Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 116760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Nothing overtly sexy.
But he was eating her up with his gaze like she was candy and he was an eight-year-old on Halloween.
Swallowing, she attempted to wet her dry throat.
Three days had passed since the bridge incident.
After that first day, she’d forced herself to get out of bed and continue on with her life. There was no point in wallowing away in bed.
She knew that she should really contact her mother. Find out what was going on.
But she couldn’t help but feel that might play into her plan. That it was what she wanted. So, for the moment, she was going to pretend ignorance.
That she never saw that commercial. Hell, if she hadn’t gone to Callahan’s that night, she might not have. She didn’t watch TV and tried not to spend too much time online.
It was better for her mental health that way.
“Running? Now?” Hayes asked. “It’s nearly dinnertime. I’ve just put the shepherd’s pie in.”
“Yummy shepherd’s pie!” She bounced on her toes. “I love shepherd’s pie! We can have it when we get back.”
“It might burn.”
“Guess I’m going for a run with you then,” Corbin said.
She swallowed heavily at the thought of running with Corbin. Short shorts. A tight top. Maybe even topless. Sweat running in rivulets down his tanned chest.
“Bebe? Bebe! Are you all right?”
She jolted as Corbin suddenly appeared in front of her.
“Yep! Are you all right?”
“Yeah. I’m all right.”
“He’s not the one who just zoned out and started drooling,” Hayes said dryly.
“I was not drooling!”
Was she?
Oh. Lord. Please don’t let her have been drooling over this man.
Not that he wasn’t drool-worthy. He was definitely that and more.
However, she didn’t want him to know that she thought him drool-worthy.
When he turned away, though, she definitely wiped at her mouth.
Just in case.
“I should come too,” Hayes said. “We’ll have to be thirty minutes, forty tops.”
“What? No!” She hadn’t been out of the house at all these last few days. She had cabin fever and a measly thirty minutes of running wouldn’t solve the problem. “I need to go for longer.”
They shared a look.
“Come on, after the first part of the run, then we’ll come back past here and run up and down the block while you take the shepherd’s pie out,” Corbin suggested.
“Fine,” Hayes grumbled.
As they ran back toward her house, she knew for sure that thirty minutes wasn’t going to cut it. Her body wasn’t strained yet, her muscles weren’t burning, and she wasn’t panting for air.
She hadn’t pushed her body to the point that she’d be able to collapse into bed tonight. To where her mind would actually quieten.
“I’ll be ten minutes,” Hayes ordered.
Corbin nodded. “We’ll run up a few blocks, then come back and get you.”
“I’ll be ten minutes, tops.”
As soon as he hit the stairs to her house, she was ready to go again, running past Corbin. “Come on! Let’s go!”
She had to get those good endorphins flowing. She needed the adrenaline boost.
“Hey, wait up, Bebe.”
She grinned and pushed herself to go a bit faster.
“Bebe, you need to stay with me,” Corbin commanded.
Damn. How did he get so close to her so quickly?
“Remember the rules?”
Oh. Crap.
She slowed slightly and turned her head to look up at him. “But you’re right here beside me.”
He shot her a look. “You ran off.”
“I forgot,” she said with a grimace. “Sorry, got carried away.”
“Well, just remember next—shit!”
Bebe let out a small scream as someone rushed out at them from a dark driveway that ran between two of the houses. It was there to provide access to the houses behind them.
The enormous person was dressed all in black, and there was something over his face that obscured it. But she couldn’t quite figure out what.
Panic had her freezing, unsure of what to do.
And then she saw the knife. And she realized he was about to stab Corbin.
“Corbin! Knife!” she cried. “Help! Knife!”
Corbin was doing surprisingly well against the guy who was a lot bigger than him. Then again, he didn’t seem to have the same skills Corbin did. He was running at him, slashing without any real thought. He seemed to think he could outfight Corbin simply by being bigger.
And the knife! Don’t forget the knife!
“Bebe! Run!” Corbin yelled. “Back to Hayes. Now!”
Hayes! She had to get Hayes. He could help.
But she couldn’t leave Corbin. She just couldn’t! It didn’t feel right to run away, even if she knew he wouldn’t be happy with her. Instead, she looked around for something to hit the attacker with!
Who was this guy?
Was this her stalker? Was it real? Was he attacking Corbin first to get him out of the way and then he was going to go after her?
Finally, she spotted a stick lying on the ground. Picking it up, she ran at the guy who Corbin was fighting off. Corbin landed a knee to his gut. This was her moment to help! But then Corbin glanced over at her, a look of horror filling his face.