Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Her stare remained on my face. “Why would you have me when you have nothing to offer me? You’re a bad man…”
The women in my bed knew I was a drug kingpin, but that made them want me more, not less. These circumstances were very different. “You want to be taken care of. I can take care of you.” She couldn’t start a fire even though she watched me do it more than once. Her intellect wasn’t the hindrance. She’d just been spoiled her entire life, and as a result, there was no drive to figure things out on her own. “I can elevate you to Parisian aristocracy. I can bring you to my estate outside of Paris, where a butler can attend to every need you didn’t even know you had. Gowns, designer clothing, diamonds on top of diamonds on top of diamonds…” She was my diamond, the most expensive piece of jewelry I could ever wear. “Michelin-star meals daily, lingerie more expensive than a Bugatti, sexual satisfaction you’ve never known. Old lovers will feel like inexperienced boys after you’ve had me. I can give you everything. Literally everything.”
Her expression glazed over as she pictured everything I described, the luxuries that her imagination couldn’t even produce. Just a single taste of me would ruin her palate forevermore, and there would be no going back. She would live in my home and share me with my whores, because even a piece of me was more satisfying than the entirety of another man.
I glanced at the bed. “Let me show you now.” A night was all I needed. A night of my heavy body on top of hers would change everything for her. She would want more. Her addiction would turn to obsession.
A tiny flash of temptation crossed her gaze with the speed of a shooting star. It happened so quickly that she probably thought I didn’t notice.
I did notice. “Chérie.” Sweetheart.
She pretended it never happened. “You’re a drug dealer…you’re dangerous.”
I brought the glass to my lips, tilted it to get the last of the scotch, and then set it on the coffee table. “If I’m the most dangerous thing out there, then there’s nowhere safer you could be.” I was the big bad wolf in the woods. I was the monster in the dark. I was the boss that no one wanted to cross. I owned the police, the government, and the addicts on the streets of Europe. “If you think you left an innocent world and descended into the shadows, you’re wrong. It’s on every corner, it’s in the back room of your favorite restaurant, it’s on the other side of your camera on your laptop. You walk past it every day, brush up against it on the metro, listen to its footsteps down the hallway outside your apartment door. I can protect you from all of that. You were taken from your home on a dark night, but with me, you’ll never have to worry about that again.”
Her chin tilted down to her hands in her lap.
“I’m everything you want. Everything you deserve.”
A sarcastic burst of air came from her throat, along with a slight shake of her head.
My eyes narrowed on her face.
“You might be right about that second part…”
My fascination with her only grew. “Come with me.”
She lifted her chin and looked at me.
“When I leave. Come with me.” I could take her away from this place. Instead of a cabin, she would have a palace. Instead of a guard, she would have a butler. Instead of these weathered clothes, she would have the finest material kissing her skin. “Let me give you what I’ve promised.”
The temptation returned again, staying a little longer this time, but it faded too. “No.”
I gave her a way out—and she said no. “Why?”
She shook her head and looked down again. “I won’t leave my sister here…alone. You take us both, or you don’t take me at all.”
Disappointment flushed into the veins of my hands, and I resisted the urge to allow my fingers to curl into fists. I’d just opened the door to a life she could only dream of, but all she could think about was that unremarkable woman. “I don’t negotiate.”
“Then don’t expect my answer to change.”
Five
The Smile of a Boy
Melanie
Days blurred together. Just like when the wind kicked up and blew snow everywhere, it made our surroundings blurry. Everything was out of focus. Everything was an opaque combination of faded colors. The only reason we knew the days of the week was because of the weekly Red Snow. It was our archaic form of a calendar.
I sat at the bench and worked like I did every other day, glancing across the clearing to see Raven carrying the boxes to the table. Adequate nourishment had made her strong once again, and her throat seemed to have healed completely. It was a calm existence, work, sleep, repeat.