Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
“Why did you wait all this time? You could have spared me so much pain.” Resentment creeps into my tone, and I can do nothing to hold it back, even if the emotion lacks logic. Because if Liam had taken me out of the tower when I asked him to, I wouldn’t have had the chance to get to know the real Sebastian Stone. I wouldn’t love him with such intense fierceness as I do now.
“You’re right,” Liam says, untangling our hands. “I should have moved faster. But I didn’t have all the pieces of the puzzle until now. After Landon’s wedding, I knew I needed to dig deeper.”
“And you didn’t like what you found.”
“No,” he says, and I know he’s thinking about the incident in the elevator, watching it happen in his mind as if seeing it for the first time—a moment of rough possessiveness enshrined in passion. The moment I promised Sebastian he’s the only man who owns my heart.
Liam saw it all, and that was the final blow he needed to deploy his “backup plan.” I have no doubt he would have gotten me out of the tower sooner had he known about the assassination plot, but in the end it was jealousy that got us to this place.
And now that he knows about the potential threat to my life, I fear his protectiveness will be what keeps me here.
3
I’m trapped in the suffocating pitch dark, but I’m not alone. A masculine presence hovers too close, his nearness lacking Liam’s warm aura and familiar spicy scent. Whoever’s present emits a cold vibe and a void so massive that I’ll never come back from this terrifying place. As the walls seem to close in, glaring light floods my eyes at the last second, and even though my subconscious tells me I’m confined in a nightmare, my body responds as if the scenario is real.
I thrash upright in a cold sweat, my heart racing, body trembling, my mind disoriented. Terror shudders through my limbs as Liam switches on a soft light. He shakes me to awareness, and that’s when I find him sitting on the edge of my bed, shirtless with his hair mussed from sleep.
“Are you okay?”
“No.” Feeling boneless, I lie back down and hug my pillow, trying to calm my rapid breathing as flashes of blood and shackles assault my memory. “I haven’t been okay in a long time.”
“Turn over,” he says, nodding toward the wall at my back.
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
I obey, and a second later, the narrow mattress dips. He slides in behind me and spoons me, his arms surrounding me in familiar warmth. It doesn’t take more than a few minutes in his embrace before I remember what it’s like to be loved and protected by Liam Castle.
As the remnants of my nightmare subside and my breathing evens out, we don’t speak. There’s a thickness in the air, a tightness in my throat, bitter moisture on my cheeks as he holds me against his chest.
Fiercely.
Unapologetically.
His strength and power binding my soul in one piece.
“Bad dream?” he finally asks, his voice gruff.
It’s a rhetorical question aiming to unearth more, to tempt me to confide in him. Part of me wants to, but I’d rather close my eyes and hold on to this moment. My mind is blessedly numb, body warm and protected as he splays a hand on my abdomen.
But despite the comfort of his arms, my nightmare crystalizes in my head once more, and I try not to shudder. Pax’s face is there, unwavering. So is blood. Sebastian’s blood…on the floor, the walls…my hands.
Infusing the darkness with metallic horror.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“I don’t remember anything,” I whisper, choking out the lie. Many months ago, he would have admonished me for the deceit, but things have changed between us. They’re still changing.
Changing too fast.
“I’m okay now. You can go back to bed.” With a gentle push, I dislodge his arm and turn over to face him, meaning to put more space between us, but the bed is too small. I have nowhere to go.
“You’re not okay,” he says, palming my cheek. “You’ve been whimpering in your sleep every night.”
“Have I been keeping you awake?”
In the dim light, I catch a hint of his mouth curving in gentle amusement. He presses his lips against my forehead. “I’d sacrifice sleep every night if it meant you’d be at peace.”
“Why do you have to make this so hard?”
“What do you mean?”
“You make my heart conflicted.” I regret the admission instantly.
Tangling his fingers in my hair, he sucks in a breath. “I can live with that, Novalee. I’ll take any part of your heart you’re willing to give me.”
“But that’s the issue. I’m not willing. I haven’t been willing since day one.”
“It started out that way, but you’re exactly where you belong now.”