Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
"Ely, give me your phone,” there's a bite in my tone as my patience fizzles away. “Please?” I add, trying to abate some of my anger.
Angrily she reaches into the little purse near her hip, retrieves the phone, and practically throws it in my direction. I catch it before it can smash into the side of my head and bite my tongue. I don’t want to fight with her, not unless it leads to sex.
Wrangling my emotions together I quickly shoot a text to Drew telling him they can go back to his place instead of returning to the mansion. Elyse and I need some time alone with one another. I slide the device back into her still open bag, then unbuckle her belt.
“What are you doing?” She grumbles as I drag her across her seat and onto my lap.
“Whatever I want.” I reply cockily.
She attempts to resist but soon relaxes, resting against my chest. “Sometimes you make me really mad.”
“I could say the same thing about you babe.”
She shivers in my arms and pulls away slightly to look into my eyes, "I just don't like the secrets…they keep coming back to haunt me."
I know she's not talking about her father now. "I understand that, but you have to accept there are some things you’d be better off knowing nothing about. Things you just won’t ever know because the potential impact it would have on you outweighs the good of telling you.”
She frowns, and I doubt she realizes how innocent and sweet she looks at this very moment. "But I want to know everything."
All I can do is sigh. She has no idea what she's asking. "No, you don't, Little Prey, but maybe someday in the future you'll prove me wrong. That day is not today. We need to go slow, we need to learn what we can handle from each other, and then move forward. We aren't going from you hating me to expecting me to spill all my secrets to you in the next minute."
She rests her head back against my chest, and I let her intoxicating scent filter into my nostrils while I stroke her hair gently.
"That makes sense but I don’t want to feel this way forever, like you get to know everything and I’m kept in the dark. I want to be your equal Sebastian.”
“You are my equal, you’re my everything, but I won’t risk your safety, or well being. Until I’m certain you can handle what I’m telling you both physically and mentally you will be kept in the dark on certain things, but I promise it won’t be that way forever.”
She doesn’t respond, but I know she understands. I can sense it in the way she allows me to hold her, from her relaxed state of mind. The driver stops outside the house, and I open the door and shift her body into my arms, so I can carry her inside. When she makes no show of putting up a fight I let my guard down and relax further.
I wish every moment could be like this between us.
The silence of the house greets us when I walk in and I waste no time getting upstairs and into the bedroom. When I reach the bed I gently place her on the edge of it, and like a toddler who is done playing dress up, she turns and kicks her heels off with a satisfied sigh. I smile while stripping off my jacket, then I lower myself to the floor beside the bed and take her foot into my hand, messaging the soles of her feet.
She gives me an approving groan while wiggling her toes.
"I know you think I want to keep you in the dark but I don’t. I want you to know everything. I don’t want there to be a single thing between us that the other doesn’t know about. You already know I killed my grandfather. That's not a secret anymore, nor is it a secret I did it because of you. I couldn't stand the idea that he bought a person, but it wasn't until the deed was done I realized he'd technically saved you from your own father. That doesn’t make him innocent, though. Saving you from your father put you in the hands of worse evil and I couldn’t stand by and watch him destroy you.”
She shudders, and I can't tell if it's from my words or my hands massaging the arch of her foot.
So I continue. "My grandfather spent years grooming me, breaking me down, just so he could build me back up. I know it’s hard to understand, and even see but I swear on my life I know the type of person he was, and the things he would’ve done to you. He easily would’ve made living with your father look like a fantasy world, and when he was finished with you, when you had outlived your purpose, he would’ve killed you and thought nothing of it because in his mind you were expendable.”