Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 66978 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66978 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
I asked for this.
He’s just being thorough.
Still…he’s going through my bras and panties.
My skin heats.
But he’s done with the top drawer soon, and he goes to the next drawer, which houses my socks.
Next are T-shirts, and below that, what I call a junk drawer.
Then he goes into the closet—a walk-in closet, so there’s a lot of ground to cover. And he covers it. Again, he’s very thorough, checking through all my garments that are hanging. Would someone really stick a bug in clothes?
But where he’s really thorough—as if I didn’t think he were thorough before—is with my shoes.
He looks at every single one, and he plays with the heels.
“What exactly are you doing?” I can’t help asking.
“You asked me to check things out. Shoes are a great place to hide a bug.”
“They are?”
“Yeah. No one ever thinks to look there, except for people like me.”
I have several pairs of shoes, so his task takes some time. When he finally puts the last one down—
“Only the bathroom now.”
My flesh heats again. The bathroom. Where he saw me naked.
Where my body burst into flames at his gaze.
He looks at me, cocking his head. Is he waiting for permission?
“Okay.” I shrug. “The bathroom.”
He walks to the door—a little more slowly—draws in a breath, and opens it.
The first place he looks is inside the medicine cabinet behind the mirror above the sink. Great. Now he’ll see my birth control pills and my anxiety meds.
What the hell? This was my idea, not his.
He moves all the bottles of medication, opening them and looking inside. Then he looks behind the cabinet itself, attempting to pull it off the wall, but he’s unsuccessful.
“If you have a screwdriver, I can check behind here and make sure there’s nothing, but I doubt there is. Depends on how thorough you want me to be.”
“Sorry. I don’t have a screwdriver.”
“No worries.”
He takes the lid off the toilet tank next, peers inside. Then he removes the toilet seat and takes a good look inside the toilet as well.
Then the cupboard below the sink, and lastly, the shower.
Once he’s done, he turns to me. “This place is clean, Kelly. Nothing to worry about.”
“Are you sure?”
“You just saw me look. There’s nothing. No hidden cameras, no bugs, nothing. You’re secure here, Kelly. I assure you.”
Which means he’s going to leave.
I don’t want him to leave.
I want him to…
Damn. I don’t know what I want. I just know I don’t want to be alone. Which is strange in itself, because I’ve never minded being alone. When you spend half your life locked in a closet, you get used to it.
I bite my lower lip. “Thank you for doing this. Can I get you a drink or something? To repay you?”
“No, you don’t need to repay me. I’m already paid. This is my job.”
“Fine.”
I’m feeling indignant, of course. Nothing new there.
“If that’s all, then.” He heads toward the door.
But I grab his arm, and I tingle at the warmth of it.
He looks over his shoulder. “Yes?”
“Don’t go. Please.”
23
LEIF
Please? Did that word truly just come out of Kelly Taylor’s mouth?
I study her.
I look hard. I desperately try to see something beyond her physical beauty and her fight-or-flight attitude.
Is she attractive?
God, yes. She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve seen in a long time. I’ve always liked redheads, and though her hair is a little darker, she still qualifies. She’s wearing blue leggings and a large white T-shirt. Hardly the stuff of wet dreams, but she makes it look like it came straight out of Victoria’s Secret.
My dick responds to her, which I’m not happy about. She’s my charge. I’m supposed to protect her, not fuck her.
But although I find her physically attractive, her personality? Not so much.
“What do you want?” I ask her.
“I’m just…scared. I’m so tired of being scared.”
“I understand. I’ve been scared myself.”
She scoffs. “When were you ever scared?”
Really? Did she just go there? “I was a Navy SEAL, Kelly. My life was in peril on the daily when I was overseas. I lost friends over there. Buck and I came back, but four of our friends didn’t.”
She swallows. I don’t hear anything but I see her throat move.
Good. That got to her. It’s about time she realizes that she’s not the only person who’s ever been through bad stuff. She’s not the only person who’s ever been to hell and back. I feel for her. I do. I feel for every one of those women who was violated on that godforsaken island. But the other ones that I know? Katelyn? Aspen? Jenna? Carly?
They’re all healing. They’re taking a proactive attitude.
Kelly? There’s nothing proactive about her. She’s all reactive, pure and simple, and she reacts by striking.
“So…good night.” I head back toward the door.
But again she grabs my arm. And damn… Her touch. My cock is already hard.