Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 94076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
When you fled like a weirdo.
“I followed you home last night,” he says.
That catches me off guard.
“You stalking me now?” I say, a little too defensively, as I put my cup down on the counter.
“It’s my job,” he says seriously. “You were so adamant you didn’t want a ride home, it got me curious.”
“Forgive me for not wanting to climb on the back of your bike. I’m sure there’s a long list of girls who would like to.”
Okay, what the fuck was that?
Lars ignores it. “A girl like you doesn’t live in a dive like that.”
“You don’t know what kind of girl I am.”
“You’re right, I don’t know anything about you. But I do know that you don’t belong at the Blue Lagoon.”
“And where do I belong, in your bedroom like Bambi? She looked pretty happy when I saw her coming out of there this morning. Or was that just for last night and there’ll be someone else warming your bed tonight?”
Fuck, what the hell was that? It’s like I opened my mouth and vomited my mood all over the floor.
But Lars looks unfazed.
In fact, he completely ignores my outburst. “Why are you living in a motel?”
“Because I’m in between homes.”
“I thought you were living with a friend. The one who picked you up the other night.”
I’ve got a friend waiting for me.
“I never said I was living with them,” I say.
“Tell me what’s going on.”
“I don’t have to tell you shit.”
I try to walk past him, but he stops me. “The Blue Lagoon is the bottom of the barrel.”
“Well I can’t afford anywhere other than the bottom of the barrel.”
He pulls out a wad of cash from his jeans. One of those wads of cash you see in the movies.
“You can now.”
I push his hand away. “Keep your money. I don’t want any more of your help. You’ve done enough. I’m not your responsibility.”
“You think I can sleep easy knowing you live in that shithole?”
“Why does it bother you so much?”
“Because I have a fucking conscience. There are three kinds of people who visit the Blue Lagoon. The desperate. The cops. Or the fucking medical examiner when they’re picking up another body. It’s no place for a young woman on her own.”
“I’ve put up with worse.”
So much worse.
Ironically, I feel safer at the seedy motel than I have in the last three months in the Moretti mansion.
But Lars steps closer and reaches around me, engulfing me in his scent—something earthy and warm and so fucking sexy I can almost taste it on my tongue. He pushes the wad of cash into the back pocket of my shorts, then brushes his lips to my ear. “And don’t believe everything you see, Little Cinder. If anyone is going to warm my bed beside me, it will be you.”
And with that, he walks out of the room, leaving my lips parted and my skin pebbled with goosebumps in his wake.
CHAPTER 33
Ella
I feel foolish for my reaction.
But I don’t get a moment to think about it, because two minutes after Lars leaves, Bambi walks into the kitchen and cautiously approaches me like I’m an activated bomb.
“Can we talk?”
“Sure,” I say brightly.
She takes me by the hands and squeezes them gently. “I didn’t know you were interested in Lars.”
I’m caught off guard. “Oh, I’m not int—”
“Mya told me.”
I’m starting to think Mya is the town crier of this clubhouse.
“If I had known, I would never have spent the night in his room.” Her eyes widen. “Not that anything happened. I mean, I offered, because I didn’t know that you were interested in him.”
“I’m not inter—”
“But he turned me down. He slept in a chair across the room from me. I’m so sorry. Tell me you’re not mad.”
“There is nothing to be mad about. Lars and I aren’t—”
“I’ve told the other girls that he’s off limits from now on.”
Oh my God.
What is even happening right now?
“You didn’t need to do that. Lars and I aren’t a thing.”
“But you’re interested in him.”
I pause long enough for the silence to speak volumes.
Bambi grins. And then she squeals. “I knew it. Mya was right. She’s got such a good instinct for these things.”
“You guys are getting ahead of yourselves,” I say, laughing because I’m finding it hard not to get swept up in her effervescence.
“No point dilly-dallying when you know something is gonna happen,” she singsongs.
“Nothing is going to happen.”
But as soon as I say the words, even I know it’s a lie.
It feels like something is happening between us.
The problem is, I don’t really know what it is.
No. The real problem is you aren’t who you say you are, and once this all comes to light, everything will blow up in your face.
If you’re still alive.
“You didn’t need to tell the others to stay away from Lars,” I reiterate.