Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 57943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
I took this moment to study his tattoo some more. The angel’s face haunted me. There was so much detail in her teary eyes. I could see the pain on her face. It was incredibly intense to look at. I was a little caught off guard last night when he skated around the story of the tattoo. And even though I guarded my secrets fiercely, it had still stung when he’d held on to that one.
Disappointment coursed through my veins.
Why didn’t I just tell him last night?
I just had to say the words ‘I was abducted and escaped.’ That simple. But it wasn’t that easy. When I tried to summon the courage to tell him, my words held fast on my stubborn tongue. We’d only known each other less than a week. I couldn’t even tell my own mother.
How am I supposed to tell someone I only met recently?
This crushed me that my secret was trying to interfere with this beautiful, perfect thing that was Cale and me. He was a prayer answered for me. But now, I was in fear of jeopardizing what we had because I couldn’t open my freaking mouth and spit it out. Huffing in annoyance with myself, I crawled out of bed and headed for the shower to get ready for work.
After quietly getting ready, not wanting to wake Cale, I slipped out of the bathroom and headed towards the living room to retrieve my purse and keys. Pops would be able to sense the distress in my life once I got to work. I really needed to figure out how I was going to break to him all that had happened with Sam. It would have been nice to just avoid it altogether, but I was sure Deion had filled Anj in on the fire and its starter. And Anj had a really big mouth.
As I started to walk out the door, hands snaked around my waist, causing me to shriek in surprise. “Jesus, Lia, it’s just me,” Cale exclaimed.
Turning around to look at him, I noticed that he looked sexy as hell with his dark hair sticking up all over the place, standing there in just a low-slung pair of jeans. He was so damn easy on the eyes. I caught myself staring at that perfectly molded chest of his. Again.
Finally raising my eyes to his, I met his hard blue ones and he had one eyebrow cocked mischievously.
“Like what you see?” he asked with a grin.
My cheeks involuntarily turned pink because I, in fact, did like what I saw. “Put on a shirt, ass,” I teased back at him.
Pulling me in for a hug, he asked, “And where are you running off to this morning?”
“I have to work, Cale. When creepy stalkers try to ruin your life, work doesn’t take a day off.”
He kissed my forehead. “I’m taking you,” he declared, walking towards the bedroom. “Give me five minutes to get ready.”
“No. I’m a big girl. I have my mace,” I called out to him, jingling my keys for effect since he was already in the other room.
“Lia, I’m taking you. End of discussion.”
“Cale, Sam said he’d see me Friday. I figure I can take a breather for the next few days and resume normal life.” I was beginning to become exasperated with his caveman insinuations.
I heard a drawer slam shut before Cale stalked back into the room looking very pissed off, which had me involuntarily shrinking back.
His face softened when he saw the reaction he’d caused, but his jaw was clenching, which meant he was still upset. “I’m taking you because I care about your safety. I don’t believe that asshole for a second. He’s a psychopath. There is no way in hell I’ll trust a word he ever says. For all we know, he could be waiting for you to drop your guard, and God only knows what he would do to you,” he growled. His anger at that notion was directed toward Sam and not me but I still shivered from the tone.
“Okay,” I finally conceded with a sigh, knowing he was right. “But we’re getting donuts on the way.” I’d hoped my sassy comment would lighten the mood.
“Got it, babe,” he chuckled with a wink before running off to brush his teeth.
I smiled as I watched him hurry away with the excitement of a little boy—such a contrast to the protective, beastlike behavior only moments ago.
AFTER DROPPING LIA off at work, I decided to swing by the office and check on the progress of my spec homes. Sitting at my desk, I thought about how the thing we had going between us could quickly go to shit if I let Sam ruin it for us. We were being robbed of a normal courtship because we were too busy putting out Sam’s fires—literally.