Total pages in book: 156
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
“And she belongs to me. And I’m supposed to protect her.”
“She belongs to us. And we protect her,” Jared told him. “So this is on both of us. Not just you.”
“I need to keep her safe. Never had someone so weak and vulnerable to take care of.”
Hey. Rude.
“I’m not weak,” she grumbled.
“You are our vulnerable point,” Jared told her. “North can take care of himself, but you can’t.”
“I’m actually pretty good with a knife now.”
“No, you’re not,” North replied. “Fuck. Fine. It wasn’t my fault that an assassin got so close to her.”
“Good boy, that wasn’t so hard was it?” Jared crooned. “Of course you’ll still be punished for pulling a knife on me.”
North nodded although he didn’t look all that worried by the threat to punish him.
“Just fucking finish jerking me off.”
“My pleasure.” Jared nibbled on his neck as he moved his hand faster. Harder.
Her breathing increased, her heart racing as she took them in. God.
That was so fucking hot.
“Come for me, boy,” Jared told him.
North grunted and then came with another moan.
Darn it. Despite the pain in her side and the drugs she was on, she could feel herself growing wet.
“I think our girl liked that show,” Jared murmured.
“She loved it,” she said breathlessly.
“I bet she’s all wet,” Jared said as North righted his clothes.
Darn it. She’d prefer he stay naked. She pouted. “I am wet.”
“Someone needs to come. Poor baby girl. If she hadn’t run away from her men, we could have made her come. Over and over,” Jared told her before disappearing into the bathroom to clean up.
“But that’s not going to happen now,” North told her.
“That’s so mean,” she cried.
“We can’t risk you hurting yourself,” Jared added as he returned. “Plus, you’re being punished so you don’t get to come.”
That really sucked. But before she could argue, Jared turned to North. “Did you bring her some food? She needs to eat.”
“Oh, yeah. Some sandwiches and fruit salad.” North picked up a bag he’d dropped by the door.
They started setting up the food as though nothing had just happened. She gaped at them as they moved around the room. What the heck?
North had held a knife to Jared’s throat!
Jared made him come in a hospital room!
And now they’d gone all domestic. Acting like that hadn’t just happened.
Jared unlocked the door and stepped out to offer the guards some food while North laid out her food on a tray that he put over her lap.
“Oh, bless you,” she said as she spotted the iced coffee. But Jared walked over and grabbed it before she could.
“Hey!” she cried. “Give that back! I need that.”
“You only think you need it,” Jared countered. “What you really need is good food to help you feel better. So after you’ve eaten, you can have it.”
“I don’t want to eat. And why are you both acting like nothing just happened?”
“What do you mean?” North asked.
“You were . . . you were angry. I’ve never seen you like that. You pulled a knife on Jared!”
“Oh, good reminder.” North stood and looked under the bed, grabbing the knife and sliding it behind his back again.
“That’s not why I mentioned the knife . . . it was . . . that was . . .”
“Did I scare you?” North asked.
He was back to his usual robotic self. Except she didn’t think of him as an unfeeling robot anymore. He felt things, he just either didn’t want to or had pretended for so long that he didn’t even realize he felt them.
“No. I wasn’t scared.” Well, not for herself. Maybe a bit for Jared. “I was more worried about you. Are you all right, now?”
“Yes, of course. Jared knew what I needed. You don’t need to worry about me.”
“Except I do. Because that’s what you do for people you love. You want the best for them.” But she also didn’t want him to feel like he had to change. That he wasn’t good enough the way he was. “Thanks for worrying about me, though. For wanting to keep me safe.”
“I will do a better job. Nothing will happen to you or Jared.”
“I think you were right,” Jared said as he sat with his own sandwich. “You need to stay with her at all times. Be her personal bodyguard.”
Her eyes widened. “Personal bodyguard?”
Maybe she hadn’t let herself think about how serious this was. And she probably should.
Because there was a person going around cutting off heads.
“You really think I need that? Or do you mean just while I’m in the hospital? It’s not like I go anywhere, anyway.”
“Yes, I think you do,” Jared said. “And I want North with you whenever you leave the house, yes. Which won’t be happening until we kill Beltran. But I also want North to know where you are at all times.”
“I will,” North confirmed.