Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
I didn’t want to hurt their feelings.
“Oh,” Left Bogeyman said in a way that sounded so… relieved? The arms around me tightened, their shaking intensifying. One of their hands curled into my T-shirt.
“That’s enough,” a deep, snarly voice barked at the same time a palm landed on my lower back one more time.
The bogeymen reacted instantly, releasing me, and one of them bowed. Then the other one did the same, their unremarkable, lean faces bright and shining and so hopeful it made my heart squeeze.
Was one of them tearing up?
“Thank you, thank you,” the one on the left choked out with another bow that made me uncomfortable.
Right Bogeyman reached into his back pocket, earning a clear, loud growl from Henri that was anything but human, and the man lifted his hands, palms toward us, holding his wallet. “I mean no harm,” he gulped as he dug into it and started pulling out cash.
I watched as he held out a handful of bills. Hundreds and twenties it looked like. “Please, for your blessing,” Right Bogeyman explained.
The hand still on my back twitched, and I could see Henri’s face out of the corner of my eye. He was gritting his teeth, so I shook my head at the stranger. “No, you don’t have to. That wasn’t… I told you, that’s not how it works.”
The bogeyman eyed Henri, before rushing out, “In the old days—”
“I’m only in my thirties!” I cleared my throat and lowered my voice. “The old days for me was having a flip phone,” I told them with a slight laugh.
“But—”
The human chainsaw beside me got louder.
For their sakes, I took a side-step closer to Henri, the hand on my lower back moving with me, and the next thing I knew, his arm was draped over my shoulders.
And the man, who I’d been thinking less than an hour ago that I might be developing serious feelings for, drew me in to his side, tight, so much tighter than I ever would have expected, my shoulder nestling perfectly under his armpit while he literally tucked me into him. Fingertips grazed the exposed skin of my arm before he wrapped his whole hand around it. Lifting my head, I found him glaring at the strangers with narrowed eyes and a…
That was an interesting face.
He reminded me of Matti when we’d been young and a human kid in school who didn’t know any better would try stealing food off his plate.
That poor idiot had no clue how close he’d been to getting bit.
“My patience has run out,” Henri spat through clenched teeth. “Pretend this never happened. That can be your payment.” He looked at them through slitted eyes. “If I catch you anywhere near here or hear that you’ve told someone about what happened today, I will find you. Both of you. Understood?”
The bogeymen bowed immediately, the one holding his wallet stuffing it back into his pocket. “Thank… thank you for your graciousness,” the left one stuttered before he focused on me with his simultaneously nervous and joyous plain face. “Thank you for your kindness, your gift—”
“Get off my property before I change my mind and show you what I do to trespassers.” The hard body lined up along mine pointed at a specific direction and growled, “Be fast.”
The men took off.
We watched them, or at least I did for a minute before tilting my head up.
Henri hadn’t been paying them any attention anymore. That focus was down. On me.
His mouth was already flat, his gaze narrowed. He was thinking. He was thinking long and hard, all right. His cheek was doing that pop thing. Pop, pop, pop.
Reaching for him, I squeezed the fingers that were holding my other upper arm. “You okay? You’re sure you’re fine letting them go?” I asked, not positive what I would do if he said he wasn’t. I didn’t want him to hurt them, not as long as they were really leaving and would keep their word.
“I’m fine,” he answered, staring me right in the eyes with that sober freaking face.
“That’s good,” I said before biting the inside of my cheek and coming to a decision. “About that….”
Henri was taking me in like he’d never seen me before.
It made me nervous.
“Don’t finish that sentence. The last time I met one of their kind, it didn’t end well,” he cut me off. It was what he said next that had me blinking. “You did a nice thing. Hope in itself is a gift.”
He wasn’t wrong about that, but it didn’t make me feel less self-conscious. A part of me wanted to pretend that hadn’t just happened, so I did what I usually did when I wanted to change the subject.
I poked Henri in the solid wall that were his abs. “See? Told you I was going to be your bodyguard.”