Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
“You’re scared he’s going to take you away from here?”
I was hoping for more.
She hadn’t repeated the ‘I love you’ that she’d said all those days ago. And I wanted her to. Badly.
“I’m scared that he’s either going to take me away from YOU—not necessarily here tonight, but soon—or that he’s going to kill you.” She reflected. “Both are unacceptable at this point.”
“Why?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Why do I not want you to die?”
I chuckled. “No, I’m looking for three words here. Three words that I feel like you need to tell me immediately.”
Her eyes turned understanding.
“You’re crazy, baby.”
“Those weren’t the three words I was looking for.”
The ‘baby’ though did something weird to my heart.
Made it jump and leap like she’d called me something more than just ‘baby.’
“I love you.”
Her eyes widened.
The sight was so comical that I started to laugh, and her arms tightened.
In fact, they constricted so tightly that she cut off the oxygen to my head.
“You know what?” Lark whispered in my ear.
I turned as best as I could, given her death grip on me and stared at her.
“No, what?”
“I love you, too.”
I snaked my hand up the back of her t-shirt and held her, breathing in her scent.
“I wish I hadn’t broken your wiener.”
At that, I burst out laughing.
“I don’t think you broke it as much as my own exuberance did,” I pointed out. “And it seems to be working just fine right now.”
Her eyebrows went up.
“What…”
She trailed off when I shifted her so she could feel the length of my erection.
There was no more pain. Not even a little bit. Thank God.
There was, however, reluctance.
I’d only ever felt pain like that once before, and I couldn’t say which pain was worse. Having my dick broken—or nearly—or being shot in the testicle with a button.
Though the discomfort didn’t stop me from getting an erection—it was just more uncomfortable than pleasurable due to my memories of the event.
And I was just about to tell her that there was no more pain when my pocket rang.
I grumbled and pushed away from the wall.
Lark’s legs dropped from around me and she looked at me in confusion.
“Phone,” I muttered, reaching my hand into the pocket of my jeans.
She nodded and started to walk away, but I hooked her around the waist and held her in place while I answered.
“Hello?”
Luckily this quiet corner that Lark chose enabled me to hear the person on the other end of the line because I was able to hear everything…even my mother’s angry warnings not to have sex in the middle of the club. Seeing as her and all the kids were playing a game on who they could spot on the security monitors. Apparently, my mother had spotted me.
I rolled my eyes and hung up.
“Do you want to go meet my mother?”
Lark’s eyes widened.
“Was that who that was?”
“No,” I lied. “Wrong number.”
She narrowed her eyes at me in suspicion but nodded her head. “I guess I’ve avoided it long enough.”
“You’ve been avoiding meeting her?” I questioned as I shoved the phone back into my pocket.
She winced. “I guess you could call it that.”
I chuckled and reached for her hand.
Once she placed it in mine, I led her through the club, around the bar, and up the stairs that led to my private office.
But before we could get there, I spotted Rafe on the phone.
When I went to move past him, he held up his hand for me to wait, so I stopped.
My brows furrowed, but then I heard what he was saying.
“Where was he last spotted?”
My stomach clenched.
“In Texas? Oh, okay. That’s better. Does he know her exact whereabouts yet?”
My gut clenched.
And that was when Lark finally caught on to what the man was saying.
He wasn’t talking about some random person. He was talking about her ex.
The man who’d tried to kill her knew where she was—or at least the vicinity.
Son. Of. A. Bitch.
I felt her trembling beside me, but by the time Rafe wrapped up his phone call, the trembles had turned into full-blown shakes.
“He knows where she is. Our sources have determined that he requested two weeks off from work. He’s left the house that you both previously shared and is presumed to be on his way here.”
Lark lost the battle and collapsed.
She would’ve hit the steps and rolled had I not caught her around the waist and hauled her against me.
“Please don’t let him kill you.”
It wasn’t the words that felt like a sock to the stomach, but the tears that were rolling down her eyes.
“He won’t kill me,” I snapped. “In fact, your lack of faith in my abilities is damn near emasculating.”
The anger worked, and her spine stiffened.
“I’m not saying that…”
“You’re not saying that you don’t think I can handle myself?” I asked. “Baby, you’ve divorced him. That’s not a criminal offense. He doesn’t like it? Too fucking bad. You’re mine now.”