Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121389 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121389 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
She was already his, but she kept on falling faster and deeper. And he thought she was going to just let him lock himself up and throw away the key? Oh hell no. “Can I see it?”
A nod, and he headed back upstairs. She followed him, putting her handbag on the floor of the bedroom as he went to the closet. He opened it to reveal neat rows of clothes, including three suits. Her stomach pitched at the thought of what Ivan would look like in a suit.
“Smoking” was the word that came to mind.
He bent down to grab something as she was waving a hand in front of her face to cool herself down, said, “I have your daypack. You left it in the car.”
Soleil put it beside her handbag when he passed it over. “I knew you’d keep it safe.”
Reaching up to the shelf above the hanging rail without responding to that, he picked up a sealed bag like she’d seen come out of the one automated store she’d ever experienced. “I’ll go outside if you want to try it on,” he said after giving it to her.
When she nodded, he left, closing the door behind himself.
Her fingers trembled a little as she opened the sealed package. To reveal fabric of a joyous lemon yellow. She gasped and picked it up by the shoulders. It fell in a sweep of the softest linen imaginable. It was sleeveless, the straps made up of tiny white embroidered flowers.
The same flowers appeared as a splash on the hem of the dress, which would hit her just above the ankles. There, the white blooms were joined by pinks, darker purples, myriad other shades, until it was a wildflower meadow.
Giving a little skip of joy, she stripped out of her borrowed clothes and pulled on the dress, not looking in the mirror until she’d zipped it up. All the air rushed out of her. The color made her skin glow, and the little flower details just made her happy.
She immediately felt prettier, more real, more herself.
Turning, she put her other clothes in her daypack, then chewed on her lower lip. The dress didn’t fit quite right because of her weight loss, and she didn’t want to advertise that. But she didn’t want to put her sweater back on, either.
Her eyes went to the leather-synth jacket hanging in the closet.
Flushing but determined, she took it out of the closet, shrugged into it, then rolled up the sleeves of the well-worn leather-synth. It was butter soft. Far too big on her but in a fashionable way. She looked like a woman wearing her boyfriend’s jacket.
Her cheeks pinked.
Twirling a little and feeling happy, just happy, she slung her pretty pink bag back over her shoulder and opened the door.
Ivan was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, watched her with unwavering intensity as she walked down.
“I borrowed your jacket,” she murmured. “Sorry.” But she wasn’t sorry, not when the scent of him surrounded her—and not when he was looking at her in a way that said she was the total center of his attention.
He didn’t respond verbally, just held the door open for her so she could slip out. “I sent a message to Kaleb Krychek,” he said as they walked down the street, then told her the content of that message.
Soleil raised her eyebrows. “You have his direct number?” The entire world knew that Kaleb Krychek was a power. The one time she’d been anywhere near his vicinity—far on the other side of a public square—he’d made the hairs rise on the back of her neck, her cat sensing a mortal threat.
“Only my grandmother and my cousin Silver—she used to be his senior aide—have his personal line,” Ivan told her. “But I have access to another priority line. Family connections.”
“Some family.” She laughed and when Ivan glanced at her, she said, “I’ve gone from being a lone ocelot who knew no one and nobody important to being a member of one of the most powerful packs in the country—and my sweetheart is part of a family that sounds like it might be the mafia, but I’m okay with that.”
Ivan didn’t seem to know how to respond to being called her sweetheart.
Grinning, she tucked her arm through his and leaned up to press a kiss to his jaw. He’d given her skin privileges and he’d never withdrawn them and she intended to take full advantage of them to strengthen their bond. She was a cat, wasn’t she? Sneaky was in her DNA.
His skin was smooth and unbristled under her lips. He must’ve run a shaver over it in the shower. “You smell so delicious, mi cariño,” she murmured, giving him a little nuzzle.
“Lei.” A rough sound, but it wasn’t one that told her to back off.
She looked up, heart sparkling, to see tension in the lines of his face, color on his cheekbones. Her tough, dangerous man didn’t know how to handle her. It was adorable. “This place looks good,” she said, nodding at the small Chinese restaurant to their right. “What do you think?”