Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 108119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Alice stilled next to me when Rico disappeared behind the bar and then returned with what could only be described as the oldest tarantula in existence.
When I held it in one hand, its legs almost draped over the edges of my fingertips. She was mostly gray and black with a few bits of red fur.
Alice smiled down at him and held out her hand.
“Keep it flat,” I instructed.
“Okay.”
Was she really excited? About holding a tarantula? It was against humanity to like spiders, right? Didn’t women run away screaming when they saw spiders? Snakes? Mice?
She looked ready to kiss him.
I growled low in my throat, suddenly aware that I was making Mary anxious as she lifted a leg toward me, then another.
I refused to apologize to a thing.
So, I stared her down and waited for the transfer.
Rico held her out and she crawled slowly onto Alice’s hands, she had both out since Mary was so big.
I heard hollering from the guys, and the girls all looked ready to pull out their guns and shoot the poor spider.
“She’s beautiful,” Alice said reverently.
I stared at her, really stared at her. “You’re surprising in more ways than one, dorogaya” I itched to touch her neck, to smell her skin, to climb inside her head and ask her why she was so intrigued by something so simple, by something that most people would say was evil.
She held Mary closer to her face. “Look at those eyes.”
I wasn’t looking at Mary at all.
And I would bet that the entire establishment agreed with my assessment of Alice’s eyes.
Stunning.
Like cut ice.
Perfect in every way.
I jerked my attention away from her face and down to Mary. “She’s very old.”
“I like her,” Alice said in a soothing voice. “You probably think it’s strange, but I’ve always liked things I don’t understand. Things that people cross out as evil or scary are just misunderstood, don’t you think?”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
The spider slowly started crawling up her arm.
Mary never crawled up anyone.
She kept moving until she rested on Alice’s shoulder like a fucking parrot, and then she seemed to just… relax against her skin.
The hell?
I eyed Rico.
He just shrugged. “Animals are good judges of character.”
“It’s a spider,” I pointed out.
“Actually, tarantulas are considered part of the crab family,” Alice piped up and held out her finger to Mary, who proceeded to lift her leg and touch her finger like they were high fiving.
That was when I noticed every one of the guys was watching in stunned silence while the girls held up their phones taking pictures and videos.
Somehow, she’d earned their respect through a tarantula.
Somehow, she’d distracted them from the obvious.
And she’d done it by showing love and affection to something most people would shoot first and ask questions of later.
Too close to home.
My stomach clenched.
This woman, this girl, was doing things without realizing it, making me feel when I didn’t want to.
I wanted the pain.
And then the numbness.
But she kept pulling off the bandages and poking at the scars.
One day, I feared I’d get up and explode every fucking one and fall to my knees in hopes she’d accept them.
It couldn’t happen.
Not now. Not ever.
Submit to no one.
Submit to no one.
No. One.
“All right, you’ve proved your point,” I said in an aggravated voice “Rico, take Mary?”
Alice was too close.
I was seconds from reaching for her.
From doing something that I couldn’t come back from.
It would alter me.
I wanted nothing to do with it.
The minute the spider was out of reach, I grabbed Alice by the arm and led her away from the guys.
“Another round,” I called to Rico, “Let them know I’ll be right back.”
“You got it.”
“Andrei?” Alice’s voice was sweet. She wasn’t even worried that I was dragging her half across the club by her arm. “Are you okay?”
“Am I okay?” I laughed without a hint of humor “Are you?”
“Yes?”
I pushed her against the dark corridor that she had walked through. “Who did you wear this dress for?”
She reared back. “Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes searched mine. “I thought… I don’t know, I wanted to look nice, and then I thought you might like it.”
“You thought…” I chuckled darkly. “That I might like it?”
She gulped. “Yes.”
I gripped the fabric at her thighs and slowly pulled it up. “And what did you imagine would happen if I liked it too much?” My hand stilled.
She sucked in a breath her eyes panicked. “I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.” I pressed my body against her, my hand still on the bottom of her dress. “Did you think I’d fall to my knees? Or maybe that I’d strip you out of it later, lick my way down your body, give you multiple orgasms until we’re both exhausted?”
She shook her head. “No, that’s not—”
“Drive me crazy on purpose, and I may just take you up on that offer. Then again, I figure you’re not the sort of girl to dress for a man she doesn’t like. So why did you wear the dress?”