Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
“She scares me,” he teased.
“Good,” she replied. “That’s her job. She also stands in for me when I’m not there. It runs well on its own, regardless. But I have a nanny because I have a daughter. I still don’t tend to stay deep into the night because I like to be home with her, not to mention, Hillary gets off at midnight.”
The explanation of why she disappeared the night he spent in her club.
“You have a nanny?”
“Nighttime nanny. I do all the mom things, to and from school, after school, etc. But when I have to go to work, Hillary is there.”
“When did Brittanie watch her?”
“Nights when she was off and…other times.”
Goddamn.
She just kept getting better.
“Times you made up so you had a reason to pay her because she needed money, and Madden would have time with her,” he deduced.
She hid that eyeroll behind a sip of her wine.
Yeah.
“Something to know about Brittanie,” he said gently. “She had a nicely decorated apartment and maybe a designer bag or two. But she also had three family members who had their hands out often, and she might have hated her mom, but she looked after her dad and brother. This being something you already know about Brittanie, she was loyal and loving to those she cared about.”
Lucinda buried her reaction in another sip of wine, but he saw the bright hit her eyes before she did it.
This was only part of the reason why Rus reached out slowly, and when she didn’t pull away, he wrapped his fingers around her neck and stroked the soft skin there with his thumb when he said, “As for you coming to my rescue, this is part of the job. I hear shitty things. I deal with shitty people. And I deal with the people who the shitty ones hurt. I’m okay.”
“Are you more okay with me being here?”
“Yes,” he said, no hesitation.
“Then we’re done with that topic.”
“Bossy,” he muttered.
“Not always,” she said into her wineglass.
Yep.
That stirred his dick too.
So she heard he had a crap day and drove all the way through her forest to get to him.
This, what was going on with them, was something.
And since it was, right now, it couldn’t be about his dick.
It had to be about her, them, and where they needed to go.
Transparency.
“I have something to tell you.”
“Hmm?” she asked, raising her eyebrows, making it casual, but those amber eyes were focused penetratingly on him.
“I need to explain why I was called to Misted Pines.”
She rested her wineglass to her leg and shifted so she was more fully facing him.
But he noticed she did this with care so she didn’t lose his hand at her neck.
Nice.
“It’s going to be upsetting,” he warned.
“I figured that,” she said softly.
“And maybe frightening.”
Her eyes widened.
“I’m lead on the hunt for the Crystal Killer,” he announced.
Her response was both anticlimactic and easing.
This being, her brows drew down in confusion, and she asked, “Sorry?”
“The Crystal Killer, he’s a serial killer.”
“Oh,” she said offhandedly. “I don’t really keep up with those kinds of things.”
Thank Christ.
“Wait, is Ezra this Crystal Killer?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No, but extenuating circumstances kept me here.”
“All right.”
“Make me a promise?” he requested.
“Maybe,” she hedged.
“Don’t look it up until this is all over.”
“Oh shit,” she whispered.
He moved closer to her. “I have something else to share.”
She nodded.
“He’s not Ezra. But he might be here, in Misted Pines.”
She nodded again.
“And that would be, he’s here…for me.”
It was only then her eyes got huge.
TWENTY-FIVE
Be Good
His phone was rattling on the nightstand.
Rus opened his eyes, and for a second, he didn’t know what was happening.
Then he smelled Lucinda’s perfume.
He put his chin in his throat and saw her form through the dark, draped down his side, arm across his stomach, head on his chest, in his bed.
She was still wearing her dress, but she’d taken off her boots.
Last night, when she’d started to settle in, get comfortable, watching her unzip and tug them off had been one of the most erotic things he’d ever witnessed.
He couldn’t say he’d given her the same. He was in his lounge pants and thermal.
They were on top of the duvet, but the plaid blanket was over them.
And she’d finished the bottle of wine, he’d finished the bourbon, she’d shared she didn’t know how bad it was going to be when she came to him last night, so Madden was spending the night with her brother, who Madden adored and who was going to spoil her ridiculously, and then he was taking her to school that morning.
Rus had shared that was the most meaningful thing a woman had done for him in a decade.
Then they’d talked deep into the night, moving it from couch to bed because it was more comfortable. They’d started cuddling, and Rus had the sneaking suspicion he was the one who fell asleep first.