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)
“Why does it matter?”
“It matters.” I needed to know she wasn’t thinking about seducing me. I needed to know she was different. I needed to know it wasn’t about me.
“I wanted,” she said in a thick voice, “to make you proud.”
I jerked away from her. “What?”
She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “You heard me.”
“You don’t need my praise.”
“And yet I wanted it.”
“Why?”
“Because sometimes girls like to be told they’re pretty, and because I knew you called in a favor to get everyone here so I wouldn’t feel trapped. I wore this dress because I thought it would complement what you were wearing, and I wanted you to be proud,” Her eyes lit up with tears. “Proud of your whore.”
“Damn it, Alice!” I roared slamming my hands on either side of her head as she squeezed her eyes shut. “You’re not my whore!”
“But—”
My mouth crashed down across hers so fiercely I almost lost my footing. As she wrapped her arms around my neck, I slid her body against the wall, shoving her skirt up past her thighs, then pulling her legs around me as I gripped her ass, deepening the kiss.
She moaned my name.
I was not myself.
I was undone.
Out of control.
Crazed, as her nails dug into the back of my shirt and tried to pull it over my body. I rocked my hips against her core, she was hot everywhere, molten lava, ready for me, ready for this.
It was unnaturally right, the attraction I had for her, the way her body molded against mine like our souls had been separated and only just found each other again.
I angled my head to the left, deepening the kiss, my tongue pressed against hers, dominating and submitting all at once, her hands moved to my hair tugging on it, mussing it as I turned us around and shoved her against the opposite wall her hands moved down my chest pulling my shirt open as her fingertips touched my chest.
A throat cleared.
I was going to kill whoever that throat belonged to.
Slowly I pulled back and looked to my left. “What?”
It was Phoenix. He had a knowing look on his face. “Oh, I was just looking for the bathroom.”
My nostrils flared.
He didn’t smile.
What? He went from my mentor to my babysitter.
“Wrong hallway,” I snapped.
“Oh, I wouldn’t go that far.” He sighed.
Slowly I released Alice. As she slid down the wall, her face ducked into my shoulder, I held her there. “Phoenix…”
“The guys want to talk about the De Lange girl that was brought in… they won’t let it go, so I figured you’d want to know that information… hmm?”
“Yes,” I rasped, then fully released Alice and ran my hands through my hair, my chest still heaving. “Fine.”
“Go ahead.” Phoenix said with deathly calm. “I want to talk to Alice for a minute.”
I knew she was safe with him.
I didn’t want to leave.
“Andrei, I rarely use any sort of authority with you because I consider you a friend. Right now, I need you to go sit with the guys and talk.”
“Kill her, and I come after your entire family.”
“I know,” Phoenix said seriously.
I shared a look with Alice, nodded, and walked off.
The only thing I heard was Phoenix’s first sentence. “He will be the death of you.”
I wished I could say that he was wrong.
He wasn’t.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Phoenix
“I’m not going to kill you.” I said it softly even though it didn’t look like she believed me. She was plastered against the wall; her lipstick smudged her pride probably a bit bruised. “I am, however, going to help you.”
That got her attention. “What?”
“You know who I am?” I crossed my arms and leaned on the opposite wall.
She swallowed. “Yes.”
“You know there isn’t anything that happens in this godforsaken world without my permission? Without my knowledge?”
She lowered her head. “Yes.”
“You know I’ll snap your neck before letting you hurt him?”
Her head jerked up. “Me hurt him?”
“Ah you thought I was here to talk about your real last name. No, Alice, I’m not here to discuss you, I’m here to discuss him.”
“But—” She held out her hands in front of her like she was trying to use the air to brace herself. “I don’t understand?”
“He’s…” I searched for the right word. “Unfeeling.”
“What?”
“When you touch him, it hurts.”
“I know.”
“No,” I said through clenched teeth. “You couldn’t possibly know the pain associated with human touch for Andrei or the sacrifice he makes when he holds your hand or kisses your body. He’s at war with himself because for the first time in his life he wants something, but he doesn’t know how to do anything except… hurt.”
Her face fell. “You’re saying he’ll hurt me.”
“I’m saying he has twenty-two years of pent-up rage and sexual aggression; I’m saying if you want him, want whatever this is between you two, you go all the way. You half ass it and he will murder you and sleep in your blood. And the man who still finds a way to smile even when he has no reason to will be gone, and I’ll blame you. We will all blame you for taking the last part of his soul with you because you couldn’t seem to control yourself around a man with his looks, his power.”