Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 94076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Gambit frowns. “But why would they kill him?”
Rogue shrugs. “Maybe they’re afraid he’ll say something to the wrong person.”
“Dead men can’t talk,” Axe says.
“It’s possible,” Beast says. “The sheriff will keep us up to date with any new developments but in the meantime we’ll do some digging of our own. I also want another crew to join me on patrol tonight. I want eyes on the roads to see what is passing through our territory.”
I volunteer.
So does Balls.
And we head out straight after church.
I volunteered because I’m trying to figure out what is going on with me and Ella. I’m trying to make sense of my feelings for her.
My whole adult life, I’ve avoided the very things I find myself wanting with her.
Except that one time we don’t talk about.
I grip my handlebars tighter until the memory recedes.
I’ve spent fifteen years avoiding the memory, and I’m good at stopping it before the pain comes.
I let out a rough breath.
It should be enough to stop me from pursuing Ella. But the truth is, it makes me want her even more.
The night ends up being uneventful. No suspicious activity on the roads. No sign of the Bratva. Just plenty of hours to think as I ride.
Being so quiet, Beast sends the second patrol home to get some shuteye.
It’s close to midnight, and as I steer my bike toward home, I can’t help but wish Ella would be there waiting for me in my bed.
And as I climb the stairwell leading up to the clubhouse, I can’t stop the emptiness from creeping in when I know she won’t be.
CHAPTER 38
Ella
I turn out my light and wait in the darkness. My mind churns over my encounter with Luca.
At midnight, when I’m sure my chaperones are asleep, I sneak out and catch a cab to the clubhouse where I slip into the library undetected and return the book to its usual place on the shelf.
Because I don’t need it anymore
Because I don’t need to escape.
Because I am going to kill Luca.
Now that he has Lucretia hidden away in some foreign boarding school, he has me backed into a corner.
So I am going to kill him.
I don’t exactly know how.
But I know I only have one shot.
Because if you take aim at the beast, then you had better kill him.
So I need a plan. A damn good plan.
And right now, I don’t know what that plan is.
At least I have a few more days to figure it out.
I can stall for time. Let Luca and Viktor believe I am looking for the recipe and actively gathering intel to pass on to them, while I figure out what to do next.
But I’m not going to try to untangle the puzzle tonight.
Instead, I’m going to take something for myself.
A moment to remember. To hold on to.
Because if I take aim at Luca, and I miss, there will be unfathomable consequences.
High on my newfound determination, I climb the grand staircase to the second floor landing and walk along the hallway to Lars’s room. I knock on the door, and the moment it opens, my lips are on his, urgent and wild, and I’m pushing him into the room and kicking the door closed behind me.
Caught off guard, he hesitates. But I deepen my kiss with a ferocity I’ve never known, and his resistance disintegrates, and he kisses me back with a wild ferociousness. He feels warm and damp and fresh from the shower, and I absorb everything about this moment into me. The smell of soap. The heat. The demanding stroke of his tongue. The deep groan from his throat as he takes the kiss deeper.
I force him backward onto the bed and climb on to his lap, and the heat soars from hot to liquid molten in seconds. Lars loves to kiss, and I can feel it in the way he slides his big hands up my neck to my face, and in the way he groans and drives his tongue into my mouth as if he can’t get enough of me. It makes me feel wanted and desired and alive. Feeling him grow between my thighs, I groan and grind against him. I want all of him right now, right here.
“I want you to fuck me,” I beg against his lips. “I want you to be my first.”
Right now, it is all that matters.
Feeling his naked skin against mine.
Feeling him touch me.
Feeling him push inside me.
But he pulls away. “You’re a virgin?”
He’s taken aback. I can hear it in his tone, and I wasn’t expecting it.
I don’t answer because I can already feel him receding like the tide. Instead, I try to kiss the hesitation from his lips. But he pulls away. “How old are you?”
“I’m twenty-five.”
His perfect eyebrow arches. “And you’re still a virgin?”
“I had a very over-protective father.”