Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94686 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94686 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
I searched his face. “Or what?”
“Or all three of them being killed, which, as we’ve learned, is the Benny way to solve problems. If it comes down to their deaths for you to keep breathing another day. . .” His eyes watered. No tears spilled from his lids, but still water glazed over his eyes and took my breath away. He cleared his throat. “I’m not a monster.”
“I know,” I whispered.
“But I will kill if it means you’re here. I’ll burn down cities to keep your breath moving in and out of your lungs and passion traveling throughout your heart.” He leaned in closer to me. “I would murder for you. My hand around the gun. My finger pulling the trigger. My aim as I center it between the eyes of any one of them. No one could make my steady hand shake, not when it comes to you. I would pull it with no regrets, and no one, not Wendy, Dawn, or Lucy, could beg enough or say any damn thing to stop me. I choose you over them, your life over theirs, my love for you versus my guiltless sanity. I’d take the blood on my hands with a fucking smile, tesoro.”
I’d stopped breathing somewhere in between gun in his hand and my life over theirs. I just froze. My body stiffened into a statue of dread. I had no doubts that Chase believed his words, but did he mean them? Could he do that? And how did I feel about this intensity? It should’ve freaked me out I think, perhaps force me to jump out of that seat and away from it all.
But I didn’t leave.
He was mine as much as I was his.
“Talk to me, tesoro.” He brushed his lips against my ear. “Tell me you’re not scared.”
“I’m not.” My shaking had ceased. All the earlier anxiety disappeared. Sure, dread lingered. It was the sort of dread that came at the most foreboding times—a moment when you know that the future may not be so bright and things may need to be done that could forsake others. “I feel better.”
“Good.” He squeezed my hand. “I just needed you to know that. . .you’re never alone. I’m Chase Stone and I am your god. Say it.”
I rolled my eyes. “Really? You’re my god? Didn’t we settle that weeks ago?”
“Perhaps. What was the answer again?”
“You’re no god.”
“Maybe.”
“Trust me on this.” I snorted. “Say it. You are not my god.”
“I won’t say that. However, I can admit that gods don’t stalk mere humans and some would say that I may have done some light shadowing of you during our break-up.”
“Light shadowing? You lived outside of my apartment in your car.”
“Limo.”
“What?”
“I lived outside of your apartment in a limo, and a very expensive and top of the line one, if I do say so myself. That’s a very different sort of stalking. A man sleeping in a shitty little car with rusted hinges and decomposing food products crowding the interior, well, that man is insane and you should call the police immediately. But,” He raised one finger, “a devilishly handsome man who shadows you longingly from the polished leather interior of a limo. Well, that man, you should crown him.”
“Dear God.”
“It’s too late to call God.” He licked his lips. “I’ve already stolen you, tesoro.”
“One day, God is going to hit you with a bolt of lightning.”
“Never. He loves me too much.” He made a show of presenting himself to me. “Look at me. Surely, God took great care in putting me together.”
I directed my view from his head to his toes, drifting a bit longer than necessary on that nice package tucked within his designer pants. “You clean up well.”
Smiling, his cheeks twitched a little as if he held in laughter. “How is your bottom? Are you able to sit now?”
“I’m not going to answer that.”
He returned his hand to my lap and inch by inch lifted my dress up, exposing my thighs. Thank God the table cloth is long. Cool air glided against my skin. “Maybe I’ll have you answer that question later on tonight.”
Lust sparked within my core. “Maybe.”
He slid his hands between my thighs, causing a delicious tremble to come over me. “Or maybe I can ask you right now.” He slipped his fingers underneath my moist panties. I swallowed, not ready to stop him and very hungry to just feel one finger touch where I most craved him. The soft pad of his finger greeted my aching bud. Gasping, I closed my eyes.
“Are you able to sit now?” He nibbled at my neck. Those sharp teeth danced around my skin in the most erotic of ways. I knew we had to be making a scene. I did my best to hold in my moans. I kept my eyes closed, knowing if I opened them, there would probably be enough people watching to make me stop Chase’s sensual attention.