Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 120165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
I didn’t need anyone to care about me. I certainly didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for me. But the way she looked at me went straight to my soul. It wrapped around the icy cogs that were me and snarled and tangled them.
Bronwyn looked right at me and grinned, and I felt that lift in my chest that was becoming addictive. I’d made her happy, with something as simple as money.
This is dangerous, a little voice inside me warned. But I couldn’t bring myself to walk out.
Bronwyn gave me an expectant little smile. I glanced around the room and found everyone looking up at me.
They wanted me to sit on the floor, like a child. Me!
Very slowly, I sank down, awkwardly crossing my legs until I was sitting on the floor for the first time since school. I scowled. But then Bronwyn smiled at me and it was worth it.
I’d presumed that I was going to spend the time just staring at that gorgeous, curvy body. I wanted to trail kisses down her neck to her bare shoulders. I wanted to fill my hands with those gloriously full, soft breasts, the cardboard seashells sliding over my knuckles as I pinched her nipples and made her arch and beg in my lap.
But as soon as the story began, I was transfixed. She had such a passion for it, bringing the characters to life with different voices. In the dramatic scenes she amped up the tension until the kids were hanging on her every word. In the comedy scenes, she flung her arms around, not afraid to act goofy, and the whole room cracked up. She made sure all the kids got involved, even the nervous ones who needed coaxing. She’d make a good mother.
I frowned. I’d never thought that about a woman before. It just wasn’t something I considered, when I was having a one-night stand with one of the Russian women who hung around the Bratva.
Like the children, I didn’t want the story to end. When it finally did, I applauded along with them and then waited while they slowly filed out. Bronwyn’s friend was the last person to go, and the two of them had a muttered conversation as they hugged goodbye, presumably along the lines of are you sure you’re okay with him?
Bronwyn looked at me and nodded.
Her friend gave me a warning look, then left. And then it was just the two of us.
7
BRONWYN
I shuffled over to the door, my heartbeat quickening. The swish of the mermaid tail was the only sound in the room.
I flipped the sign on the door to Closed and shot the bolt.
I could see his reflection in the glass, a wide-shouldered, shadowy form behind me. What are you doing, Bronny? He’s a freakin’ criminal! It took me three tries to get the key in the lock, my hands were shaking so hard.
I turned around and led the way to the back room. He followed behind and his presence, so close, made me skittish and giddy, each heavy footfall behind me notching my heart rate higher.
In the back room, I rooted in a drawer. “I’m pretty sure I’ve got…” I tried another drawer. “Got it.” I pulled out a bottle of Scotch with only two fingers gone. “I drank a toast with my grandmother when I opened this place. Seems appropriate to get it out again, now that you’ve saved it.” I couldn’t find any glasses, so I grabbed my Throne of Night mug and one slightly chipped one that said I’ll Deal With It After This Chapter. As I put everything on the table, a cold draft from the front of the store hit me. It was late, the heating had been off for a while, and I was still only wearing a couple of cardboard seashells on my top half. I shivered.
He slipped off his jacket and pulled it around my shoulders. It was deliciously warm from his body, with a silky lining that felt amazing next to my bare skin, and it smelled of his cologne, that magical, dark citrus scent. He fussed with it, pulling the lapels so it covered my front. “Better?”
I nodded mutely, warmth blooming in my chest. It was such a small gesture, compared to buying the building but it was so...caring. And sort of old-fashioned, too. Maybe it was because he was Russian, maybe it was because he was a little older than me, but there was something gentlemanly about Radimir. He made the guys that Jen had tried to set me up with feel like boys. And they always wanted to be non-exclusive. I couldn’t imagine Radimir sharing me with anyone.
I pulled out one of the chairs at the tiny table where I ate my lunch. He glanced towards the door as if having second thoughts. Then he looked at me, his eyes burning...and sat.