Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 105506 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 422(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105506 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 422(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
I doubt it would’ve been so easy to do that without waking him if he hadn’t worked so hard at pleasing me.
Because he’d worked so hard at claiming me.
He owned me.
But he’d never know that.
Eventually, he’d forget about me.
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
ALMOST TWO YEARS LATER
“You’re a hard woman to find,” a smooth voice said as a large form occupied the barstool next to me.
My body stiffened the second he spoke. The second that familiar cadence ran along my skin. My soul.
I did my best not to look like his voice or his presence affected me. It was hard. Exceptionally so. The fact that I was pretty close to being wasted helped.
I stared at my glass for one more second, internally cursing that it was half empty. It was always half empty with me. I sighed and drained it before I turned in my stool.
“Not hard enough,” I replied to Colby, meeting his eyes, thinking the shroud of booze hovering around me would serve as protection.
It did not.
His gaze, hard and soft, angry and worried, familiar and strange… It did what it always did to me.
Unraveled me from the inside out.
Not that I wasn’t in pieces already.
His hair was longer. He had it fastened in a messy bun at the nape of his neck, strands of unruly black hair escaping to frame his face. The angles were the same, his cheekbones sharp and high, his brows dark, eyes breathtaking. Though he seemed to have gained some weight, beefed up.
Colby raised a brow. The gesture itself was casual, teasing almost, but his posture was stiff. He had a strange energy that punctured my drunken haze. He seemed more intense. More dangerous.
“One of the best hackers on the continent wears a Sons of Templar patch, baby,” he reminded me. “And he had a fuck of a lot of trouble locating you.”
I tapped the rim of my drink, signaling to the bartender for another. He smiled at me, and I attempted a flirty wink.
I wasn’t sure if it worked, but he did take my glass away and put another one in front of me in record time. He ignored Colby. Which I found interesting.
“I’ve got a friend who is not only a great hacker but a woman. We always do it better than you,” I replied, trying to match his playful tone. It felt like we were back at the club bar, trading jabs good naturedly in between all of the sexual tension.
Like it was almost two years ago before everything else happened.
But we’d never be back there. We’d never be back again.
I took a long sip of my whiskey in order to distract myself from the ache of that truth.
Colby watched me drink with an intense stare, and I waited for the order. The alpha request that seemed to be the norm for these fuckers … trying to control their women under the guise of taking care of them.
But the alpha request I was expecting did not materialize. He just kept staring at me in a way that made me struggle not to squirm in my seat.
The last time we were together, and awake, he was inside me, and I was crying out his name.
My body responded to the memory, especially given the lack of male attention I’d had in the past year.
“I’m not going back,” I stated, trying to hide my desire.
His eyes danced with something that told even my wasted mind that he had caught a glimpse of my sexual hunger. “Back where?”
I suppressed an eye roll. “To Garnett. I assume that’s why you’re here, to come in, guns blazing.” I glanced at his cut, at the holster he was wearing underneath it. “Literally.” I looked up to meet his eyes. “Here to save the day.”
I held my breath as he leaned forward, a scowl titling his plump lips. It was bad enough, him sitting close. It was bad enough smelling him. It was bad enough laying my eyes on this man and wanting to hate him, wanting to make him hate me.
I didn’t know what I was expecting from Colby, what I was dreading and longing for at the same time. His fingers brushed mine as he took the glass from me.
My body recoiled at the simple touch.
Colby didn’t miss that, but despite a quick flash in his eyes, he didn’t react. He brought my glass to his own lips and sipped my drink.
“Not here to save the day,” he told me. “Here to have your back.”
The words sobered me somewhat. “Excuse me?”
Colby placed my glass down. “I’m here to have your back while you’re doing what you’re doin’. Make sure you’re not alone.”
I pursed my lips and clutched my fists.
“But I am alone,” I shrugged. “Even if you’re sitting right here, I’m still alone.”
Colby flinched, presumably at my tone and the words. I’d expected that. I’d structured the words to wound, hadn’t I? I was drunk, and it had been a long while since I’d been in the presence of someone I cared about. My isolation had sharpened me. Made me cruel.