Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 109033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
I was curious to see how long it would take you to notice him, Luka had replied. It’s reassuring that you did so this quickly.
Why reassuring? she’d asked.
His response had been blunt and to the point. Because your safety is far more important to me than I’d anticipated it would be.
She hadn’t said anything more about it, telepathically or verbally, since.
A soft snore popped out of Darko, and it was then that Luka realized both fallen angels were asleep. Some guards they were. He supposed he should take it as a compliment that they so implicitly trusted Ella and Lily’s safety with him.
“Admit it, I’m right,” pushed Ella, leaning forward in her seat.
Luka squinted. “I really loathe it when you’re bored. You turn into a meddling, nosy—”
“You’re defensive,” she noted, her lips curving. “That’s telling.”
“Not defensive, just uninterested in addressing your incorrect assumptions. You’re free to believe what you want. Now, you didn’t answer my question. What did Draya say?”
Ella lifted her shoulders in a mocking challenge. “Is it important, considering Naomi apparently doesn’t matter to you?”
Luka pressed his lips tight together. Honestly, Belial wanted to shake her right now.
“I’ve never had cause to really talk to Naomi beyond saying hi and stuff, so I asked some of the demons in her lair about her.”
He felt his brow pinch. “You normally don’t express an interest in women I bed.”
“You don’t normally make frequent appearances at their place of work and stare at them like you want to devour them. With Naomi, you did that even before you made your play—I heard all about it. And it tells me two things. One, you liked to watch her a whole lot. Two, you were ensuring that other men noticed your interest in her to deter them from making a play of their own. It made me curious.”
It really was frustrating how well Ella knew him.
“Harper and Khloë used a whole bunch of words to describe your siren. Spunky. Protective. Loyal. Sharp. Secretive. They also said that she’s like you—has a small circle of people around her who she lets close; others she holds at a distance. Also, again like you, she apparently keeps her sexual associations short and shallow.”
“Hmm.”
Ella smiled. “You really don’t want to discuss her with me, do you? Why not? You’re evasive in general, but your bed buds aren’t usually off limits when we natter.”
Yes, well, he’d rather his anchor didn’t sense something she’d blow out of proportion —that he liked Naomi more than he’d expected. She possessed the very qualities that Harper and Khloë had listed, all of which appealed to him. Plus, with Naomi, there was no artifice, no practiced moves, no scripted lines. She talked to him. Listened to him. Her smiles were easy, her warmth was genuine, and her laughs were open.
As a rule, Luka never found himself wanting to know his bed partners beyond surface level, but she intrigued him. Honestly, he felt uneasy at the curiosity she roused in him. A curiosity he’d tried and failed to douse so far. It would surely flit away with time.
“You have a pretty active life,” he said to his anchor. “Why take time out of it to stick your nose into mine?”
“Same reason you’re all up in my business. You want what’s best for me in all areas of my life. Well, right back at you.”
“I appreciate your concern.”
“No you don’t.”
“No, I don’t. It’s fucking irritating.”
Ella’s shoulders shook with a silent laugh. “At least I’m not sitting here insisting that you drop Naomi the way you insisted I drop Viper. All I want is to hear you admit that you have more than a sexual interest in her. I mean, it’s not as if it isn’t clear as day for someone who knows you as well as I do.”
Luka gave her a flat stare. “When are you going home?”
Another quiet laugh made her shoulders shake. “I’m on the right track here, I know it.”
Darko snored so loudly he woke up both himself and Ghost.
Looking around, he double-blinked, sitting upright. “What was that noise?”
Luka shot him a frown. “It was you. Snoring.”
Darko’s gaze lowered to Lily. “And she stayed asleep. Seriously, man, you have to move to the compound.”
“Not happening,” Luka told him.
Ghost’s brow furrowed. “Don’t be selfish.”
“Not selfish, just not going to be a live-in babysitter,” said Luka. “I have too much shit to do anyway—I’d hardly ever be here.”
“He’s right on that,” Ella chipped in.
Darko’s shoulders sagged in defeat. “There’s no hope, is there? We’re gonna have to go without sleep for the rest of our lives.”
Ella rolled her eyes. “Don’t be dramatic. It’s not like you have her with you twenty-four/seven. Honestly, I’ve never known a bunch of grown-ass men to whine so damn much.”
“We’re sleep-deprived,” said Ghost, his voice rising slightly. “What do you expect?”