Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91361 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91361 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
It was too much, too fast, too soon, and I expired. His hands on my aching flesh left me breathless.
I meant it literally. I literally could not breathe.
Panic set in, and my fingers dug into his shoulders. “Stop.” The word burst out of me.
Kellion immediately froze. I had never known a drunk like him existed – someone so sensible and yet so different at the same time. His eyes were wild with desire, but there was also a glimmer of concern. The same worry underlined his tone as he asked, “What’s wrong?”
I couldn’t answer, too busy self-curing my oxygen-deprived state.
His eyes cleared, a boyish smile appearing on his lips. “My kiss made you breathless?”
Even as I wheezed, I couldn’t help making a face at him. Do you have to sound so pleased?
“Sorry.” But even as he apologized, his smile had widened even more.
I rolled my eyes, but the way he was looking at me, the way he was smiling at me, made it so hard to remember why I was even annoyed in the first place.
He traced my lips, his touch tender and careful, like I was something precious. Without thinking, I whispered, “Why?” Because he still hadn’t answered my question, not the way I needed him to. “Why did you suddenly...stop?”
Kellion’s green eyes darkened.
When he answered in Greek, I shook my head, unable to understand a word he was saying.
His gaze moved towards the bedside table, and I realized he was looking at his phone. Taking it, I saw that the screen was left open on a message – one sent the day we had gone to Disneyland. The day I saw him last.
The message on his phone was also written in Greek, but I recognized the name of the sender. Carina Argyros. It was his mother.
Over my head, Kellion said in a voice thick with bitterness, “She said there...she forgot to tell me – her son...” Kellion spat the last words out. “– that she was pregnant. She was already five months pregnant and she only remembered to tell me when a reporter asked her how I felt about it.”
Kellion looked at me, his eyes dull with pain. “What do I have to do to make them see me? They only remember me when I do something...cool. Nobody sees me. Me. Kellion. Not the biker. Not the senator’s son, not the heir to a billion-dollar fortune.”
His voice turned savage. “Why can no one see me?”
It was as if I was hearing Ashton speak if he had just been a little older, just been a little more coherent.
“My whole life...they never remember.” Memories of Kellion’s past made his accent thick, his English broken. “They never cared if I was sick. When I fought for my life in the hospital because of pneumonia, they never came inside my room. They look at me, they think I’m a good son, but they don’t...” Kellion’s eyes closed.
So much time had passed that just when I started to think he wouldn’t speak anymore, he whispered, “That’s why I left. If you hated me, at least you would always see me.”
Chapter Eight
Dear Ashton,
Do you remember when you were two and we were trying to make ice cream and desserts with clay and you thought they were real? You cried so much because I didn’t allow you to eat them. I ended up taking a small bite and pretending to die so you’d know it was bad.
I just wanted you to know I remember that. I remember everything about you, kiddo. Everything.
Love, Your Big Sis
KELLION
THE NOISE COMING FROM the private kitchen for the club’s officers was not unusual. What was unexpected was how everyone became quiet when he joined them.
Since his hangover was still fucking with his mind and last night was a complete blank, Kellion didn’t bother to mince words. Taking his customary seat at the President’s right, he asked right away, “Did I do anything last night to apologize for?”
MJ gasped.
Kellion flinched. “That bad?”
Before MJ could answer, Helios said in a flat voice, “It is not to us you should apologize.” In the periphery of his eye, he saw his wife’s head swing towards him, and his lips compressed. It was all he could do not to smile, but he was determined to see this through. Kellion had enjoyed a good deal of amusement at his expense during the times things were more than rocky between him and his woman.
Now, it was payback time.
Helios’ answer had him frowning. It was not the President’s style to be vague unless...
Kellion swallowed before forcing himself to look at Hallie.
Hallie shook her head quickly.
“If you had, don’t you think I would have killed you by now?” Andreus Economou, seated next to Kellion, muttered under his breath.
“I believe that should be my line,” Yuri, the club’s Secretary, said gently, his words making both his sister and the Treasurer flush.