Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 19358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 97(@200wpm)___ 77(@250wpm)___ 65(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 97(@200wpm)___ 77(@250wpm)___ 65(@300wpm)
“Do you?”
“Hon… of course I do, but I can’t help but be a little hurt by it. We’ve been sleeping together for two months. And you’ve never asked me to your place. It would be one thing if you lived with your parents or a roommate. But you live alone. So what’s the deal? Are you a hoarder? Is that it?”
He huffed out a laugh. “Please. Have you met me? I organized your coffee pods the first morning I stayed over.”
“Yes, you did,” I said fondly. After tucking in my shirt and buckling my belt, I moved over and sat on the side of the bed. I reached over and ran fingers through his hair. “I’d like to see where you live.”
“Why?”
“You can learn a lot about a person from their home,” I said, leaning down to kiss his irresistible mouth.
Hon peered at me with only one eye open. “I’ll think about it.”
His serious tone suggested he meant it, so I shot him my best smile. The one that never failed to make his cheeks pink. “Deal. Be a good little lawyer today, m’kay?”
I leaned over and kissed him thoroughly to keep him from saying something snarky. When I finally pulled back and saw him glassy-eyed and pink-cheeked, words of affection stacked up in my throat.
Words about wanting to make a fresh start with him.
About wanting to give a relationship with him a try, though I’d thought I’d sworn off relationships a long time ago.
About wanting to be more than just sex partners.
But Hon clearly wasn’t ready to hear them yet.
So I headed to work… and landed directly in a nightmare.
9
HONOVI
Straight truth, I had fallen for Xavier Rhodes. Hard.
But I’d been burned before, and I was reluctant to give this man the power to hurt me the way my ex had only two short years ago.
Slow and steady wins the race, right? That was all I was doing. Going slowly.
Did I like him? Yes. Did I want to spend every waking moment with him? Also yes. Did I want him to come to my house? Actually, no. Because I loved his house and wanted to move into it with him so we could have some all-American domestic dream life together.
Which was exactly why I was trying to stay cool.
My ability to stay cool ended the moment I walked through the office door and saw Gracie’s pale, shocked face.
“You need to get to the hospital right away!”
“What happened? Who’s hurt?”
I thought of my parents, who lived in Florida and wouldn’t be in the Hobie hospital. “Is it Xavier? Dr. Rhodes?” I asked weakly.
Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. I hadn’t told anyone I’d been seeing him.
“Well, yes, but it’s because of Mr. Miller. He had a bad fall and was in the emergency room. The doctors said he needed surgery, but his son insisted he had medical power of attorney and a DNR. He refused consent. Dr. Miller is freaking out. She called me, but before calling you, I made sure to send copies of everything to the hospital admin and legal team.”
I blew out a breath and tried to calm down. “Good. You did good. That’s all they need. I’ll head over there to be with Janet.” I turned to head back out when Gracie’s words stopped me and stole my breath.
“No, you don’t understand. Joey Miller is in the ER with a gun. He’s taken the surgeon hostage inside a patient room.”
“Xavier?” I asked, feeling all the blood drain out of my face and fingers.
“Yes.”
I didn’t wait for any more information. I yelled over my shoulder for her to call Judge Ricks before I raced out to my car and threw it into reverse. It took me only minutes to get to the hospital. There were already police vehicles with flashing lights outside, so I found an alternate entrance on the other side and snuck in past several people racing out the door. I could hear yelling. Several uniformed officers were blocking off the hallway to the emergency room, and others seemed to be talking through a closed door to the person yelling inside.
The officers wouldn’t let me past, even when I told them I was the attorney for one of the victims. It wasn’t until Dr. Miller saw me from the waiting room that she cried out and ran to me. I took her in my arms and held her tightly. “Tell me what’s happening.”
“Joey’s in some kind of rage. I don’t know what’s going on. It’s like he’s on something. He’s not acting like himself at all, and that poor doctor in there—” She let out a sob that nearly did me in.
“Has anyone been hurt?” I asked with my heart in my throat.
Janet’s good friend Petra came up and patted Janet’s back. “She called me to join her when she realized Joey was here. Sure enough, he started causing problems right away. I agree he’s on something. We already informed the officers.”