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)
He could live with that.
He shot her a smile and was looking back to his laptop when she spoke again, so he returned his attention to her.
“Just so you know, you’re a lot better looking than David Boreanaz. I mean, on a normal scale, he’s a nine or ten. But you’re on a different scale, one where he’s only about a five.”
Rus burst out laughing at that, and this time, he leaned all the way to get to her mouth.
When he was done kissing her, he’d started to return to his laptop when she waylaid him again.
He knew by the expression on her face what she had to say next was of a significantly different bent, so he braced.
“I’m enjoying getting to know you,” she stated. “I’m excited to know more. I admire what you do. It’s incredibly interesting.” She wrapped her fingers around his wrist. “But I want to make sure you know you don’t have to explain yourself to me.”
“I go overboard in the debriefing?” he asked self-deprecatingly.
She squeezed his wrist and said firmly, “Not at all.”
She seemed to struggle for a second.
And then she carried on.
“This isn’t my call to make, Rus. And at this juncture in our relationship, I don’t have near the information I need to make it. But my preliminary read on a situation with a man I very much enjoy being with and very much enjoy getting to know, I also very much enjoy kissing,”—she gave him a small smile—“is that he’s been shoved into a corner and forced to defend his choices, pretty much all his life. This includes with his ex-wife. I’m just saying, that isn’t me. I want to know you. What I don’t want is you feeling you have to twist yourself in knots to convince me of anything. If I don’t get you, I’m not the person for you.” She gave him a much bigger smile. “Fortunately, I feel like I get you.”
She leaned in close before she finished.
“What I’m saying is, you can be you with me. It’s you I’m attracted to and have been since you walked into my office. And everything I’ve learned from that moment on only makes me want more.”
Rus felt that sear through his chest, it was strong, it was lasting.
And it was a burn he hoped never healed.
He’d also never made out with a woman over oatmeal and a waffle, in a suite with a view, but he did it then.
It was terrific.
When they came up for air, she had her cat’s-got-her-cream look, which almost meant they were going to have to make out more, preferably in the bedroom.
But he had to focus.
So he rubbed his thumb along her lip as a way to end it gently at the same time tell her how meaningful it was what she said, just in case she didn’t get it from the making out.
After that, he turned to his laptop, this time made it all the way, so he opened his email.
He saw one from McGill with the subject heading: 61 FR 2659, BI/7690 / 09-16-22 - email.
Brittanie’s case file.
He pulled it up and McGill had typed, Of interest, line item 3.
Rus opened the attached file, typed in the shared password and waited until the big file opened.
The top was a table of contents with hyperlinks.
He was not thinking happy thoughts when he clicked on line item three, which was titled, Incoming jasn.bohannnan@gmail.com.
First, both names were spelled wrong.
Second, anyone could get a Gmail account in about ten seconds.
Third, he knew what he was going to see, he wouldn’t like it, and if Jason ever found out, it would gut him.
He clicked on the hyperlink and was taken to a screenshot of an email from that address to Brittanie’s.
It said,
B-
No texts. You and me. Back together. Better Times Motel. We’ll talk. Work it out. Meet me there. Tomorrow night. Don’t text me. Just be there.
Check into room seven.
Reconciliation.
Love you,
-Jace
She was into him. She wanted to live with him, marry him.
She’d think this was romantic. She’d think this was getting away from the Bohannan Compound and being about nothing but her and Jace.
She’d go there. No thoughts. No doubts.
Happy.
Excited.
Reconciliation.
Love you.
Motherfuckers.
He wondered if they’d ever exchanged emails so she’d know what his address was. People texted. You lived close to each other, there was no reason to email.
It wouldn’t matter. Rus got emails all the time from people in his life, and he only ever cursorily noted the address to see who it was from.
A glimpse of Jasn Bohannnan, excited he was reaching out after a breakup she didn’t want, and she’d assume.
And she’d go to the motel for Jason. From what everyone said, he might be the only one she’d go to that motel for.
Which meant…
He surged out of his chair.
Lucinda was startled at his sudden movement and was looking up at him.