Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 58962 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58962 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
What the hell could she have done to piss someone off so badly?
“Okay,” I said, hoping to appease her. “You don’t have to tell me. It’s none of my business.”
Obviously, she was on the penthouse floor for a reason. The only way to get to this level was with a keycard, so either she was staying here or was a guest. She had to have been in one of the other suites and fled.
Why and from whom? I wanted her to tell me, so I could go and rip their heads clean off their bodies–it would soothe my inner wolf to protect our mate but also because I’d been cooped up in this crowded city all week, which drove me crazy. I could be patient, as long as she didn’t leave.
“You’re safe with me,” I added. “I promise. But there’s no way I’m letting you go anywhere alone. Can you call a friend to pick you up?”
She rubbed her lips together, thinking.
I tried hard not to stare at them. To imagine what it would be like to kiss them. Or have them wrapped around my di–
Nope. I slammed the door on that thought. My wolf eyes were probably already glinting. Getting turned on by imagining the dirty things I wanted to do with this woman was not going to help.
“I can drive you home.” I veered into safer territory when her expression turned wary. “Or call you a cab?”
Not that I wouldn’t follow.
“It’s okay.” I stepped back further to let her out of the steam shower, and she rushed toward the door.
She tucked her hair behind her ear. “I, um, I drove here. My car’s in the parking garage.”
I stayed right on her tail. “Then I’ll escort you down.”
No way was I letting her leave this room or even this hotel on her own. Hell, I wasn’t letting her go off in her car by herself. Not if whoever was after her was still alive. But if I told her all this, she’d freak out even more than she already was. One step at a time.
She paused in the penthouse’s main room and turned to look at me, doubt clouding her eyes.
I gave her a smile and held my hands out by my side, hoping to show her I meant her no harm. “Don’t worry, sugar. I won’t let those guys anywhere near you.”
Her forehead creased. “How do you know there are guys, multiple?”
Fuck. Now I was already revealing my shifter abilities. My pack alpha, Rob, would kill me if he knew she’d figured out my secret. “I heard them saying to split up at the elevator.” I tapped my ear. “I have superhuman hearing.” I grinned to make her think the truth was a joke, and it worked.
A reluctant smile twisted her lips, and some of the tension left her shoulders.
“Um, okay. Yeah. An escort would be great.” She hung onto the back of a couch to shove her feet back in her high heels and pull her skirt down. “But, um, maybe we should take the stairwell?”
“Good idea.”
I tried to temper my wolf’s celebration. Nothing was locked in yet. I didn’t even know her name. Or have her number. I didn’t know how I’d ever find her again if she drove off without giving them to me.
I needed to win her trust fast.
“Let me check it.” I opened the door to the hallway. She followed. I held up a hand and slid past her, nearly groaning at the feel of her soft ass brushing my legs. “Wait here for a second, and I’ll make sure he’s not waiting in there.”
Bolstered by the look of relief on her face, I walked to the stairwell exit and threw open the door. I was in Denver for the week at the trade show, staying in this roomy penthouse suite to help me combat the claustrophobia from being in a city. I couldn’t handle a small place like a regular hotel room. That my suite was close to the stairwell was a perk. When my mate came running down that hallway, I’d just finished up the last day at the show and returned to the hotel. I’d decided once wasn’t enough, and I jogged up and down the flight of stairs seven times, trying to get my wolf to calm down enough to go inside.
Elevators were a total no-go for me. I’d lose my shit in one, even with my mate at my side.
I stepped into the stairwell and sniffed.
Yeah. The asshole had been here. He’d gone down the stairs. The question was–was he waiting for her at the bottom?
If they were still after her, they probably had the stairs and elevator exits covered.
I retreated and held the door, so it shut quietly. “Come on.”
I walked toward the other stairwell at the far end of the hall.