Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 26859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 134(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 134(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
"But I also want to handle things for you."
“That goes both ways.”
"I'm not accustomed to living with someone."
“I get the feeling you’re a neat freak.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe? Right.” I laugh. “I’ll try to clean up after myself. I can be messy.”
“I don’t care.”
“You say that now, but-—” He kisses me, cutting me off.
“I don’t care,” he repeats.
“The garage, sir? Or do you want me to drop you at the front?”
“The garage.”
I peep out the window to see buildings all around us. Owen pulls into a parking garage below the building. The SUV comes to a stop in front of two sets of elevators. Luka doesn’t wait for Owen to open the door. He does it, offering me his hand.
“This is my elevator. It’s private.” He leads me to the left. A screen in the elevator door comes to life.
“Whoa, is it motion detected?” This is the most high-tech thing I’ve ever seen in real life. I mean it looks like it came straight out of one of those 007 flicks.
“No, facial recognition.”
“Like it scanned you when we walked up?” This really is spy stuff.
“It can scan for you too.” He grabs my wrist and lifts my hand to the screen. “Your full hand against the screen.” I do as he instructs. A red line outlines my hand before going solid. Then the elevator doors slide open.
“That’s so badass.” I hop onto the elevator. “What now, James Bond?”
“What happened to Patrick Bateman?”
“You prefer to be the psycho instead of the super-hot spy?” I tease.
“I wouldn't call myself a spy. But I’m glad you think I’m hot.”
“You're more badass. You make stuff the spy can use.”
“This is true.” He hits the top button. “There is actually something I wanted you to wear for me.” He reaches into his suit jacket pocket and pulls out a bracelet. It’s a small, solid band. Luka puts it around my wrist. It clicks into place. There are horses delicately engraved into it.
“It’s beautiful.” I let my fingers trace over it.
“I’m glad you like it. It requires me to unlock it, and it has a tracker on it.” My mouth falls open. I get the sense this might be for security or something. I haven’t missed the fact that Luka’s driver is always carrying a gun. He’s military-trained. I can see it in the way he moves. I’ve been around enough of them to know.
“Okay, I guess you are back to being Patrick Bateman.”
Most women would probably get freaked out by wearing a tracking device, but I have the complete opposite reaction. I want to wear it. It makes me feel closer to Luka.
Maybe I shouldn’t be teasing him so much about being psycho. It seems we may be two peas in a pod.
8
LUKA
June teases me but doesn’t ask for me to take the bracelet off. I know it might be psycho, but I don’t care. She’s not used to being in the city, and for the first time, I’m actually thinking about security. When they assigned Owen to me, I never fought it. He went above and beyond simply monitoring security at every location I visited. He would also carry sensitive things from one place to another if need be.
Now that I have June with me, it’s all I can think about. In this line of business, one can never be too careful. Her safety is top priority. I also know that with me having to work over the next few weeks, I can’t always have eyes on her. This will help give me the peace of mind I need.
The elevator doors slide open to reveal another set of doors. June bounces on her heels when she sees another screen light up. She rushes to put her hand on it. It’s adorable how excited she can get about things. It's refreshing, but so is everything about her. I love that she’s sort of naïve. It means the world hasn’t had a chance to harden her. I want to keep it that way as much as possible.
“This is so cool.” She rushes into our home for the next few weeks. I follow after her. June isn’t shy about letting you know she is checking out everything. “This place is—” She trails off. I glance around.
The space is massive, with a living room that opens to the kitchen and a dining room that I have never used. Everything, from the couches to the stone wall with a fireplace in it, is gray or black. I notice that there isn’t much to the space.
“Here.” I grab the tablet off the stone square coffee table. There are a lot of hard-fucking lines in here. Again, something I didn’t notice until June is standing here. She is the only thing to light up this place. “This controls most things.”
I show her the tablet, making the television drop down from the ceiling. I don’t think I’ve ever used the thing.