Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 80643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Roman starts rattling off words that I can tell are Russian curses.
“Explain everything,” I tell Roman, and Hunter takes the laptop from me, clamping it shut.
“I don’t fucking tell you shit, Torin,” Roman roars at me, his calm breaking like a sudden storm over water. “I told you too much earlier, and now you know far too much. Don’t you understand that you are putting yourself at risk, knowing this? Putting your nose where it shouldn’t be?”
“Because I need Noah to be okay,” I say. “Period. There’s nothing more important than that.”
“Because you like that you’ve gotten him to wait on you like a goddamn servant,” Roman says. “Tripping over his words around you because you’ve intimidated him. Asking if you’re okay every three seconds—”
“He wants to,” I tell him. “Trust me.”
“Noah has been through the kind of hell you don’t understand,” Roman says. “I hated him, too, once, you know. He’d piss me off every fucking day, talk back at me, pester me. But he was hurting, Torin. He is hurting. And the moment he got sober it became so painfully clear.”
“You don’t have a single clue how I feel about Noah.”
Roman’s eyes gleam in the reflection of the fire. “Then inform me.”
“I care about him even though I didn’t even fucking want to,” I shout. “I can’t leave him alone. I’m worried about him, and I do know he’s hurting, and I think he’s stronger, and smarter, than he’s ever known.”
Roman’s expression goes stony.
“Sounds like you’re saying you love him.”
“Shut your mouth.”
“Just putting it how I see it,” Roman says.
I shake my head, feeling like I’m going to explode if he says another word to me.
“Who is your fucking cousin with the hat?”
Roman finally drops my gaze and paces back and forth near the fire.
“He may as well not be my cousin. Kuzma is younger than me, and the son of an uncle who only recently moved here from Russia. I haven’t really known Kuzma until the past few months. I invited him to one party, and the vibes were… bad.”
“To say the least,” Hunter chimes back in. “That guy freaked me the fuck out.”
“But he was family, so I included him,” Roman says. “Mistake. Fucking mistake. Kuzma was supposed to come over tomorrow, along with Maks.”
My heart drops.
“He was going to come here? To Onyx House?”
Roman narrows his eyes at me. “Yes. And it’s not going to happen now. I’m calling it off. I’m meeting with Maks alone.”
“Don’t fucking push this off again, Roman.”
“I’m meeting with Maks alone right now,” he tells me, already pulling out his phone and making a call.
I don’t trust anything anymore, but at least Roman is taking action.
I head back inside with Hunter once Roman leaves to go meet Maks, and Hunter stops me in the living room before I go upstairs.
“You should have told me something was happening,” Hunter implores me. “I can’t stand the idea of anything happening to someone in this house. After what almost happened with Rayne and Weston last fall…”
I clench my jaw.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him. “I’m used to doing everything alone.”
He pulls in a breath. “Me too, to be honest.”
I nod. “I just didn’t know who I could trust. Not yet.”
“Noah means a lot to me,” Hunter says. “When I was new here, he was consistently kind to me. He was drunk a lot back then, but he was a kind drunk.”
I puff out a bitter laugh. “Yeah. He was always kind, even when he was wasted.”
Hunter searches my face. “You weren’t just snooping in his room, were you?” he asks. “Torin… you should know that I’m the least judgmental person you could ever meet. Do you and Noah…”
“Noah is mine,” I blurt out.
Saying the words out loud feels like throwing cage doors open wide and finally letting a wild bird fly free.
Noah is mine.
Noah.
Is.
Mine.
Hunter’s eyes go a little wide in recognition.
But afterward, he just nods.
“I see.”
I swallow hard, then speak again. “Noah pisses me off like no one else can, and does things to me I’d never let anyone do, and he’s an impossible person. But he’s mine.”
“Then take good care of him,” Hunter says softly. “Because if that’s how you’re describing it, then Noah is probably head over fucking heels for you.”
My heart goes scattershot in my chest.
I have no idea if it’s true.
There are questions I still have, and I know Noah’s dead set on marrying the perfect woman.
But I see how he looks at me, too.
Like he’s been knocking on the door of my heart, over and over again, wondering if anything is inside.
There wasn’t, I realize.
Not until you bothered me enough to realize it was there all along.
21
Noah
I wake up with a gasp, spotting Torin sitting on my desk chair in the early morning light.
“Fuck. How long have you been sitting there?” I ask.