Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 98398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
“I don’t—”
“I need to get back to work.” I spoke over her, pulling my arm from her talons. “So I can help make this city a safer place. This engagement party is not about me. It’s not even about Catherine and me. It is about you salvaging your reputation. I agreed to let you set up this marriage to that end. Now you can go inside and tell everyone how hard I’m working to keep them safe and make yourself the martyr. I don’t give a fuck.”
I didn’t give her a chance to respond.
What she was going to say didn’t really matter. I refused to listen to it.
My car service was waiting just outside the hotel. I got in the back, and we took off. I had no intention of going back to the office to get more work done. I needed to see her.
“Take me to Ms. Carmichael’s apartment,” I told the driver.
Thankfully, he had been one of the ones shuttling her to and from the office the past week, so he knew where he was going. We were there in under thirty minutes, and in that time, I tried calling her again. I even sent her a few more texts.
The text messages remained unread, and the calls went straight to voicemail.
I didn’t appreciate being ignored. I pushed aside the cold, clammy feeling running up my spine, wondering if she was safe and if she was okay, needing to know that nothing happened to her on her way home yesterday.
When we got to her building, I ran up the disgusting stairs to her apartment, and knocked.
There was no answer.
I pounded the door harder.
“Open the door, or I’ll break it down,” I ground out.
There was no response. The assigned officer approached with a wary look as his hand reached back to what was certainly a concealed weapon.
Reaching into my jacket pocket, I flipped open my wallet and flashed my DA badge. I then gestured toward the door. “Reluctant witness.”
The guy nodded and moved one flight down.
I knocked again. “Do not test me. This thing is only being held together by dust and scum. I could break through it without a second thought.”
Finally, I heard some movement behind the door before it cracked open.
Eddie’s face peeked out the door from behind the chain.
“Leave me alone,” she warned.
CHAPTER 18
HARRISON
“Open the door,” I demanded.
“Leave,” she said.
“Open the door. I need to talk to you. It’s urgent.”
She rolled her eyes, and I had to suppress the urge to remind her what happened to bad girls who mouthed off. The temptation to threaten her with another spanking was definitely there, but I didn’t want her to think that was why I was here.
There was no way I could lay my hands on her ass and not fuck her again.
But before that happened, we needed to talk.
She opened the door, and I first noticed the soft light coming from around the apartment. There was the warm, glowing light of single, spaced-out flames, and the cloying, sweet scent of cheap imitation vanilla. There were no lights on anywhere, just a handful of candles spread around the room.
My rage was instantaneous.
While I had been giving her space, she had called that piece of shit Doyle.
I twisted my right fist into my left palm. “Well, isn’t this a cozy, romantic setting. Am I interrupting a date with the detective? Did you try to hide him in the closet, or is he in the back bedroom?”
“There is no back bedroom. There is no front bedroom either,” she said, wrapping a large, worn blanket around herself, making me wonder what she could possibly have on underneath it.
Some scandalous, sexy lingerie for her date? Did he know that as he licked that pussy the little extra saltiness he would be tasting was me?
I ignored her and pushed my way into her home, looking for the detective or whatever man she was hiding there. All I could think was, how dare she have someone here for a date after having sex with me. The way she moaned and shook under me, the way her tight little pussy had clamped down around my cock while I fucked her, I would have thought she’d be too sore to take another lover so quickly.
Maybe she had this date planned. I didn’t know much about her. Maybe she was in a relationship, and he couldn’t satisfy her the way I could. I liked that thought. It made me feel stronger and possessive. I liked the idea that I could be taking her from a lesser man.
“Mr. Astrid, I told you no one else is here. Please leave,” she pleaded.
“Harrison,” I snapped back. “Where did you hide him?”
“Okay, fine, Harrison. There is nobody else in this apartment. It is just me. Now, what do you want?”
“I want to know why you’re not answering your phone.”