Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 82949 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82949 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
“I’m so—”
“—Girl!” Cooper’s hands are on my upper arm, holding me in place. “Why didn’t you tell me that you had been holed up here in this? I would have kept you company!” He clears one of his nostrils with his finger, shaking his blond hair away from his face. “No, seriously.” His head moves over his shoulder, and my stomach falls to the floor when I see Sparrow on a sofa, a cigarette in his mouth. “He is hot, girl! But don’t worry. I totally covered you with your mom and left a message on her phone.” He follows my line of sight when he realizes I’m not paying any attention to his words. “I approve of him! Though he’s a little old, isn’t he? What is he? Late twenties?”
My mouth closes and opens before I look up at my best friend. “What?”
“He told me that you had been here with him on a fuck fest! So, we called off the search party!”
Right. Of course there would have been a search party. And of course Sparrow would have covered that the only way he knew how.
I smile up at Cooper, but the dumbass is way too high to see through my facade. “Yeah…I’ve been here.”
He takes my hand and yanks me farther into the kitchen. “Well, you are coming home with me tonight!”
The music changes to a slower song. The beat is heavy, and the tune hypnotic. Among all of the people I see from school, I find Sparrow on the sofa, his legs spread wide and the same cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He takes it between his fingers, tilting his head to the side.
“Look, he is fucking hot,” Cooper whispers behind me, and even though I know it’s true, I also know that there’s a side to Sparrow that he hides. He probably hopes people are so distracted by his good looks that they’re not going to ask about the demons he hides in his closet.
“I’ll be back.” I close the distance between Sparrow and me, ignoring the girls who are standing around the sofa he’s on.
Lowering my body down onto his lap, I grip his hair from the back of his head, heat flashing to my cheeks when the corner of his mouth curves up in a smirk. Since he told lies, I may as well play along with them.
His hands fall on my ass, the cigarette still hanging out of his lips, and I reach for it, taking it out and bringing it to my own.
Leaning down into his ear, I whisper, “What the fuck is going on?”
He drags me over his crotch, and I bite down on my lower lip to stop myself from being obvious of how good it felt. “Your mother had sent out a missing person alert…” his whisper feathers over my ear. He leans back, studying me intently.
Sparrow is painfully attractive. The harsh outline of his sharp cheekbones and classic good looks, he is everything that I want to hide from, yet keep for myself.
“Figured better fix that.”
I turn over my shoulder to the spot where the body and Malyk would have been.
“It wasn’t real.” Sparrow’s hands come to my upper thigh, and I try to ignore the way his skin leaves a rampant fire in its wake. “Unless you want it to be.”
“So, this is your answer?” I ask, a brow arched. “Throw a party and invite the people I know? You don’t think my mother is going to wonder where I am?”
“Oh!” He lifts his hips up, thrusting against me slightly when he grabs something out of his back pocket.
That something is familiar and is my damn phone.
He flashes the screen at my face. “Handled.” He drops my phone and uses that same hand to come to my throat, squeezing and bringing my lips to his. “When are you going to get it? I am five fucking steps ahead of you, and when I’m not? Malyk is, and when he’s not? Dion is. There’s no escaping us, baby girl.”
I grind my teeth. “What is it you want?”
He laughs, releasing my ass from his grip and resting back against the couch. “You’re not ready for that.”
“Fine,” I answer, crawling off his lap. I back up slowly, my eyes on his. “Then maybe I’ll find my own way off this island.”
Sparrow shrugs. “We don’t need you anymore.”
The words hit my gut like a direct punch, and I hate the way my face falls. This is what I wanted, to be away from them. For them to not need me. But nothing makes sense.
“You’re free to go, Shiloh St. Claire.”
When I’ve walked a distance between us, his lips roll against his teeth.
“For now.”
All of that to let me go? I thought I’d be for sure fighting for my life to get off this island, so why is he letting me go…why are there so many people here?