Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“There’s an event tomorrow night.” He sounded deceptively indifferent.
I smiled. “Someone’s turning the big four-oh. I heard.”
His hands slowed and he grimaced. “Yes. As much as I like you naked, you’ll need something to wear.”
I gathered the sheet around me as I sat up. “You just assume I’m going? Maybe I have other plans.”
“Like your plans of staying with Jason and L?” Victory flashed across his face. “How did that work out for you?”
I tried to look annoyed but failed when a smile leaked out. “You’re kind of a jerk.”
He echoed back the same response from the limo. “Didn’t your sister warn you?” He threaded his hands in my hair and drew me up onto my knees so he could lean down and kiss me. “I’ll have my assistant set up an account somewhere for a dress.”
This time the annoyed look came easily. “No, thank you. I have my own money. That would make me feel like a kept woman.”
His eyes warmed. “I wouldn’t dream of trying to keep you. Except,” he whispered, “maybe all to myself.”
21
KARA
Friday evening, I was alone in Shawn’s penthouse. I changed into a purple dress with a plunging neckline and stepped into the tall, matching heels, which I immediately regretted not breaking in. My hands worried the button of my clutch purse as I dialed Laurel.
“You’re still at the theater?” I asked when she mentioned her rehearsal had run long.
“Yeah, the choreographer is having difficulty with his vision,” she grumbled. “I’m heading to the brewery straight from here. What’s up?”
“Tell me I’m a crazy woman for getting involved with him. Be my voice of reason.” Because I was drowning in my feelings and I was going to get hurt. I wanted this rapid descent to stop . . . or at least slow the hell down.
She laughed lightly. “You’re the one who’s practically living with him, and you want me to, what? Talk you out of your feelings? Sorry, I like Shawn. He’s Jason’s brother. And he gave us his house.”
“Oh,” I said. “I didn’t know that.”
What I really wanted to say was I didn’t want to know that. The sprawling and impressive mansion Jason and Laurel lived in was actually Shawn’s. There wasn’t furniture in this apartment because he’d given it to my pregnant sister. This further solidified he was capable of thinking of someone other than himself. That was about the only negative I had left and clung to, to keep me from going under.
“You’re no help,” I said. “That only makes me like him more.”
She seemed to find that amusing.
Shawn had chosen to stay in the office all day since the event would be held on the front lawn of the brewery. At six-fifteen, I texted him that I was on my way. The new shoes were a nightmare to walk in as I crossed the apartment lobby, but the goal was to stand as tall as Shawn did tonight. I liked being equal to him.
Markus held the main door open for me, and I stepped out onto the sidewalk, shielding the setting sun from my eyes with my clutch. “Which way is the car?”
“We go now, Frau,” he said under his breath.
“What’s wrong?” My heart beat faster.
His hand on my elbow guided me in the right direction. “Someone waits.”
My shoes didn’t just hurt—they’d be impossible to run in. I hurried along as quickly as I could, letting him lead me down the pavement to a limo.
“Is he following?” I whispered as he yanked the door open.
“Yes.”
It was unbearable, the urge to look for whoever had put my bodyguard on high alert, but I resisted. I threw myself into the back seat, him following right behind and ordering the driver to go.
But before the limo started to move, the door across the way swung open and a dark, enormous figure shoved his way in. The driver yelled at the intruder at the same time Markus drew a gun from inside his jacket—
But the tall man was nearly on top of me as he leaned over, crushing me into the seat with his weight as he disarmed Markus in an instant. It happened so fast, it was shocking, and my heart stopped. I was frozen in place.
The tall man kept the gun in his hand but hid it from the driver’s view, ordering him in German to do something . . . probably to drive.
When the limo lurched forward, the intruder sat up and his weight was gone. Cold, dark eyes swept over me. He had a long face and dark hair, and an expression that said he was deadly serious. I cowered while Markus tried to get in between me and this man.
But the intruder was saying something that gave my bodyguard pause, and the gun that had been taken from him . . . it remained down. Not threatening.