Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
“I don’t need a babysitter.”
“I know.” He finished with the lock. “But I’m still sleeping close to the front door.”
I looked at the duffel. “All night?”
“Tonight seemed like a good place to start.”
I couldn’t decide whether to laugh or throw him back outside. Not that I’d be able to. But that didn’t stop me from thinking about it.
“Did Stryker assign you to stay with me?”
“Explosives are my expertise, so yeah.” Gavin closed the space between us. “But staying with you was my call.”
I bit my bottom lip. “Even though any of your brothers could watch the house?”
“Outside, maybe.”
“And inside?”
His gaze dropped to my mouth. “Not happening.”
“Why?” I hated how breathy my voice was, and my cheeks heated.
He grinned at me. “You really need me to explain when you’re already blushing?”
His hands settled at my waist, and every sensible thought I had left went poof. “You’re very sure of yourself.”
“Only when I’m right.”
“You seem to think that’s all the time.”
“Not always.” His thumb brushed my side. “But definitely about you.”
He dipped his head to kiss me, his lips moving over mine gently at first, like he didn’t want to overwhelm me after everything that happened tonight. But that didn’t stop the passion from burning brightly between us. So I grabbed the front of his cut and kissed him back. That was all the encouragement he needed.
He backed me against the table and deepened the kiss until my knees went weak and my chin had the slightest burn from his beard. Then he pulled back with a groan, his thumb stroking the skin beneath my ear.
“Go to bed, pretty girl.”
I stared at him, not sure if I was more annoyed that he was issuing orders or that he had stopped. “You’re bossing me around in my own house?”
He turned me toward the hallway with a smile. “Consider it a strong recommendation.”
“Your recommendations sound an awful lot like orders.”
“I’ll work on it tomorrow.”
I glanced at him over my shoulder, my eyes narrowing. “You’re staying tomorrow too?”
“See? You’re catching on.” Satisfaction flared in his dark eyes. “Get some sleep. I’ll be here.”
I thought I’d be too keyed up to fall asleep, but his promise made me feel safe, and I drifted off shortly after closing my eyes.
6
GHOST
Iwoke to the sound of Tamsin moving around in her bedroom, the old floorboards carrying each soft step through the quiet house. I had spent the night stretched across a couch built for someone a foot shorter, sleeping lightly enough to register every vehicle on the county road. My duffel remained beside the couch, opened only long enough for me to trade the smoke-stained shirt from the night before for a clean black one.
My phone vibrated against the coffee table with updates. The Bellamy properties had remained quiet overnight, but a fire-damaged camera at the warehouse still left part of the west wall blind, so I ordered two men to keep on that section until Cipher replaced it.
Tamsin stepped into the living room with damp curls spilling around her shoulders and stopped when she saw me already dressed. She wore soft sleep shorts and a loose pale shirt that skimmed the curves of her tits and narrow waist every time she moved.
The memory of her mouth opening beneath mine against the wall the night before sent blood straight to my cock. I angled my hips behind the coffee table before the worn jeans I had pulled on made the reaction impossible to miss.
“Did you sleep at all?” she asked, gathering her damp hair over one shoulder as she came closer. The motion lifted the hem of her shirt enough to expose a narrow strip of fair skin above her shorts, and every filthy thought I had postponed last night came roaring back.
“Enough,” I replied, setting my phone on the coffee table.
She studied me, caught between suspicion and reluctant amusement, before moving toward the kitchen.
“Stryker wants you at the clubhouse before we go back to the warehouse,” I murmured as I followed her.
Tamsin stopped just inside the doorway and looked back at me. “What does he need?”
I leaned one shoulder against the doorframe. “He wants what you know, not whatever bullshit you can invent before coffee.”
“That’s a reassuring standard.”
I grinned. “Works for us.”
Tamsin glanced down and seemed to remember that she was standing in front of me in a loose sleep shirt and shorts. The movement shifted the thin fabric over her tits and exposed more of her bare thighs, drawing my gaze slowly down the length of her legs before it climbed back to the soft curves beneath her shirt. When she looked up again, she found my attention exactly where she expected it.
“I need to get dressed,” she muttered, tugging the hem of her shirt lower even as color spread across her cheeks. “You could pretend not to stare.”