Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 106159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Assuming my shudder is from the cool night, Saka cranks the heat before he shifts his focus back to unearthing the quickest route home. Traffic is a bitch tonight.
Yes, you heard me right. Saka lives with me. Mine and Taylor’s rooms are on the lower level of our retro apartment, and Saka has the loft. His humble abode is perched above the living room, so it offers no privacy, but Saka isn’t bothered. He has a bird’s eye view of almost all the floor space, which he happily reminds me about every evening before I go to bed.
“I’ve got it,” I assure Saka when our arrival at our apartment building sees him reaching back for the gym bag. “You’re security personnel, not a nanny,” I quote, saying the verse he’s recited to me a hundred times in the past year and a half.
While waiting for him to clear our apartment of the unwanted guests we’ve never had, I text Vasily.
Me:
I have your money.
The swiftness of his reply discloses he must have been sitting on his phone, awaiting my message.
Vasily:
I’ll be at your apartment in five.
As I follow Saka into the foyer of our apartment, which is free of perps and personality, my fingers fly over my phone screen. I once loved my apartment, but that was more because of the freedom it represented. Now it just seems dreary and bland.
Me:
Buzz me when you’re here. I’ll meet you at the fire exit stairs on the west side of the building.
I roll my eyes when I can’t miss the snappy demeanor in his reply.
Vasily:
Don’t keep me waiting.
As Saka houses his gun in a safe in the floor of the dining room, he asks, “Did Taylor organize transport home before she abandoned you?”
He is as hard on Taylor as me, but this is the first time genuine anger has filled his voice when referencing her.
“She didn’t abandon me.” I toss my house key onto the entryway table before scrubbing at the back of my neck, still reeling in the pleasurable sting of Matvei’s fingers.
If Saka hadn’t arrived, I honestly don’t know how far I would have taken things. I was truly under Matvei’s spell and willing to do anything to stay there.
His witchcraft isn’t as compelling when several miles are between us. He only occupies my thoughts for every second of a minute. He doesn’t wholly consume them.
“And you know Taylor. I doubt she’ll be home before the a.m.”
I stop staring at my phone when silence is the only reply I receive. Fiendish remarks usually get me a groan or, at minimum, a handful of mumbled words.
Silence is not Saka’s forte.
“Is there something you need to tell me?” I ask when I notice his balled hands and firm jaw. His response mimics the one that reflected at me in the mirror when I made a beeline for the door. He appears pissed, if not a little jealous.
As his eyes snap to mine, he unclenches his hands. “No.” He shakes his head before closing the metal door now concealing his gun. “Have you eaten tonight?”
His swift change of conversation topic is nothing out of the ordinary. If he didn’t give me whiplash at least once a week, I’d ask where he got his personality transplant. He’s a closed book you only get to peek inside of every couple of months.
Strands of blonde hair fall to my shoulders as I shake my head.
I groan when Saka asks, “Is it carb week? I forgot to check the app this morning.”
“No one should know my cycle but me.”
He acts like my words weren’t minced through a tight, angry jaw. “I’ll take that as it's creeping close, but it isn’t quite here yet.” After returning his wallet to his pants, he gathers my house key from the entryway table and heads for the door. “I’ll grab a week's worth of chocolate bars after ordering dinner.”
“And that weird Sprite they only sell here,” I plead, more focused on eradicating the cravings I face during red week than my annoyance that my bodyguard knows the days of my cycle.
With an arrogant tilt of his chin, he exits before spinning around to secure the deadbolt in place. I should hate that I’m locked away like a princess in a castle, but my mind isn’t so scrambled not to recognize that I instigated this distrust.
For the past two decades, I made my bodyguards' lives a living hell. Saka is the first to snap back with a bite vicious enough for me to pay attention.
He's a grump, but since my safety is his main priority, I don’t hold it against him.
As I enter my bedroom, my steps weaved between Sookie’s needy grinds, Saka enters the convenience store on the corner of our block. It is next door to the pizzeria we frequent two to three times a week.