Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
“I wouldn’t mind a few compliments,” Molly said with a soft, almost dreamy sigh.
“Bastien doesn’t compliment you?”
At the mention of the detective’s name, Molly blushed again. “He does, but he flirts so much with other women, I think it’s just what he does naturally to anything female.”
“He’s seeking you out. How many other women has he dated around here? Surely you got the gossip on him.”
She shook her head. “I’ve never asked.”
“Well, I did,” Sonia said. She crooked her fingers until Molly was leaning across the table very close. “I asked Jerry, and he gets all the good gossip on everyone. He said Bastien flirts with anything in skirts, but he’s never taken a woman out that he can remember. Not in four years. If he’s seeing anyone, she isn’t from around here. He got it from Charity at the grocery store that he’s smitten with you. That’s the word she used. Smitten.”
Molly’s wild blush turned to a deep rose. “He’s not smitten. He just sat with me because neither of us had anyone else to sit with and it gets lonely always eating alone.”
“He has sat in here dozens of time alone and never once ate with anyone else that was alone. He’s into you. Seriously into you.”
“You think?”
“I know. Call him up and ask him out. Women can do that.”
“Not this woman. If he wants me to go out with him, he has to ask, and he’d have to be okay with meeting me at our destination. I’m not going to be the trusting soul who gets in trouble again. Once was enough for me.”
Sonia glanced at her watch. “I’ve got to go, honey. I’m going to be late if I don’t get a move on. I told the work crew I’d be out there this afternoon.”
Molly caught her wrist as she tossed bills onto the table. “Just be careful, Sonia. Just in case. Sometimes rumors are grounded in fact. Maybe ask Joshua about how he knows Elijah Lospostos, just to be safe. Where did they meet – that sort of thing. I don’t want you getting hurt again.”
Sonia knew her heart was already at risk. If Joshua wasn’t who he said he was, she was afraid the consequence was going to be worse than what it had been when she’d discovered her husband of almost two years didn’t really love her – that he never had. She’d been too young and too desperate and shocked to know what love was. She’d been grateful to Sasha and she’d needed him. She’d loved him, she knew that, but not the way a wife should love her husband. Maybe over time she would have come to love him the way she was supposed to.
Joshua talked to her more than Sasha ever had. They spent hours on her bed, the plans she was drawing spread out for him to look at. He had a few good suggestions, but mostly he liked what she envisioned and gave her the go-ahead each time. Sasha would never have even glanced at her drawings. He would have told her they needed someone far more experienced than she was. Joshua complimented her all the time. Sasha rarely had. Joshua loved her paintings. Sasha had told her she needed more work before they could ever be shown in public.
“You’ve got that goofy look on your face again,” Molly said. “I’m getting envious. I want that look on my face.”
“Then ask Bastien out. Go to bed with him. I recommend sex highly.”
Molly laughed. “I have a toy.”
“Not the same, I can testify to that.” Sonia jumped up, waved and rushed out, hurrying to her truck. She hadn’t been late once. She wanted Joshua to take her seriously. She loved what she did, and she was good at it.
As she pulled onto the highway, she glanced back and noticed the dark SUV that had been parked just down from her truck. She recognized it immediately. Joshua’s men favored the four-wheel-drive, tinted-windows kind of vehicle. This was one she’d seen two of them use. One was named Kai and the other Gray. They were close friends of Joshua and came from the rain forest in Borneo. She’d noticed them more than once when she was in town. Now she had a sneaking suspicion they were following her.
She turned into the main gates of Joshua’s estate. The guard post was there, still unmanned. That always made her feel good. The surrounding fence blocked off all roads other than the one from the swamp to the back of the house. Joshua hadn’t built the fence, someone else had. That someone else had also put in the guard shack. The gates were open and no one was there, no grim-looking men walking around looking all kinds of scary. Still, the SUV followed her up the drive to the main house. She waited for the two men to exit their vehicle before she got out of hers. Smiling, she walked right up to them.