East Bound Nana Malone (best ereader for students .TXT) 📖

exploded. The bright white of bliss completely blinding me, as the two of us fell to the side, me still inside her, pulsing. Her around me, pulsing. The two of us intertwined, our foreheads touching, our noses pressed together, our breaths commingling. And then she opened her eyes, "Wow."

I gave her a smile. "Yes. Wow indeed."

Chapter 17

East

I knew it made me an absolute creeper to watch her while she slept.

But I couldn't help it. She did this thing with her mouth when she slept, like she was sucking on an invisible pacifier. Her plumped-up cheeks looked so adorable.

There was a part of me that worried if I slept, she'd wake up, change her mind, and run.

It's her flat. She's not running.

Goddammit, you know what I mean.

My subconscious didn't care. He was more than eager to point out that I was a complete and total arsehole. I had walked away from her. What the fuck was wrong with me?

You're damaged, that's what's wrong with you. Now don't fuck up this second chance.

"You're cute when your cock is stirring."

I blinked when I realized her eyes had fluttered open and she'd been staring at me too.

"Good morning, love." My voice came out huskier than I planned. But she seemed to like it. She gave me a soft smile.

"Good morning yourself. I didn't know you were staying."

Shit. She was still cagey and on edge. "I didn't have anywhere else to be. I meant what I said last night. Right here is where I plan on being, so if you want rid of me, you're going to have to explicitly kick me out. And even then, I might not get the message the first four or five times, not in a creepy, stalking and dangerous kind of way, but more of a—"

Her lips twitched. "Creepy, stalking, dangerous kind of way."

I frowned. "I'm not dangerous."

Her words were soft. "Yes, you are. To me."

“I was thinking, you should come stay at the penthouse.”

Her eyes went wide, and she blinked at me. “What?”

“Just, you know, temporarily.” Not at all temporarily. “We just got shot at. I want you with me.”

“I appreciate that, but I have a place. And I like my place.”

“I know. But even you can’t discount that the penthouse is safer. And if you like we can stay in separate rooms.”

She laughed but then sobered quickly. “You’re kidding..”

“No, I’m not. Or I can have some men come and build in a panic room over here, maybe change your windows to tempered glass. My place is bigger though.”

“You’re serious?”

“When it comes to you and your safety, yes, I am.”

Her brow creased ever so slightly as she considered my offer. “Can I think about it?”

“Of course. And while you think, let me show you just how dangerous I am.” I lifted the sheet and crawled toward her as she giggled.

Nyla

I was being absolutely a hundred percent truthful with myself. East Hale was my kryptonite. Two weeks ago, when I was drowning in the fog of despair, I had sworn to myself I was not doing this again. I was not going to let him walk back into my life and pretend as if nothing had happened.

But then he'd been there last night on my doorstep, insisting that we weren't done. He admitted that he had fucked up, and he wanted another chance. Not that he deserved one, but God, it was so hard to say no. And then he'd said the one thing that tipped the scale. "I know what it took for you to choose to protect my friends.”

But it had been easy to choose to protect them. A little too easy. The old me would have never shared information like that with them. But I'd done it because they needed the protection. I was seeing things in all different shades of gray now. My mother died of cancer, and I felt her loss so viscerally every day. But I couldn't imagine the visceral loss of a friend and knowing that people you cared about and trusted had something to do with it. That's why I'd chosen to help them. Also, it might have been possible that, despite my words to my father, I still hated Denning.

East said, "Can I ask you something?"

I nodded, leaning into his fingers as his thumbs stroked my cheeks.

"Why did you go back to Interpol? Your father didn't respect you. Denning treated you like dirt, and if you ask me, he's a creepy stalker. But most importantly, you don't feel good about yourself there. You are so sexy and confident most of the bloody time, but working under them, it's like you're trying to dim your light to match theirs. Why? Why would you go back?"

I bit my bottom lip. It was an excellent question. Why had I gone back?

Well, the truth of it was, I had my eyes on the prize. And I wasn't sure how much of that I was supposed to tell him. But when in doubt, I opted for truth. "It was one of my early bargains with Theroux. He said he needed me inside Interpol."

East cursed under his breath. "What?"

"I know. I don't know what he wants from me, but he demanded that I be an Interpol agent again, so it must mean I can access whatever he wants."

"Why didn't you ever tell me this?"

"Well, it didn't really come up. If you remember, you and I weren't exactly being honest and forthcoming with our feelings when he paired us up to work together."

"Fucking hell. You have got to be kidding me."

"I know. I know. I wish I was. I thought you knew."

He rolled his eyes. "No, I didn’t fucking know."

"Well, that's why I did it."

"You should have told me."

"For what? What would be the purpose in telling you?"

"Don't you see? You should be asking what he wants from you, Nyla. You and I both know he has zero intention of handing himself over to Interpol."

My stomach knotted. I knew