Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
The opposite wall was a line of windows that overlooked the front yard.
Ahead was a staircase with a carved, ornate railing.
“Do I got a room, Mr. Kane?” Maci peeped, holding onto the skirt of her dress and swishing it around as she turned to look at him.
“You sure do,” he said. “Right this way.”
Kane angled around her and headed for the staircase.
Then he paused to look back at me, a startled worry suddenly coloring his face. “Is she good with the stairs?”
“Don’t even worry,” Maci cut in before I had the chance to answer. “I had stairs at my mommy’s house, and I never even fell down once because I got good balance because I’m a ballerina.”
Maci was already clomping her way up, passing him as she glided her hand along the railing as she went.
Reservations rolled from the man, but he seemed to accept it, and he turned and followed closely behind her, carrying my suitcase and her bag.
While I held back, not sure what the hell I was supposed to do with myself.
What had I been thinking? Just…accepting his terms?
But in the moment, it’d felt like the only option I had.
My spirit flailed.
It was the only option I had. There was nothing else I could do but agree to this because I sure as hell wasn’t just giving Maci up.
Getting through it was an entirely different story. Staying under the same roof with this man who made it feel like he was stealing the last whole part of me.
With the man who made it feel as if I was on a countdown to destruction.
All while my chest stretched tight at his care.
I shook myself out of it and hurried up the steps behind them. At the top, there was a landing that opened to hallways that ran down either side.
Kane moved down the hall to the left. Coming to a stop, he pointed at the first door on the right. “This is you, Emery.”
I swallowed around the rocks in my throat and inched toward it, faltering a bit when I stepped in.
I was not expecting what I found.
The room was lush and feminine.
Decorated in a deep plum and a whimsical peach.
It smelled faintly of paint, though a bunch of candles were burning from a shelf up high on the wall.
A huge antique bed with a black metal headboard sat on the far-left wall, and there was a giant window with a seat that overlooked the rambling lawn out back and the stream that snaked through at the edge of the forest in the distance.
“Hope you like it.” I startled when the rugged voice rolled over me from behind.
Chills skated along the nape of my neck and down my spine.
Fine hairs lifting in antsy anticipation.
I attempted not to show him I was affected as I turned to face him and set my bags onto the floor.
“It’s fine,” I told him.
Something akin to a smirk hitched the edge of his mouth. “Fine, huh?”
He definitely knew it was gorgeous.
“Hey, where’s my room?” Maci shouted from out in the hall, the hardwood planks clattering from her jumping in place.
Kane hesitated, as if he wanted to say more, before he gave and ducked back into the hall.
“The room right next door to your auntie’s,” he said, his grumbly voice echoing as they moved.
Little feet pounded, then Maci screeched, “What? This is the best room in the whole wide world! How did you even get this princess bed?”
Her joy vibrated through the wall.
My head spun. How had he done all of this? For her? For me?
A low tolling of laughter joined it. “Well, the second I found out you were coming to stay, I knew I had to get it ready.”
“Guess it’s a good fing I got here.”
“Yeah, Maci, I think it’s a really good thing you got here.”
I pressed my hand over my mouth to stop the cry that threatened to rip out, to force the chaos down into the pit where I needed to keep it. To calm the storm that raged inside.
To just be okay.
But I didn’t know how to make it okay when all of this just seemed…wrong. Questions constantly spun through me. The million whys I would never be able to ask my sister.
Inhaling a breath, I shuffled over to the picture window and stared out at the scenery.
Trying to draw in its peace.
I doubted I was going to find any of that here since another shiver rolled when I felt his presence emerge from behind again.
A swell of intensity that blistered across the room.
I didn’t want to look, but there was nothing I could do.
The man a snare.
Apparently, I had trouble looking away from beautiful things.
Beautiful, vicious, dangerous things.
The ground trembled as he took two steps forward, a clash of chills and fire igniting on my flesh as he leaned in close to my ear.