Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 102942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
“Why don’t you sit on my face and tell me how much you hate me then?”
Fuuuuuuuuck. He boils my blood like no other. How is he even capable of this? But also . . . I don’t hate the idea.
I lunge for him again, my movements just as sloppy, and as he swats me away, my IV line gets tangled between us, almost tearing out of my wrist, and as I hiss in pain, a sharp gasp sounds from behind us.
My body freezes, and I look back to find Katie hovering between my and Raiden’s beds, a disapproving look on her face. “I thought I told you not to get up.”
I offer her a guilty smile, one I know can’t be resisted. “I found my husband.”
At the sound of the word husband, Raiden’s hand tightens on my ass, but Katie doesn’t miss a thing. She points at my bed like my very own season-one Dr. Miranda Bailey. “Bed. Now.”
I cringe, and Raiden grips my hip, all but lifting me off him and steadying me on the ground when I attempt to move. “You’ll have to forgive us,” he says, offering one of those irresistible, cocky smiles to Katie. “Newlyweds. You know how it is. Can’t keep our hands off each other.”
She doesn’t look impressed, and Raiden falters for just a second, knocking the breath right out of my lungs. Is this the first woman ever to be unaffected by this man’s charm?
“Wow,” I breathe, looking at Katie in a whole new light. “How’d you do that? How can you just stare at him and not crumble when he looks at you with those dark, gold-speckled eyes? I thought it was humanly impossible.”
Raiden shakes his head, pleading with Katie, actual panic in his dark eyes. “Please. Whatever tricks you have, I’m begging you, don’t let her in on the secret. I like when she can’t resist me. She gets all flustered and breathless, scrambling over her words like she suddenly forgot how to speak. Just adorable.”
“That’s wonderful,” Katie says, deadpan, not interested in the least before turning back to me, her fingers still aimed at my bed. “Now.”
Well, shit. Katie didn’t come to mess around.
And with that, I drag my IV pole back across the linoleum and perch my ass on the edge of my bed, offering my bloody hand to Katie. “Before you go,” I say, knowing I’m about to get the biggest I told you so of my life. “I fucked up my IV.”
CHAPTER 21
RAIDEN
It’s after five in the morning, and since waking almost three hours ago, Kiara hasn’t been able to sleep. She’s lying in her hospital bed, just staring at the ceiling, every now and then, wiping away a discreet tear. But she knows I see it. I see everything where she’s concerned.
I’d give anything to have a direct line into her brain, to hear the thoughts circling her mind, to know exactly what’s bringing these tears. Is she in pain? Shattered that a target slipped away for the first time in her career? Or is this something deeper, something I couldn’t even begin to understand?
My chest aches, and it’s not a feeling I’m accustomed to. I don’t like seeing her like this. I don’t like knowing she’s in pain, whether it’s physical or emotional. None of it sits well with me.
I hesitate for a moment, unsure how to broach this with her.
Kiara is unpredictable. I can read her body like a map, every want it could possibly crave, perfectly outlined just for me. But when it comes to what she feels, I’ve never been more in the dark.
The surface stuff is easy. When her brows pull tight, a little line appears between them, and I know I’m about to get my ass handed to me. She’ll say, Fuck, I hate you no less than three times.
I know the cadence of her anger.
I know the weight of her body when she launches herself at me in fury.
I know exactly how far she’ll push before that rage shifts into nothing but pure desire.
But that’s where my certainty ends.
I can tell when she’s happy. I can spot sadness before it fully settles in her eyes. Those are simple tells. They’re predictable, and the parts of her that make her human, just like everybody else in this world.
It’s the deeper things that bring me pause. The silent tears. The brokenness. The moments when something raw and unguarded flickers in those beautiful green eyes, then vanishes before I even get a chance to figure it out.
It makes me feel as though I’m not good enough, not smart enough. Because how could I be this accomplished in my career, how can I thrive through such vigorous training and learn to read people in their most feared moments, yet I can’t even begin to understand what’s inside her soul?