Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76390 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76390 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
A boisterous family was heading her way and she stepped aside to let them pass. When they did, she saw pandas printed on the backs of their shirts.
Paling, Daria hurried her steps, feeling like all the pandas were after her.
Just a few feet more, she thought, and she would be in the safety of her room. In her haste, Daria missed seeing the bottle right in front of her. She took one step and almost ended up rolling several feet away. She screamed as she fell, all the while thinking, A bottle? Really, God, a bottle? Just so we can come full circle, you want me to die because of a bottle?
But before her head could hit the sand, someone caught her from behind. The feel of those arms holding her, the heat of his presence, she knew exactly who he was even without seeing him.
He stood there, vibrantly beautiful, powerfully strong, just like how she had seen him the first time. Only now, he wasn’t bare-chested. He had a beige chambray shirt and white pants. He looked like a walking advert for Speedo meets Armani, so perfectly put together it just made her more conscious of how plain she looked. Uncombed hair up in a loose twist, dark circles under her eyes because she never put on make up these days, and a badly crumpled boyfriend shirt that screamed the fact that it was the same thing she had worn to bed last night.
All these thoughts about him and her flashed in her mind in a couple of seconds, and they all made her want to run away.
But what was the point, Daria thought painfully. She had a feeling he would find her. That if he really wanted to, he could and would find her. Like Liam Neeson. She would have laughed at her private joke if she weren’t afraid she wouldn’t be able to stop laughing. Nik Alexandropoulos had 55 billion worth of skills, and he could employ them to find whoever he wanted.
Only...with Daria, Nik wasn’t looking for her because he loved her and wanted to save her.
It was never that.
It would never be like that with Nik.
And she had all four months to accept that.
Chapter Four
Daria wasn’t talking. The moment she regained her balance, she stepped back and looked at him, her beautiful face unusually devoid of expression except for a hint of fear in her stormy gray eyes.
His fists clenched against his sides. She was scared of him. She was scared he would hurt her again.
“I had a feeling you’d look for me.” It took him a moment to realize Daria was the one speaking. The huskiness of her voice was gone, replaced by something thin, high, and...broken.
“But I tried my best to be careful.” She spoke to him with her gaze centered somewhere in his chest. “So...where did I go wrong?”
She looked so damn high-strung, he was torn between giving her more space and pulling her into his arms to tell her he was never going to hurt her again. “You did everything right.” His voice was uneven. “None of my investigators found you, but I knew you wouldn’t be able to stop drawing.” At her frown, he explained slowly, “I’m Bella.”
She jerked at the name.
“I used a friend’s photo, but the whole time, it was me. Just me. The only time the investigators were involved was when I needed to give them your IP address so I could find you.”
“And so now you found me.” Her voice was toneless. She looked up at him then. He expected her to ask why. He was ready to tell her. But instead she said one thing he had never imagined she would say.
“Please.” Her whisper was painful to hear, but despite the noise of the crowd around them, he heard her, and the word sliced him open. So much damn pain, so much fear in that single word, and Nik knew he was the reason for it.
“Please.” She remembered the last time they had been together – of Nik throwing her out even though he knew she had only been pretending to leave.
Her voice caught. “Please, could you just please...forgive me? How long are you going to make me pay?”
Nik’s face became ashen as he realized what she was saying. “Daria.” His voice was hoarse. “Daria, I—-” But he couldn’t continue. How could he keep speaking when each word he uttered seem to hurt her more?
“I’m just so tired,” she said dully. “I know I lied, but I’m so tired of paying—-”
“I’m not here to make you pay.” Unable to keep himself apart from Daria any longer, Nik reached for her, and the way she flinched sliced a deeper wound inside him because he knew he deserved it. “Listen to me,” he said rawly. “I know the truth now, everything—-”