Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 88447 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88447 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
“Never fucking do that. Do you know how unsafe that is? How easy it would be for someone to catch you unaware and hurt you? If you ever—ever—need a ride, you call me right away, understood?”
She rolled her eyes at me. “Yes, Daddy.”
My dick twitched as a whole bunch of really fucking dirty fantasies exploded in my head—all revolving around this gorgeous creature calling me Daddy with her sultry fucking voice.
In another life, I might have pursued something more than friendship with Layla.
In another life, I might have tried to be the kind of man she needed.
But, in this fucked up world, being loved by me was poison.
So, while most of me wanted to tell her that next time she called me Daddy, she’d find herself on her back with her legs in the air, I resisted as she gathered up her bag.
We got out of the car together. When she rounded the hood, I handed her the keys. Following her to the front door, I smiled as I spotted more dragon sculptures hidden in the landscaping.
By the time we reached her Spanish tile front steps, Layla was yawning again.
Vali wandered off, leaving Layla and me alone.
Well, alone other than my ride waiting out in the street.
“So,” she said with a nervous giggle. “That was a hell of a day.”
Rubbing the back of my neck, I felt something inside of me waking up—something that responded to her shy smile, to the way she looked at me from beneath her lashes. “Yeah, it really was, but I’m glad it was you I got stuck on an elevator with.”
“Me to. Maybe—uh, maybe you’d like to meet up for coffee or something?”
The cool night air blew across my face. The scents of cedar and creosote filled me as I fucking wished with all my heart the world was different.
That I was different.
That I could accept a date with a pretty girl without worrying that I’d be responsible for her death.
But I couldn’t. I was tainted, the world I lived in deadly, and being with me would expose Layla to people that would happily destroy her fragile spirit. She had enough shit to deal with without me adding assassination attempts to it. No, she needed a nice, quiet guy who’d live to make her happy, give her pretty babies with big brown eyes, and wake up every day knowing what a lucky fucking bastard he was.
She deserved the best, and it wasn’t me.
“Thanks, but I’ve got a lot going on these next few weeks. Still, I meant what I said earlier. You ever need me, in any way, and I’ll be there, okay? And if I can’t, I’ll find someone who can.”
She smiled, but I could tell I’d hurt her feelings. “Yeah, sure. Well, I better get inside. Goodnight, Mark. Thanks again.”
“Night, Layla.”
She lifted her fingers to her lips and whistled. A second later, Vali bound out of the darkness, and she gave him a quick rub down before standing. She wouldn’t meet my gaze, and it physically hurt to let her turn away and go into her house. As the door shut, she never looked back.
Chapter 2
Layla
The next day
When I got the notification that someone named ‘LordDragus31’ wanted to chat with me in game, I ignored it. Being a well-known female player on my server—with a reputation for having a sexy voice—led to more than my fair share of fuckbois who wanted me to talk dirty to them. Yuck. Even yuckier, most of them were angry young teenagers with more hormones than brains who thought I should be flattered they were hitting on me. They seemed to feel that I should be honored to talk dirty to them so they could whack off to images of my in-game character.
I mean, she was a sexy bitch. Slayla, my video game alter-ego, was a tall-curvy, kick ass elf healer who was one of the top ranked player killers on the game. She was beautiful, confident, and always knew what to say. In short, she was everything I wished I was. Yes, my therapist had a thing or two to say about how much time I spent ‘being’ Slayla, but I didn’t care. Gaming got me through some dark times, and it was one of the few things I loved doing with other people. Almost all my hobbies were solo activities that I could do from my house. While gaming was also an indoor activity, at least I was interacting with real people. People pretending to be elves, trolls, and werewolves but, still…people.
I laughed as one of my guildmates, the guys that I regularly gamed with, made a joke on the video chat channel we all used.
My chat invite notification pinged again, and I frowned as I read the name.
ElevatorGuy.
My heart beat faster as I excused myself from the public chatroom and opened up a private one with ElevatorGuy.