Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71348 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71348 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“I wanted a kiss before I left,” I told her truthfully.
She narrowed her eyes. “Promise that’s all?”
I nodded. “Swear.”
She stopped moving away from me and planted her hands on her hips. “Be good,” she warned me.
I reached out and grabbed the loops on her jeans, then pulled her to me. “I’m always good.”
She laughed then. The only other sound I loved better than that was when she was crying out my name while she orgasmed.
“You, Blaise Hughes, are rarely good.”
I brushed my lips against hers, then whispered, “I make you feel good.”
She sighed and leaned into me then. “Yes, you do.”
I started to cover her mouth when the office door opened. Madeline tensed, and I glared back over my shoulder to find my father walking inside.
“You don’t want to give the security team a show,” he said.
“I wasn’t going to,” I replied angrily.
Madeline was stepping back from me. I hadn’t been ready to let her go yet. Damn Garrett.
“Let Madeline get to work, and you come with me up to the house. We have a meeting to attend,” he told me, then walked past me toward Madeline. “Glad you’re back. Wasn’t the same without you.”
She smiled at him nervously. It was clear he terrified her, and I wished she understood how unnecessary that was. Garrett would die to protect her. We all would.
“Thank you for letting me come back,” she said.
Garrett beamed at her. “Letting you? Hell, it was your job. Deidra was just holding down the fort until you returned. I’ll take this distraction away. When you get ready for lunch, go on up to the house and eat what Ms. Jimmie has prepared in there. No need for you to have to eat with the hands in the dining hall down here.”
“Okay, I will,” she agreed.
Garrett started to leave, and his eyes locked on mine. “Work to do,” he said simply.
I shifted my gaze to Madeline. “I’ll come back later,” I said before following Garrett out of the room.
Sixteen
Madeline
The last two mornings, when I’d woken up sick, Blaise was already awake and upstairs. I’d been trying to focus on working again and pretending there wasn’t another issue I had to handle.
Today, however, I had decided that I would get a pregnancy test. I wasn’t sure how I would get it or who I could confide in to help me get it. I did have a car now, but Blaise always took me to work and picked me up. Waiting until he was gone again could be days or weeks. I never knew.
Angel had been absent in the mornings since the plate-smashing incident. While I was taking my time eating the avocado toast that I’d made myself, trying to come up with a reason to drive to work today that Blaise wouldn’t question, Angel’s screaming rang through the house.
Blaise had been talking to Huck about the first race of the season, which was two months away, when she did it. He stood up without a word and left the room to go see what was wrong. Huck drank his coffee and peered at me over his cup.
“How you handling that?” he asked me.
I knew by that, he meant Blaise having to go running when Angel had an episode, I shrugged. I was handling it. Not being here all day and feeling like my presence was keeping her confined upstairs helped things. I didn’t feel in the way as much.
“You gonna snap over it eventually?” he asked me.
Snap over it? I shook my head. “No …” I trailed off.
He took a drink, then set his cup down. “You’re a woman. You don’t think you’re gonna get jealous, sharing your man?”
I didn’t see it that way. It wasn’t as if he were sleeping with Angel. She just had emotional trauma, and he soothed her.
“That would make me a bitch,” I replied honestly.
He smirked, but said nothing more.
I finished my breakfast in silence, and when it was time for me to go and Blaise hadn’t returned, I realized I’d been given my break. I would have to drive myself today. I didn’t ask Huck. Getting permission would likely lead to someone else driving me. Blaise had bought me that car because he said I needed one. I hadn’t driven it yet. Now was the one time it was going to come in handy.
I’d placed the keys in my purse, and my own cash was also safely tucked inside. I cleaned my plate and cup, then wrote a quick note to Blaise and left it on the counter.
Huck wasn’t around anywhere, so I took that as my time to escape. Just as I reached the door leading to the garage, I heard Angel scream out again. Blaise wasn’t going to be free anytime soon. Closing the door behind me quietly, I went down the row of cars until I found the silver Mercedes that Blaise had refused to return.