Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
But in that moment, I etched that particular trait high on my list of why I adored her.
“Oh, Jessie, I’m glad you’re okay. Getting snatched in a parking lot. What on earth?” Linda asked as she put her tray down.
I reached for a mug and was about to say something to make her feel better when the security gate slammed back on the fence, making a loud bang.
We all turned to see Tex plodding toward us, a man on a mission.
“I…you…I…” he blathered in a boom after he reached the table. “We haven’t even had our meeting yet!”
“Tex, I’m okay.”
He glowered at me, then leaned into me, reached beyond me, snatched up a mug, and I watched as he did a slurp (the fluff) then dropped his head back, downing the hot drink in one.
He slammed the mug down, pounded a fist on his chest, and declared, “I’m unprepared. This trip, I forgot to bring my grenades with me to Phoenix.”
At this, Jacob took a mug, handed it to Alexis, took another one, then grabbed Alexis’s hand and dragged her to his apartment.
On the way, she waved her mug at us and called, “’Night all! Glad you’re okay, Jessie!”
Jacob slammed the door behind them, and I heard the locks go.
“He’s a Hot Bunch boy without bein’ a Hot Bunch boy, that one is,” Daisy decreed.
Eric and Stella joined us.
“Glad to see you’re okay, Jess,” Stella said.
“Thanks, Stella,” I replied, shot her a smile and then took a sip of my cocoa.
“Were you kidnapped?” Luna asked Stella.
“I never thought I’d say this to a living soul, but you girls really need to read those books,” Stella replied.
I was thinking I should.
I would look at it as a form of training.
“You all good?” Eric asked the table at large.
“With what?” Luna asked back.
“With knowing Jess is all right,” Eric explained.
“I’m good,” Luna said.
“Me too,” Raye put in.
“It wasn’t fun, but it’s over”—Harlow lifted her mug—“and we have cocoa.”
“You got cocoa, and you’re downright loco,” Martha decreed.
Shirleen looked to Daisy. “I forgot how crazy this all seems in the beginning.”
“I’m havin’ a flashback too, since I was introduced to it when my Marcus kidnapped Jet,” Daisy replied.
“I forgot about that,” Shirleen murmured in her mug.
Eric took my hand and pulled me out of my chair.
He then pulled me toward the stairs.
I waved my mug behind me and called, “I’ll bring this back clean, Linda.”
“I’m not worried, hon,” Linda called back.
“’Night, everybody!” I kept calling when we got to the stairs.
“’Night!” everybody called back.
Eric dragged me to my door while I took in the glow of the lights and the holiday setting from above.
And seriously.
Zach and Bill had vision.
“Key,” Eric grunted.
He let my hand go so I could pull out my key.
He took it from me to open the door while I said, “I need to go get my car, Turner.”
He looked at me, looked at my keychain, pulled off the fob, went to the railing and whistled.
Tex tipped his head toward us and bellowed, “Yo!”
Eric tossed the fob down, Tex caught it, and Eric yelled, “Someone needs to get Jess’s car.”
Tex raised a hand to his forehead in a salute.
I took that as Tex’s version of Gotcha!
Eric pulled me into my apartment.
And uh-oh.
He also slammed the door.
FIFTEEN
ICEBOX CAKE
I watched as Eric prowled around my tiny pad turning on lamps.
When he was done and focused on me, I asked, “Are you mad?”
He didn’t answer verbally.
He stalked to me, took my hand, lifted it, then rubbed his thumb lightly along the red marks there.
Okay, he was mad.
Truth, I’d been ignoring how my wrists stung from the zip ties, though, the good news was, none of the skin was broken.
“Yeah, my brother is a dick,” I agreed with his nonverbal assertion.
“He couldn’t approach you in the parking lot and say ‘hey’?”
I’d never heard Eric’s voice rumble like that. It was low. It was abrasive.
And it was hot.
“He was teaching me a lesson about my vulnerability as an Angel,” I informed him.
“He couldn’t let you be who you are, do what you need to do, and just look after your ass like my crew does?”
Right.
I parked my car in his garage. He proclaimed himself my “man.” He rolled out to rescue me.
But we were still only days in.
Even so.
I didn’t know the distinction. I already knew I was in love with him, in that first blush, he’s gorgeous, he’s a great kisser, he won’t let me reach too far for my wine, he’ll go out and spend his Sunday looking for my selfish, ungrateful brother, kind of way.
But I was still actively falling for this guy.
I wasn’t sure how that worked. Maybe, if Eric and I went the distance, I’d spend a lifetime constantly falling deeper and deeper for him.
And in that moment, that sounded like a good life plan to me.