Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75770 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75770 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Her tone seems to exude sincerity, but I’m still flummoxed. Is she dangerous, as I previously thought? Or is she simply a lovesick schoolgirl worshiping a man from afar?
Or she could be both, I suppose. The look in her eyes when I first told her I’d fucked River made my blood run cold. Now, though? Misty just seems pathetic.
I actually do feel sorry for her.
“You truly don’t care if he fucks all of us?” I ask, keeping my voice steady.
She sighs. “I care, of course. But I can’t stop it. What I can do is spend time with River. Help him to get to know me. Make him fall in love with me.”
“Misty, you can’t force a person to fall in love with you. Are you in love with him?”
She doesn’t answer.
“Have you met him before now?” I badger.
Again, no answer.
I rise and let out a soft scoff. “I’ve truly had enough. I don’t believe you. I believe it eats at you that River might be fucking someone else. You made it clear as soon as you got here that River was off limits. Do you see how that looks? Rachel was on River’s radar the first night, and then, after you laid claim to him, Rachel had a mysterious accident.”
Misty gasps. “You don’t think—”
“How are any of us supposed to trust you, Misty?”
I can’t quite read the look on Misty’s face. It’s not rigid anger as it was when I first blurted out that River and I had fucked, for which I’m grateful.
She finally shakes her head. “You think I had something to do with Rachel getting hurt?”
I draw in a breath. I may as well be honest with the woman. I don’t believe in treating anyone with kid gloves. Though I felt a bit threatened a moment ago, I never walk away from a fight. “It’s not just me, Misty. It’s the others as well. We’ve all considered that you may have been involved with what happened to Rachel. River took an interest in her the first night, and the next day, she’s gone. How can you blame us for putting two and two together?”
Misty rises and rushes toward me. I stand my ground, and she stops before she comes close enough to touch me.
“Please, Emily,” she says. “You have to believe me. I had nothing to do with Rachel’s accident. Or with her and Ginger leaving. Or with Sienna leaving. I had nothing to do with any of it!”
I cock my head. Why would she mention Ginger and Sienna? Those two weren’t on River’s radar, at least as far as I know. “Why should I believe you?” I ask. “Why should any of us believe you?”
Misty goes rigid again, but she doesn’t close the distance between us.
My palms go sweaty. “Are you going to answer me?”
She turns and walks back to the davenport.
I don’t think she’s going to get violent, but everything else seems to be on the table. She could yell at me. She could burst into tears. She could go to her closet in the bedroom and tear into that gorgeous red Herrera sheath.
I have no idea what to expect.
I turn to leave the room, but then Misty makes her decision.
She chooses tears.
I turn back, and her head is buried in her hands.
I go to her as if she were Ariel or one of my models, a friend who needs a shoulder. I can never resist a younger woman who brings out the maternal instinct in me.
“What is it?” I ask gently. “We talked earlier about you maybe needing a friend. How can I help?”
“You’re not my friend,” she says.
“Maybe I could be.”
She lifts her head, and her cheeks are streaked with tears. “I…I can’t escape it. No matter what I do… Whoever I love, whoever I get close to… Somehow they always get hurt, Emily.”
Her words themselves move me, but her tone?
It sends a cold shiver down my spine.
EPISODE 89
GREAT BALLS OF FIRE
River
Heather pauses a moment, biting her lip, after I ask her to join me in the shower.
I raise my eyebrows. “Something the matter?”
“No. I’m just…”
I trail a finger over her smooth cheek. “You just said you hadn’t gotten to know me yet.”
She chuckles. “I did say that.”
“No better way to get to know a person than to take a shower with him.”
“You know what?” She gives me a seductive smile. “Let’s do it.”
I nod toward the locker room where the showers are. “Here?”
“Why not?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of my suite.” I grab her hand.
She wrinkles her forehead, and for a moment, I think she’s going to back out.
For a moment, I want her to back out. Which makes no sense, of course. I’m wildly attracted to her, and the whole shower thing was my idea in the first place.
But she widens her smile. “Sounds perfect.”