Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
I paid for a taxi to get my suitcases to the new apartment. I would retrieve my motorbike some other time. I paid for a furnished spot because I didn’t have a single piece of furniture to my name. Technically, Enzo and I had split the cost of everything at our old place, but I wanted him out of my life so much that I didn’t even want to bother with that conversation. He could keep it all. Fuck her on every piece of it, for all I cared.
I texted Constantine my new address, and the second I saw his name at the top of the message box, I felt a thrill of excitement and hesitation. Excitement because he made me feel alive when I thought I’d never feel that way again. And hesitation because . . . well, he was the most dangerous man in the world I could have in my life. Just got the keys to my place. Excited to finally have my own space . . . and not share a bathroom. I wasn’t sure when to expect a response because I didn’t have a clue what his hours were. He said he worked all the time, but he had to sleep, right?
But the dots popped up instantly. Congrats, sweetheart. Now you can walk around in nothing but those cute little thongs you wear.
That same rush I felt anytime I interacted with him was immediate. The same fire-breathing dragons I’d felt when I’d seen him across the bar hit me right in the feels. Outside of our conversations, I felt like a walking zombie, but the second he was there, I felt good again. I hadn’t talked to him in almost a week. I’d focused on editing all of my photos from the shoots I’d done last week. Now, I had to hustle a little harder than before because I needed to cover rent by myself, not to mention all the other expenses that came from just being alive. Did you go through my stuff?
No comment.
I knew I shouldn’t have entrusted you with my belongings.
Yep, that’s on you.
And just like that, I missed him like mad. Missed him like a best friend. Missed him like . . . something a lot hotter than a best friend.
I can come by in 15.
Okay, I’ll be here.
See you soon, sweetheart.
When he knocked on the door half an hour later, he’d already placed all my belongings into the hallway, carrying them up from the Range Rover entirely on his own. He hadn’t worked up a sweat either, as if moving my entire life had been a warm-up.
“Wow, that was fast.”
He looked at me across the threshold, taking a pause to take in my appearance, wearing a black T-shirt that hugged his thick arms, the shade bringing out the color of his tattoos, ink that I’d never really looked at because I’d been so distracted by everything else.
The heat immediately burned between us, a wildfire that started with a single blade of grass before it engulfed an entire clearing. I could feel him pull me in with just his stare, like his soul was so intense it had its own magnetism.
He crossed the threshold and came toward me, eyes locked on mine the way they’d been across the patio at his family’s restaurant. The hunter had found its prey, and there was no escape.
His arm circled my lower back, and he gently tugged me into him, my soft stomach feeling his rock-hard core. I was barefoot, so he was over half a foot taller than me, his head dipping and his neck bending as he moved in to kiss me.
There was a moment when I could have pulled away, but I was swept up in the way he looked at me, in a way no other man had ever done before. Even on my best day with Enzo, he’d never had this kind of obsessed intensity.
Constantine kissed me, slow and purposeful, a gentle collision of soft lips and easy breaths. He slid his free hand into my hair, and he cradled my head as he continued to kiss me, kiss me like I had a place in his heart, not just his bed. The arm that hugged my back lowered, and he moved his big hand over my ass and squeezed a cheek through my jeans.
I loved it when he grabbed my ass like that. Like I was a piece of meat. Like I was his piece of meat.
He pulled away, his strong hands leaving my body and taking all the heat he brought with him. He stepped into the hallway and then wordlessly started to pick up boxes and bring them inside, placing them in the corner of the living room where there was space against the wall.
I walked into the hallway to help.