Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 143870 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 480(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143870 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 480(@300wpm)
“I have twenty-ish minutes,” I tell him. “Then I have to take a shower and go.”
“Let’s make it thirty.”
I stare at him in question.
“I’ll fuck you in the shower,” he rumbles. “And I’ll wash you while I do it.”
Thirty minutes ends up being forty, which is…whatever. I don’t like being late, but my friends won’t care if I’m a few minutes behind.
After our shower, Bran gives me some privacy to take off my mask and wash my face. It’s not really necessary, considering he already knows who I am, but it feels too vulnerable having it off.
When I’m finished cleaning up, I do what I can with the bite mark on my neck. I only brought the basics for makeup, and it isn’t doing much to cover it. Fortunately, the other imprints on my thighs and breasts aren’t visible beneath the dress I’m wearing.
Bran left his claim all over me, including the chain necklace that’s still locked around my neck.
As it occurs to me that he’ll probably need to take it off, a hollow ache settles in my chest.
It’s ridiculous.
One night. That’s all this was.
Emotions aren’t part of this arrangement. We’re just two strangers with insane chemistry, and this rush I experience every time I see him doesn’t mean anything.
It can’t.
Steeling myself with a breath, I open the bathroom door and step back into the suite.
Bran occupies the chair across the room, a man perfectly at ease in nothing but a pair of black briefs. I have to force myself to focus on his mask, because if I look at his body again, I’ll never make it to the island.
“I guess this is where we go our separate ways.” I try for a smile, but it falls flat.
“Come here,” he says, voice dipping low.
The logical part of my brain tells me that’s a bad idea, but the reckless part of me isn’t listening.
We deserve a goodbye, and going without one won’t make this any easier.
I walk over to the chair and set down my bag. He pulls me closer until I’m standing between his legs. His gaze tips up as he looks at me, and even though I can’t see the depths of his eyes, I feel the war waging behind them.
He’s wrestling with something, and if I had to guess, it’s that this has to be the end. I don’t know what his life outside of here is like, but he deserves more than cloaked meetings and my emotional baggage.
He was reluctant to meet with me again, and I can’t blame him. He probably has an endless list of women who can offer him more than this.
Swallowing the conflict rising inside me, I revert to humor, because it’s easier than sorting through whatever the hell this feeling is.
“Could you not have had at least one terrible flaw?”
When he doesn’t smile, I think he really has ruined me. Because the knot in my throat feels permanent, and even now, there’s a small part of me that wants to ask him to keep me.
As if he could.
As if any of this could ever work when I’m…me.
Slowly, he rises to his feet, fingers ghosting over my jaw as he claims my mouth in a drugging kiss. It sends a million tiny sparks through me, even as pressure builds behind my eyes.
I don’t want it to end, and I really, really don’t want to cry in front of him. But, inevitably, he releases me, his gaze drifting to the silver chain against my throat.
The keys are in his trouser pocket, but he doesn’t retrieve them, and I don’t ask him to.
“I do have at least one terrible flaw,” he murmurs.
“What is it?” I rasp.
He drags his thumb over the lock around my neck, a thread of possession darkening his voice.
“Goodbye, dea.”
20
CHANTEL
“Are you okay?”
“What?” I blink.
“You’ve been staring at that onesie for the last five minutes,” Abella points out.
“Oh.”
“She’s exhausted from getting dicked hard all night.” Serafina smirks.
“Yeah, probably,” I mumble, regretting my choice to send those emojis in the group chat earlier.
I didn’t really think through the follow-up questions, and I still haven’t fully processed everything that happened.
“Ugg,” Abella groans. “I have to pee again. I’ll be back in a few.”
“I’ll walk with you,” Val says. “I need to grab some water. Anyone else want anything?”
The rest of us tell them we’re good, and they wander down the hall, leaving me alone with Lucia and Serafina. Naturally, the moment she has the opportunity, Serafina pounces.
“Are you ever going to tell us who it was?” She eyes the bite mark on my neck.
“Does this have anything to do with what happened at Eden?” Lucia asks.
“Wait, what happened at Eden?” Sera glances between us.
“Cristian almost murdered Gio’s friend,” Lucia supplies.
“Why?”
“Because Chantel woke the devil inside him.” She laughs.
“Serious?” Sera’s brows shoot up.
“Yep.” Lucia studies me. “So, was it him?”