Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 182(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 182(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
She laughed. “You’re in better shape than I’ve ever been. Like you’re having a hard time.” She sighed. “Fine. But I want it known I’m leaving under protest.”
“Noted. You can complain to El Diablo when we get back.”
“Uh, no. Not on your life. The man’s nice and all, but he intimidates me more than a little bit.”
“He’s harmless to you. You know that, right?”
“Yeah. I know. Still. His name’s literally the Devil. How safe could he be?”
“Well, my name’s the Reaper, and you ain’t scared of me.”
“You’re different. Something about having your mouth between my legs all the time negates any intimidation factor.”
“I don’t have my mouth between your legs all the time. Like now. My mouth is not between your legs.”
Swan giggled, leaning into me as we approached the helicopter. “Maybe not, but I bet it won’t be long after we get back to the hotel it will be.”
“You got me there. Planned on it when we got in the shower.” I winked at her. “After that, we’ll have to see.”
Her laughter lit up my world. Yeah. I was in trouble. And I wasn’t even upset about it.
Chapter Eight
El Segador
On the way home, we took a detour. We went to Europe, stopping in Germany, Italy, France, and the UK. We were still ahead of schedule, and there were things on Swan’s list I could fulfill.
We marked off taking a hot air balloon ride in Rothenburg, Germany. The balloon was bright orange with a big yellow smiley face. The guide happily let her dictate to him when she demanded they go higher. He just laughed and winked at her. Which got my back up. The guy wasn’t as big as me, but he was younger, and women probably thought he was better-looking than me. He didn’t have the hard edge to him I did.
He spoke to her in German, telling her how pretty she was. When Swan just smiled at him with a blank look on her face, he gave her a sly grin. I said nothing but suspected he was testing her knowledge of the language. I was proven right when he told her in German he’d love to toss her big motherfucker of a boyfriend over the side and fuck her raw.
I propped my elbow on the side of the basket and replied in the same language. “Her motherfucker of a boyfriend is the right-hand man to the deadliest assassin in the world. Killing you would be no more than an afterthought. Do you really want to take me the fuck on?”
The little prick turned white. Swan frowned at me.
“What did you say to him?”
“Nothing too bad.” I grinned at her, pulling her close for a kiss. “Take pictures, baby. It’s a beautiful view.” It was enough to distract her. Likely because she was a good person and would never suspect the boy would think of doing her harm, or that I’d reciprocate. Or worse.
After our two days in Germany, I took her to see the Colosseum in Rome, the Eiffel Tower in France, and the Tower of London. She protested a little, but wonder had soon won out in every place, and she’d just gone with it. The sex had been every chance I could coax her into a private corner and the most fantastic of my life.
We knocked out taking a cruise, too. Instead of flying back to Palm Beach, we took a seven-day cruise to New York. We didn’t take just any old cruise, either. I got us one from Cunard. I’d booked the best suite they had, offering enough money they bumped someone so we got the best suite on the ship. I’d have taken us back to Fort Lauderdale, but it was another seven days and I knew that, though Doc had gotten back from his assignment with ExFil, he’d want some time to study Swan’s records. Swan didn’t object, because she’d never been to New York. I figured we could take some time there if she wanted.
I got the call from Doc about halfway into our seven-day cruise. He said he wanted to do a biopsy as soon as we got back. Bastard refused to say why he wanted to do it so quickly, but I let it go. Mainly because I didn’t want Swan to hear us. The last thing I wanted to do was worry her this close to the end of our vacation. The only thing we hadn’t checked off on her bucket list was the Disney World roller-coaster thing, and I intended to do that the second I could.
Other than her little setback at Base Camp, Swan was looking much better than she had when I’d first found her. She wasn’t limping, and I had her eating three square meals a day plus snacks. While she hadn’t put on much weight yet, her face had filled out slightly, and she didn’t look like she’d blow away in a stiff breeze. The cruise was helping tremendously. I got her to sit by the pool or on our balcony most days. When we did go out, I gave her piggyback rides. It got some strange looks, but she just laughed, enjoying the attention.