Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 29541 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 148(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 98(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29541 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 148(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 98(@300wpm)
“You know what I think?” Conrad asks. “I think we should get out of here.”
His suggestion stuns me. “Get out of…here?” I point around the room, and Conrad nods.
“Yeah. Like you said, it’s stuffy in here. You ever been to the pier?”
A hope inside me lights up. “The pier? Like…down by the water with the shops and the rides? That pier?”
Conrad chuckles and stands, lifting me with him. “That’s right. That pier.”
“I used to love going there when I had the money. I’d save up enough to go on Friday night and get cotton candy, Snow cones, fried dough!”
“Well, let’s go then!”
Conrad pulls me toward the door as if we’re just going to leave and everything will be fine. His hand tightens on mine, and it’s like a feeling of being possessed by him suddenly pulses through me, as if I’m growing smaller and he’s growing larger by the moment. It feels incredible, but at the same time, I know it’s not good. I’m supposed to marry another man. What am I doing agreeing to go on a date with Conrad?
“I–I don’t think we should.”
“What?” He whirls to look back at me, his hand hovering around the doorknob, his eyes confused. “What do you mean, Belle?”
“Well…didn’t you say I need to stay here? Until everything is safe?”
I’m sure I see a sense of relief wash over him as he exhales, causing my hair to ruffle and tickle the side of my neck. “Belle, you have nothing to worry about. I will be with you. Don’t you feel safe with me?”
“You know I do,” I reply quickly. He steps closer, moving in like he’s about to kiss me. But he stops short, his lips a hair’s breadth from mine.
“Everything I do, I do for you, Belle.” He traces my hip with his right hand, moving up with a gentle caress over my body until he reaches the tender spot just below my ear. “Ever since I first set eyes on you. It’s been my job to protect you, keep you safe. And now, after what’s happened between us, do you think I would ever falter in my duty to you?”
I realize my heart is racing as I trace the back of my top teeth with my tongue. “No. Of course not.” His smile warms me, and I tremble slightly as he threads his fingers through the hair at the nape of my neck. “Why–why are you so good to me, Conrad?”
He lances me with his eyes, injecting an overwhelming flood of emotion straight into my soul. I’m starting to feel woozy as his fingers caress me. For such a monstrous man, he certainly knows how to be gentle.
“Come on, Belle. You know why.”
“Be-because it’s your job?” I whimper, stumbling over my words.
Conrad shakes his head. “You think I’m this devoted to every female client I’m assigned to protect? You think I would have gone the extra…” His voice trails off. He takes a deep breath and recomposes himself. “I do this for you, Belle. Because I can’t contain myself when I’m around you. Because your sheer existence has bound me to you in a way I can’t explain. A way I’ve never experienced before. Because being with you is like finding a light in the darkness that was my life, and without you, I’d be back in that blank void, unable to touch you. Unable to hear your voice, smell your scent, see the look in your eyes. That’s why I’ve done…everything I’ve done for you, Belle. And so much more.”
I’m such an idiot. All this time, Conrad has been in love with me. And somehow, I never saw it. He managed to hide it from me. But how? I guess that’s his job–his training.
“So much more?” I ask tentatively, like I’m testing the water with my toe. “What do you mean by that?”
Conrad’s eyes drop from mine, but his grip tightens on my hand. On my neck. His chest rises and falls as the pace of his breaths increases. As though he’s trying to control himself from…doing something.
“Never mind,” he says softly.
“No, Conrad. Tell me what you meant by so much more.”
With a deep breath, he raises his gaze to mine, and I feel my eyes widen with expectation. “Let’s not talk about it. Let’s just go to the pier and have a good time. Sound good?”
“I–” But before I can respond, he’s pulling me out the door and calling back to his men with a lie that he’s taking me back to the manor to meet with Fitch and that we’ll be back later. They don’t even question him. He wields absolute authority over them, as it seems he does in all aspects of his life. And as we step out into the warm night air and he throws me over his back with ease, I feel my head starting to spin, as though I’m somehow being whirled into a new world. A dizzying realm where I may actually have the strength to hope for a better future, instead of the one laid out for me already, which has been bought and paid for.