Total pages in book: 238
Estimated words: 231781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1159(@200wpm)___ 927(@250wpm)___ 773(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 231781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1159(@200wpm)___ 927(@250wpm)___ 773(@300wpm)
But I slipped back and away before anyone saw me.
A coo drifted off behind me, a flutter hitting my stomach as I turned and crossed the foyer, into the ballroom.
The chandeliers dimmed and the chairs and sofas spread out around the room, and I looked over and saw a playpen with a spiky black head of hair sticking out the top.
Walking over, I looked down at the blue-eyed boy with his father’s eyebrows and his mother’s long lashes, my chin fucking quivering because he was so damn cute.
Reaching down, I picked him up and held him in my arms, his little body feeling lighter than air.
Laughter went off in the dining room. His awesome baby smell made me dizzy, and needles pricked my throat as tears welled in my eyes.
I shook with silent sobs, looking at his beautiful face as tears streamed down my own. Damon had done all this without me. He was doing so well—without me.
I should’ve been here when the kid was born. I should know Madden.
“I’m taking you trick or treating next year, okay?” I whispered down at him. “I’m taking you every year. I’m getting my own house, and I’m going to be at every one of Michael’s games and every one of your mom’s performances and I’ll be giving you the biggest presents for every birthday.” I leaned my cheek into his forehead, just sitting there. “I’ll even blow off your bedtime when they leave you with me for date night.”
Ivar, Mads, and the baby Winter was carrying now would never know that I was absent.
Setting him back in his bed, I pressed my lips to his head and handed him his stuffed snake, smiling to myself as I remembered the Godzilla that I got Em. I wondered if she still had it.
Heading to the back of the house, I descended the stairs into the catacombs, seeing Rika had talked Michael out of covering the uneven stone stairs with wooden ones.
How long had it been since I’d been here? The night Damon, Winter, and I went off the bridge?
I walked along the hardwood floors, fake flames flickering on the walls inside their sconces and knowing there were a dozen or so rooms down here. I wasn’t exactly sure where they put her, but I tried the first room I came to and twisted the handle.
The door gave way, opening wide, and I stepped inside the dark room, light from the corridor spilling in and revealing the body on the bed, under the sheet.
“Will?” she said, turning over.
I looked down as she rubbed her eyes, seeing the lacy black bra under the jean overalls she wore, my pulse instantly pumping in my neck and my dick twitching with life.
Fuck. I loved her in overalls.
I gazed at her olive skin, and the brown hair on her head hanging down her arms. The plump chest and the pink lips.
And the rope that was around her wrists this morning back around her neck, the slack hanging between her breasts and inside her overalls.
I smiled.
Sitting up, she scooted over to me, and I stood in front of her, looking down at my Little Trouble who hadn’t changed a bit from how badly she pissed me off and got me hard in high school.
“Micah and Rory are staying at an apartment in town.” I reached over, caressing her cheek with the backs of my fingers. “You want to join them?”
She shook her head.
I moved to the other cheek, caressing what was mine and then taking her jaw, gently holding it.
“They’ve got food upstairs,” I murmured. “You want food?”
Again, she shook her head.
I tipped her chin up, loving how she played. It pleased me.
“You want to stay with me?” I taunted.
Slowly, she nodded.
Reaching into my jacket, I took out a case and set it on the bedside table.
“I refilled your prescription for your glasses.”
I was able to talk Dr. Lawrence here into contacting her doctor in California and getting her most recent prescription filled.
“Where’d you get the overalls?” I asked.
“Found them in Rika’s closet.”
“And you’re down here alone, despite the door not being locked?”
She didn’t move.
The outfit, the rope, the willing and waiting in bed… I wondered when the fight would come, because it would, but God, I loved that she wasn’t rushing back to being my enemy. Fucking her in this bed tonight might be nice.
Pulling her up, I sat myself down in her place and pulled her into my lap, wrapping my arms around her.
Sweat cooled my pores, and I couldn’t seem to catch my breath, the last year or so and everything in the last twenty-four hours making my head spin.
For five minutes, I needed something to hold on to.
I tightened my hold, smelling her hair and damn near tasting her. If she hadn’t shown up at Blackchurch, would I really have sought my revenge? Would I have chased her down in California and made her pay?