Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 105665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
“How much, Jersey?” His breath singed her skin, frying her nerves and making her dizzy. “How much did you miss me?” Ian slowly unfastened her jeans.
Her poorly concealed knife, shoved into the back of her jeans, fell to the floor. Ian paused, and Jersey glanced back at him. They grinned at each other.
Jersey’s lips parted, one breath chasing the next as his right hand slid down the front of her panties. She dropped the granola bar and pressed her other hand flat to the window. Could she let him do that to her and still keep her mind focused on the end game? She needed him close, needed him to want her with him, by his side, in his bed, wrapped around his life so she could find his truth and close the noose.
“Jesus …” Her forehead thunked against the window, eyelids heavy, conscience cringing with guilt. Was it okay for her to enjoy it? Was it okay for a killer’s hand to give her that kind of pleasure? She fought it, his touch, the building need in her body, the teetering edge of control. But he wouldn’t stop, so Jersey let him poison her with pleasure.
For several minutes the hum of the heater and their dueling shallow breaths filled the room. If he said something to her, asked her how she liked it, if she wanted him to stop, anything that felt nauseatingly familiar from her past, she would have pulled away.
But he didn’t.
When it was over, she kept her hands and forehead on the window, shoulders slumped. Ian slid his hand out of her panties and refastened her jeans. When he stepped back, she turned. His tongue grazed along his lower lip before he rubbed them together as if he needed to restrain his next words. And he did.
Jersey bent down and retrieved the knife and the granola bar. Picking off a few pieces of lint first, she took another bite, chewing with her mouth shut while shoving the sheathed knife back into her jeans and wearing a challenging expression on her unavoidably flushed face.
Ian rubbed a hand over his mouth several times, studying Jersey. “I’m going to take a shower and get dressed. I have a busy day.”
Jersey shrugged, glancing down at her granola bar before taking another bite. Was he waiting for permission? A thank you?
“So…” he scraped his teeth along his bottom lip “…Jersey two, Ian one.”
She choked for a second, covering her mouth with her hand, eyes wide. They were keeping score?
Ian waited.
Jersey didn’t blink.
He waited some more, suppressing his smirk.
She slowly started chewing again and returned a single nod. When Ian seemed satisfied with her level of discomfort, he sauntered off to the bathroom.
“Do you have siblings?” Jersey shot Ian a question the second he emerged from the bathroom, hair wet, ripped jeans, black tee. Perched on his bed, she finished the second bag of chips from his basket of food and crumpled up the foil wrapper.
“You’re getting crumbs in my bed.”
“Brothers? Sisters? Childhood pets?”
“Thanks for asking if you could eat the chips.” He set his neatly folded dirty clothes on the right side of his suitcase.
“Did your mom bake cookies? I had a foster mom who baked cookies, but they were a sugar-free kind … well, sweetened with dates and bananas. I didn’t complain because it was food. Ya know?” She didn’t say Dena’s name, but she wanted to say it, see how he might react.
Ian stood at the end of the bed with his arms folded over his chest. Jersey tried to ignore her attraction to him. It had no place in her plan.
“Yeah. I know.” He pulled his phone from his pocket.
“No.” She grunted a laugh, tearing open a box of fancy chocolates. “You don’t know.”
Ian gave her the hairy eyeball for a few seconds before returning his attention to his phone. “Let’s go.”
“Can I go with you today?”
Ask you a million more questions that you refuse to answer?
“You have a job to do and so do I.” He headed to the door.
Jersey hopped off the bed and chased after him. “Coop, if I don’t go with you, how will I even the score?”
Ian stopped with his hand on the doorknob, his back to Jersey. He glanced at her over his shoulder. “You have chocolate on your face.”
She wiped both sides of her face with the back of her hand.
He turned around and shook his head. “It’s still there.”
A frown pulled at her lips as she scrubbed both cheeks with the palms of her hands.
Ian chuckled. “Why would it be on your cheeks? Did you roll in my chocolate?”
Jersey started to narrow her eyes, ready to punch his pretty little face.
“Stop giving me that scowl.” He grabbed her face and leaned down, stopping a breath away from her mouth.
She grabbed his wrists without pulling him away as she held her breath. He licked the corner of her mouth like an overly friendly dog.