door behind me with trembling fingers and realize I’ve completely lost my mind here.
This is Timeo. The man I trust with my life. There’s no way he’s done anything to betray his family, or to put me in danger.
No. Way. God, I feel like a kid even thinking he would. Timeo would die rather than betray his family.
I clean up and stretch again and look out the tiny window that overlooks a small courtyard behind the club. I shiver, so I reach for his discarded tee and tug it on. I breathe in deeply. I love the way it smells like him.
The snow’s piled as high as the window, so deep the heavy drifts almost cover one of the cars parked on a street behind the courtyard.
Wow.
It’s eerily quiet in this huge place without guests, though, and only a minute looking out the window has me running back to join Timeo.
“Jesus,” he says, watching me walk back to him in nothing but his tee.
“What?” I pretend I don’t know how I affect him. It’s a superpower, after all.
“Come here,” he says on a yawn. “We won’t escape here anytime soon, you know that. And you’ve about worn me out. Naptime.”
The mere suggestion makes me yawn. “That sounds wonderful,” I say as I climb into bed beside him. “Do I get to snuggle with you?”
“Of course,” he says, lifting his arm.
My heart thumps as I slide onto his chest and wrap my arm around his torso. He holds me to him. With my cheek pressed to his skin, I can hear the steady beating of his heart.
My eyelids grow heavy. I yawn.
“I always wanted to do this,” I say. It’s so warm and comfortable, lying up against him like this in a way I never dared to do before. He’s so warm and comfortable. I close my eyes.
“What?”
“Snuggle with a hot guy, obvs,” I say and stifle a smirk.
He pinches my ass.
“Any hot guy, eh?”
I yawn again. “Of course not. You know it was only ever you.”
My words slur.
I fall asleep, only ever you echoing in my mind.
I’m back at the fellowship, but I’m the age I am now. I look down at myself and see that while I still have my new tattoo on my left ankle, I’m wearing a hand-me-down dress that’s too short and ridiculously conservative. I look around me and realize I’m standing in my family’s kitchen.
“Eden?”
I want to leave. I have to get out of here. I’m an adult, and I don’t belong here anymore, and our home under the fellowship was destroyed.