Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 88673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Her laugh bursts out and becomes a guffaw as she flops back on the bed and looks up at the ceiling. “This is a new side to you.” She side-eyes me. “You like me, Riggs. But you’re one of those unemotional men who can’t stand intimacy. While Ike Monroe is the exact opposite. He’s dying for some intimacy. He’s looking for a partner. That’s why women like him. He’s looking for someone, Riggs. And you’re just pushing everyone away.”
I shake my head, sit down on a nearby chair, and start taking off my boots.
“I can feel it.”
“You can feel what?” I snap back.
“Your distance.”
“Whatever.”
I finish taking off my boots and stand up, pulling my shirt over my head. To my surprise, I find Clover watching me.
She even takes a moment to study my body before meeting my gaze. “Will you take off my shoes too?” She lifts up one leg, with some difficulty, and wiggles her trendy hiking boot at me before letting her foot fall back to the ground with a thud.
I want to say no on principle, but she closes her eyes and turns her head to the side, like she might just pass out and sleep fully clothed if I don’t lend her a hand.
So fuck it. I walk over, pick up her foot, unlace her shoe, and then do the other one.
She doesn’t even move. Doesn’t even open her eyes.
“Clover?”
She lazily answers me with a low, “Hmmm?”
“You’re… you’re in the middle of the bed.”
“What?” She tries to laugh, but she’s already half asleep.
“You’re in the middle of the bed. You need to scoot over. I’m not sleeping on the couch.”
“Isn’t there another bedroom?”
“No. And if you don’t move, I’ll do it for you.”
Her giggle is sleepy and filled with disbelief.
She doesn’t move.
So I walk over to the side of the bed, grab her by the arms, and pull her up and push her over. She wakes up just enough to unbutton her pants and start wiggling them over her hips.
I watch, fascinated, as she brings her legs up, slips the pants off, and then kicks her long legs around as she tries to get under the comforter without opening her eyes.
“You’re ridiculous.”
She finally slips her legs under the covers, and then opens one eye to look at me while she snuggles into her pillow. “You like me.”
I point to myself. “You like me.”
She smiles, eyes closed again, and nods. “I do like you. It’s a very bad idea, but you’re just kinda…” And then she falls asleep. Leaving me dying to know what I’m kinda like.
I watch her for a moment, wondering what this liking her will get me.
Probably another prison sentence.
Possibly a death sentence.
How pissed off would my father be if he knew I had smuggled a Disciple resident into Blackberry Hill? Livid would be an understatement. It would be rage. A great rage. The kind of rage one expects from men with great power. And because it was me who did it, he would take it personal.
It would not just be a betrayal, it would be treason.
I take off my pants and get in on the other side of the bed, turning my back to Clover.
Immediately, she squirms behind me and then the next thing I know, she’s got her face all cuddled up to my back.
I push her off. “Don’t.”
She is only semi-awake, but she musters up some energy to taunt me. “What’s wrong, Riggs? You don’t like me anymore?”
I push her all the way over to the other side of the bed. “There’s a line here, OK?” I cut the bed in half with a fingertip. “You stay on your side, I’ll stay on mine.”
This makes her snort. “That’s so very I Love Lucy.” Then she snickers while making a monumental effort to open her eyes one last time. “Don’t be a prude. Let me snuggle you, Riggs.”
There’s a pause here while I replay that word ‘snuggle’ back in my head.
And then she bursts out laughing and turns her back to me. A moment later, she’s snoring.
I reach over, turn the light out, and then lie there in bed, staring up at the ceiling, forcing myself to think about the consequences if I don’t get rid of her.
Falling for this woman would be a monumentally stupid thing to do and all the ways in which it could go wrong start playing in my head on repeat well into the early hours of the morning.
CHAPTER 15 - CLOVER
Aringing phone wakes me but I’m so confused about where I am, it takes whole seconds before I actually become lucid enough to pull together some semblance of reality.
“Yeah.” Riggs’ voice is low and rumbly as he answers the phone. He sounds tired and… well, sorta sexy if I’m being honest. “What?” Now he sounds irritated and he shifts in bed.