Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 73580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
She skirts me and heads toward the door. I follow, imagining how satisfying her ass will look marked up with my red handprints.
We get back to our booth, and she curls in beside me, leaving a few inches of distance, but I’ve already switched my mask, the playboy, the rich idiot, out for a night with a little easy company.
She glances at my face, and then does a double take, like she hasn’t seen me slip into a role several times before right now. “How do you do that? Why do you do that?”
I lean in and nibble her earlobe. “Do what?”
Her breath stutters. “How do you look like a completely different person from one moment to the next? I swear if I weren’t here with you, I might not have seen it.”
Her fingers tremble, and she tucks them together into her lap, but I’m not letting her off that easily. “Go grab us another round, and maybe I’ll tell you.”
She spots the other working girls at the far end of the bar. “You want me to go back over there? Why don’t we just get the server?”
I sprawl my arms over the back of the booth and splay my legs wide. Manspreading, Andrea calls it. “Because I told you to, doll. Go grab us a couple of drinks, and I’ll explain what you asked.”
For a second, her only response is a glare, then she slides from the half-circle booth, and goes to the bar.
I keep my eyes on the other girls in case they bother her again. The blonde spots her in an instant and heads right for her. Interesting, she’d go after Selena when she could just come to me, knowing I’m alone.
The blonde hip-checks Selena, and I’ve had about enough of this woman. I stand and reach the bar in a second. “What’s taking so long?” I ask, cutting between Selena and the blonde, who doesn’t move an inch, leaving her body plastered against the back of mine.
She glares at the blonde, then the bartender sits our drinks in front of her. “It’s fine. They are right here. Why don’t we go sit down?”
I level her a look, hoping she reads it, and after a few tense seconds, she does. Her tone turns syrupy and dim. “Come on, baby. We’re wasting time over here when we can do so many things that are much more fun.”
I lick my lips and move to follow her, but a hand on my shoulder stops me. The blonde, leaning over the bar. “When is your friend coming back?”
I shrug off her grip, keeping my eyes cold. “I don’t know what you mean. I don’t have any friends.”
She narrows her eyes, leaning in. “The dark one, with all the tattoos. Looks like he’s going to eat you or end you, and you’re not sure which you prefer.”
I file away that colorful description and scan her features. She looks stone sober, and maybe a little sad. “I think you mean, Ivan. He’ll be back when my business here concludes.”
She slides her gaze toward Selena and back at me. “Well, I hope it ends quickly. Tell him Penny has missed him.”
On that note, I walk the few steps back to our booth and curl up against Selena again. She’s staring the blonde down, and I appreciate her level of commitment. For a second, I thought I spotted jealousy in her gaze.
Another second passes until she can’t help herself. “What did she want?”
I sip my drink, scanning the crowd for any familiar faces. “Nothing much, just asking after Ivan.”
She leans in and runs her hand down my chest. “The crazy one?”
“Not sure what that means…” To me, he’s just Ivan. My friend and fellow protector.
She giggles, and it’s high and flirty, nothing like the deep throatiness of her real laugh. “You know what they say about you guys…right?”
I meet her eyes, waiting, since she obviously wants to tell me.
“Adrian, the monster. Kai, the playboy.” She makes a disgusted face at Kai’s descriptor. “You are the mystery, and Ivan is usually called the animal or the crazy one, and…”
“And what?” I’m curious what her society set calls the twins.
“They call Andrea and Alexei fire and ice. Him being the one who runs hot and angry and well, slutty. Her vengeance is colder and more calculated. I can appreciate that in a woman. I was happy to have finally met her the other night.”
She would appreciate Andrea’s cold practicality. It hurts me to think about how the twins have turned into this version of themselves. They are the youngest of the Five and should be the least burdened. Everything that’s happened in the past year has changed us all.
I keep my eyes on the crowd, even though I want to meet her eyes, see what she really thinks. “The mystery. Hm…maybe only to those lucky enough not to have met me. Then again, most of the people who have met me are no longer speaking.”