Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 122550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
“Regent! It is completely different. Clive is a living, breathing creature. A toilet is just a toilet.”
“Right. My apologies. And your problem is that you can’t get rid of Clive?”
“Well, no. Because I’m scared that if I try, he will land in my hair.” She shuddered. “I can’t even open this door anymore. I had to buy a new set of toiletries and now I use the other upstairs bathroom.”
“All right, so we need to get rid of Clive. Why don’t you wait in the bedroom?”
How long had it been since he’d gotten rid of a spider? He had to shake his head at himself.
“Wait!” she cried as he moved forward.
“What?”
“You won’t hurt him, will you?”
He turned back to find her chewing at her lower lip, looking worried. “What?”
“You won’t hurt Clive, right?”
“You don’t want me to hurt him,” he said slowly, wondering if he was understanding her correctly. “Just get rid of him.”
“Exactly. Could you just, maybe, relocate him? I mean, it’s not Clive’s fault. He’s just living his best spider life, you know? It’s just his bad luck that he chose my bathroom. Someone else could probably just carry on their business without worrying about him.”
“You think other people would leave him there?”
“Um. No. I guess not. But I don’t like to think about what would happen to him if he was somewhere else. It makes me sad. I mean, I want him gone, but I don’t want him dead. I’m not a monster.”
“Because only a monster would kill a spider?” he drawled. What would she think of him if she knew everything he’d done?
Regent didn’t regret any of it. Regrets were would be pointless.
He wasn’t a good person. There was no fooling anyone about that. He’d killed people. He was involved in a number of illegal activities.
But he didn’t kill innocents.
And he protected his family with everything he had.
That had to count for something, right?
However, for a woman who wouldn’t kill a spider, he wasn’t so sure that it did.
“You’re sure I can’t just kill it.”
“Yes, I’m sure. I really can’t believe you’d consider killing Clive!”
Dear Lord.
“Fine. I’ll relocate it . . . him. Have you got a container I can put it in?”
She nodded and rushed away. Regent turned to look up at Clive. “Well, Clive, are you planning on going easily or making this hard?”
Yeah. He got the feeling that Clive was going to make this as hard as he could.
She winced as she heard a crash.
Uh-oh.
Seemed that Clive didn’t appreciate being evicted.
What was she thinking, asking Regent Malone to get rid of a spider? And not only that . . . she’d asked him to relocate Clive because she didn’t want him harmed.
It was a wonder he hadn’t just walked out on her.
Or laughed in her face.
Another bang. A curse.
She winced.
Yeah, she should have let Clive stay. How long did a spider even live for? She could have put up with him.
It was just the idea of him moving in the middle of the night and setting up a spider nest in her hair . . .
Oh God.
She was going to be ill.
The door suddenly banged open and she jumped, looking at the container in Regent’s hands.
“Is that Clive? Did you get him? Is he all right?”
“Jilly,” he said in a low, dark voice.
Uh-oh.
“Um, yes?” She glanced up at him, swallowing heavily. He didn’t look happy. And had that red mark on his forehead been there before?
“The spider is fine. It’s a spider. But we’re never going to talk about this again, understand?”
“Yes, sir.” She mimed zipping her lips and throwing away the key.
After setting the container down, he moved toward her, crowding her up against the bed. But she didn’t feel alarmed this time.
Nope. She felt a lot of feelings . . . but none of them were fear.
Most of them were centered around thinking about how fucking hot he looked when he was mad. She wondered what it would be like if he just threw her on the bed right now and made angry love to her.
Pretty fucking hot, she was guessing. He might even rip her clothes off and spank her ass.
Bad Jilly.
Concentrate.
“Jilly. Are you paying attention to me?”
Oh shit.
Had he been speaking to her?
Oops.
“Where did you go just now?” he asked.
“Um.”
He eyed her for a long moment, then shook his head. She braced herself for his disappointment. Jilly had received a lot of disappointment from people over the years.
No one understood why she lived so much in her head.
Then again, no one had lived the life she had. Grown up with her father.
If they had, they might take refuge in books and daydreams.
Sometimes escapism was the only thing that kept her sane.
“I’m sorry, I was thinking.”
“About?”
Well, she could hardly tell him that she was wondering how hot angry-sex would be with him.