Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
She runs her fingers along my brow, noting the scars there. “So now you’re back on your bullshit?”
I snort a laugh. “If you can call killing assassins and hunting down the man who’s targeting you as ‘back on my bullshit,’ then yes.”
“Good.” She edges closer until our lips meet. We kiss softly, slowly, my hands roving her back and cupping her ass as she unwinds on top of me.
“I don’t judge you, Diego.” She drops a kiss on the tip of my nose. “Not even a little bit. I’m pretty bad, too.”
My eyebrows rise to my hairline. “Oh?”
“Yep.” She gives me a solemn nod. “One time, I found out one of my favorite songwriters had written a great piece that was absolutely perfect for me. But then I heard Ariana Grande wanted that song for herself. So, instead of letting her take it out from under me, I …” She hesitates.
“What did you do?” I try to think back about whether I’d heard Ariana Grande had been killed or if some songwriter had been tortured, but nothing comes to mind. Not that I keep up with pop music, but murder and torture would interest me.
She lets out a deep breath. “Don’t tell anyone, okay?”
“Never.” I say in my most serious voice. “The merc code is clear on keeping confidences.”
She smiles. “Good. Okay. So, what I did was…” She moves closer until her lips tickle my ear, and she whispers. “I paid for his daughter’s college tuition. She was really smart but had a hard year when she was a senior because of some stupid boy who’d turned her head. But then he moved on, and she realized she’d been foolish to let her grades drop. And she tried so hard to bring them back up. Her dad told me all this when we were meeting at the recording studio a few months earlier for something else. She was there with her nose in a book. Such a sweet girl. Anyway, I set up a scholarship for her to attend the music school of her dreams, and when her father found out, he offered me the song. It hit number one on Billboard and stayed there for a month.” She tugs my hair playfully. “See? I can be bad, too.”
“You beautiful songbird.” I kiss her hard. “You are so bad. Giving a girl a second chance at a future and not even bartering for the song. You just did it to be kind, and he gave you the song. You did nothing wrong.”
She shakes her head. “No. I’m a bad girl.”
Why does that phrase send steel into my cock? I don’t know, but it does. “I like it when you’re bad, little songbird.” I roll over and pin her to the bed, then claim her mouth, taking and kissing and stroking as I press my cock against her wet slit.
“Oh!” she cries.
I sit back and stare down at her. “Are you all right? Did I hurt you?”
“What?” She sits up, too, and snatches her shirt—well, my shirt—from the floor. “No, I’m fine.” She drops another kiss on my lips. “But I need to ice the cake.”
She hurries from my room wearing nothing but my shirt. It’s hot. But also foolish. I yank on my pants and grab her shorts before chasing after her. No man gets to see my songbird like this. Her tight body is all for me. I’m going to lick her until she screams every day she’ll let me.
But first, she needs to put on some damn pants when she’s running around the lodge. She’s in my cage, after all.
9
AURORA
“Heads up,” Clover says. It is what she usually says when she spots paparazzi. I freeze for a moment, and she glances behind me. “Watch out! Caveman in hot pursuit.”
I turn to see Diego heading my way. I should probably feel intimidated, but the only thing I feel is turned on.
Every inch of his chest, the one that always reminds me of that movie ‘300,’ is barreling toward me. I scrunch my nose in irritation at his lack of clothing. He’s holding something in his hand. Hopefully it’s his damn shirt.
“Can you put a shirt on?” I say tartly. The idea of everyone else seeing his chest has me being a little more on edge than I normally am.
One reason I think I’d made it so far in my career is because I wasn't a diva. I don’t have crazy demands, and I’m nice to everyone I meet. I believe in treating people with respect, no matter their status.
That also made me gullible. Something my own mom and dad used against me until Bells stepped in. They’d taken advantage of me at every opportunity, and I used to let them. Bells put an end to it. I will always be grateful to her, knowing in my heart that I would’ve never been able to cut them off.