Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 118114 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 591(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118114 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 591(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
My cock jerked and I grunted, picking up the plate with the salmon sandwich. “Give me an hour,” I said to Deck and Vic. “Then we’ll go over what needs to go down tonight.”
Deck nodded. Vic didn’t do anything, but chugged back his glass of orange juice while leaning against the marble counter.
I made my way out of the kitchen and through the living room when I heard the water running through the pipes above. London was still in the shower? It was a fuck of a long time to be showering.
I strode through the living room, went up the stairs, two at a time, went into the guest room, put the plate on the dresser and continued into the adjoining bathroom.
The air was a shield of fog and it whirled around me when the colder air from the bedroom intermingled with the humid moisture. I shut the door.
I couldn’t see her, but I heard her. The soft sobs from somewhere to the right and not in the shower.
I made my way across the bathroom and I found her sitting on the floor, leaning up against the wall in the corner. Fuck.
I crouched in front of her, my hands settling on her knees that were bent and pulled close to her body. Her hair was wet and dripped onto her naked shoulders then slid down her skin to soak into the blue cotton towel she wore.
“I never should’ve run away after….” She stopped and I knew why because it wouldn’t have changed the outcome. As Raven, she could’ve done nothing to help her father. She couldn’t even help herself.
“Why did he do it? Why did he take the bullet?” Again, there was no need to answer and I didn’t think she wanted me to. These were questions she knew the answers to. He was dying and he wanted to do something he’d been unable to do ever since he became involved with Vault… save his daughter.
My thumb stroked back and forth over her knee while with my other hand reached forward and I wiped the tears on her cheeks with my knuckles. She finally looked at me with her red-rimmed eyes, and my heart, one I thought was so tainted and stained it no longer beat, hurt. It was as if someone were squeezing it so hard that it was in agony.
She lowered her head, her hair covering her face.
“He died knowing you’re the strong, beautiful woman he raised you to be. You gave him that. His final wish.”
She was quiet for a long time before she raised her head and said, “Thank you.”
I reached forward, tucked a few wet strands behind her ear and cupped her cheek, my thumb stroking back and forth. “For what?”
“For caring. About him and me.” She rested her hand over mine on her cheek then slid it to her mouth and kissed my palm. “They tried to take that from you, but they didn’t get it.”
They did. They took parts of me that I’d never get back, but she’d given me the greatest gift. The gift of caring for someone so deeply that it lived and breathed inside you. It was so much more powerful than any pain or conditioning Vault had done to us.
She consumed me and maybe it was dangerous feeling so much for one woman, but it was too late. It had always been too late to stop.
“I want you to take the pain away,” she whispered. “For a little while, make me forget.”
When I failed to move, she pushed to her feet, her hand in mine. I stood and she guided me back to the bedroom where she dropped the towel and lay down.
I stared at her for several seconds, this remarkable woman who I’d go to the ends of the earth for, who I’d kill for if anyone tried to hurt her. I was confident, never thought twice about doing what I wanted, but seeing her lying naked on the bed, her wet hair splayed out on the pillow, her lips still quivering from crying, I was unsure.
And I was unsure because I didn’t want to hurt her and I wasn’t sure if this was what she needed right now.
“Kai. Take off your pants,” she said.
I raised my brows, with a mild twitch at the corner of my mouth. “And if I don’t think this is such a good idea?”
She pushed up on her elbows, which pushed out her breasts and my eyes flickered to them for a second before returning to her face. Fuck, she knew what it would do to me. I had been sleeping with her for five days. Held her. My cock rock hard, but not doing anything about it because she didn’t need that part of me. She needed a part I didn’t know I had. The one that held her close and soothed while she sobbed herself to sleep.