Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 90337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Now dressed, she props a fist on her hip with a shake of her head. “You already put me on the manifest, huh? Before I even said I’d signed the contract? Or let you know I’d found staff to take over?”
I lift a shoulder. “I had a feeling things were going to work out.”
“Yeah?” She puckers her lips. “I have that feeling, too.” Her pucker becomes another mega-watt grin. “And I have a feeling that we’re going to have an amazing time.” She leans in, pressing a quick kiss to my cheek. “Later, Big, Bad, and Sexy.”
“Later, brat,” I murmur, as she flutters her fingers and hurries down the steps to the sand.
I watch her cross the beach, already counting the minutes until we’re on that plane, and I no longer have to share her with anyone or anything else.
seven
ELAINA
My cell display reads 12:47 p.m., but I’ve been ready for hours, pacing the apartment with Captain Crunchypants in my arms like a furry, purring security blanket, wondering if I’m being brave and bold or…completely crazy.
Now, we’re downstairs, standing beside my giant—but probably not over sixty pounds…probably—suitcase, waiting for a very bad man to come pick us up and whisk us back to his castle in the concrete jungle.
It’s all very Beauty and the Beast. An innocent young woman, a broken, jaded older man, a cute animal sidekick who kind of looks like a teapot when he’s curled up for a nap at the foot of the bed…
“Except I’m not innocent,” I tell the Captain, kissing his silky soft head. “And you aren’t a teapot, and Hunter is only going to lock me in his castle until he knocks me up or his mother dies. One or the other.”
The Captain rolls his head back, staring at me with golden eyes that seem to ask me to listen to myself. To really listen and evaluate if this is the kind of chaos I’m looking for, especially while trying to get pregnant.
“It’s too late now,” I mutter. “I could already be pregnant.”
My sassy cat croaks out a rusty meow that sounds like, “You crazy slut, I love you,” and I laugh.
“I know. I am a crazy slut, but I couldn’t help it.” I sigh, my blood humming as memories of Hunter fucking me like a freight train in the lifeguard hut fill my head. “If you’d seen him in that suit, you wouldn’t have been able to resist, either. He was way too magically delicious.” I pull in a bracing breath as I turn to pace back the other way. “So, what’s done, is done. We’re on the path and it’s too late to turn back now. I figure…it’ll either be the best decision I’ve ever made or a complete disaster. Either way, you and I will always have each other. That’s never going to change.”
The Captain purrs louder and headbutts my chin, proving he’s the best buddy a girl could ask for.
He’s rumbling so loud that I don’t notice the softer rumble of an engine until the sleek black car with tinted windows is halfway up the alley behind the café. But when I do, my heart starts racing again, triple-time.
This is it. The moment the timeline of my life splits in two—to before I took Hunter Mendelssohn up on his wild bargain and after.
I send out a silent hope that this time next year I’ll be holding the Captain and a baby in my arms in my New York apartment.
The moment the car pulls to a stop in front of us, Hunter emerges from the back seat, looking devastatingly handsome in a charcoal suit that probably cost more than my monthly rent.
But he doesn’t smile, wish me a good afternoon, reach for my suitcase, or insist we run upstairs for a quickie. He simply narrows his stormy eyes on the cat in my arms and grunts.
“No.” He shakes his head. “Absolutely not.”
I blink. “What do you mean, no?”
“No. No animals. The cat isn’t part of the agreement.”
My jaw drops. “What?”
“It’s not in the contract.”
“But I—” I break off, fighting to regain control of the panic flooding my nervous system, and offer a reasonable argument. Hunter isn’t the kind to be swayed by emotion. After a beat, I continue, “I’m sorry for any confusion, but the Captain is like my child. I assumed you understood that, and there was no need to state explicitly in the contract that he would be joining me in the city. I made a commitment to him when I adopted him that I would always be his mom. We’re family, and you don’t separate family.”
Hunter’s expression softens a fraction, but his tone is still unyielding as he says, “My mother is allergic to cats. Severely allergic. And we’ll be spending a lot of time with her. With her health already so precarious, I can’t risk her having an allergic reaction.”