Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“It was quick.”
Her eyes searched mine, like she wanted more. “You didn’t have to do that—”
“Yes, I did.” I wanted to kill their wives too, break open their skulls while their husbands watched. But that was too barbaric—even for me. And that wasn’t justice either. That was just psychotic revenge.
“It doesn’t change what happened—”
“They deserved what they got. All I should be hearing from you is thank you.”
“I am grateful, but…did they have families?” She searched my gaze for the answer.
I never lied, but I knew the truth would do more harm than good. “I didn’t ask. Even if they did, it wouldn’t have changed anything.” And it didn’t change anything.
Her eyes dropped down to her wineglass, but she didn’t take a drink.
Her father was powerful like I was. He could have handled this a long time ago. The fact that he didn’t, the fact that he didn’t care that his son-in-law beat his daughter, that he let his wife be raped and murdered, told me exactly how he felt toward women in general. They were the lesser sex. They were unimportant. Nothing more than cattle.
“What exactly happened with Lucas?”
“I stabbed him. Close enough to his lung to know I meant business, but far enough away that he could still breathe. I would have killed him, but I knew you wouldn’t have wanted that.”
“I don’t know…after seeing my sister’s black eye, I might kill him myself.”
So, she showed mercy toward the men who wronged her…but felt none toward men who hurt people she loved. Good thing she had me to care about her since no one else seemed to. “I can finish the job if you want.”
“No…my sister would just hate me. She probably already does, actually.”
I’d just made a mess of her life, but I still didn’t regret getting involved. If Lucas thought he could give Laura a black eye like he did her sister, he was about to lose more than his lungs.
“Fuck…I don’t know what to do.”
“About?”
“This whole mess with my father.”
“I told you I can handle it.” We were going to come face-to-face eventually. I didn’t want to pull the trigger too soon when I had a much bigger plan for that asshole, but I wouldn’t shy away from a fight either.
“I don’t want these two parts of my life to mix. They need to stay separate—exactly as they belong.” She held up both of her hands in opposite directions, like she was the one in the middle of the chaos. “I’ll have to talk to him.” She lowered her hands and grabbed her glass of wine.
“I’m not sorry for what I did, but I’m sorry if I made your life complicated.”
She took a drink as she stared at me, her little throat shifting as she swallowed. When the glass was returned to the table, she licked her lips absent-mindedly, like she had no idea how every little thing she did turned me on. “I know, Bartholomew.”
When we returned to the house, the maid had tidied up the bedroom, had completed her turn-down service with the sheets pulled back, the lights dimmed, a glass of water on each nightstand.
She took a seat on the couch and slipped off her heels. “It’s like living in a hotel.”
I undressed, leaving my boots in the closet and returning my knife to the drawer.
“Your place in Paris must really be something.”
Places. I came back into the bedroom in my boxers, seeing her in just her lacy white bra and matching underwear. Black had always been my favorite color, but she made me second-guess that. It was beautiful against her olive skin, her midnight-dark hair, the deep color of her lips.
Her gaze caught mine, and she must have understood the meaning in my look because her eyes turned guarded, like they always did when she was nervous around me. She used to be so confident, pushing me back and straddling my hips, but now her breaths quickened and she looked uncomfortable in her own skin. It was sudden, starting once we’d come to Florence, a new behavior she’d never shown before.
I liked it.
I moved into her, my arms circling around her small frame, engulfed in the smell of roses. With my eyes locked to hers, I watched her swallow, watched her eyes drop momentarily because the stare was too much.
My hand slid up the back of her neck and into her thick hair, pulling it from her face slightly as I forced her eyes on me. My thumb supported her chin, just an inch from those beautiful lips. “You’re afraid of me.”
With nowhere to go, she shifted her eyes back and forth between mine, her breaths noticeable against my palm at her back. The silence stretched for eternity, her frame stiff in my embrace. “In so many words…”
Good. “I’m a dangerous man, but I’m no danger to you.”