November (The Alpha Elite Series) by Sybil Bartel

Author:Sybil Bartel [Bartel, Sybil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sybil Bartel
Published: 2022-10-29T00:00:00+00:00

Atala

My head fuzzy, I had a hundred questions.

It felt like one minute we were in the car, then the next I was waking up in his arms.

I knew I got tired after the bad thing, and I could swear I remembered him picking me up just like he said. I remembered the smooth fabric of his shirt against my cheek. I remembered his strong arms, how close and how tight he’d held me. And I remembered his scent. It was all over me. I trusted what he’d said. How would I remember snippets of those things if they were untrue?

I didn’t think I would.

But I wanted to ask him about it. I wanted to ask him about everything, except more than anything else, I wanted to know one thing.

The one thing I’d been avoiding.

I was afraid of it.

But waking up in his lap, seeing his face, his eyes, the hint of something in his expression that felt like he was searching for me as much as I was searching for myself, I couldn’t not know anymore.

I wanted to know the name of the woman he’d known.

I wanted to know my name.

Frightened, resigned, full of anticipation, I asked. “What’s my name?”

His hand in my hair, his fingers rubbing against the back of my neck, his heart steadily beating, it felt like everything went still.

Staring down at me as if he were searching for something, he was quiet for such a long moment, I wasn’t sure he was going to answer.

Then his throat moved and his full lips parted, but he didn’t give me what I asked for. He bargained. “I’ll tell you on one condition.”

I agreed immediately. “All right.”

“The condition is that you trust me. For the next seventy-two hours you do exactly as I say. You do not question me. You do not speak to anyone besides me unless I give you express permission. You agree to see a doctor, and no matter what you may see, hear or think, you trust that I will keep you safe. Seventy-two hours. Unquestioning, complete trust.” He paused. “Then, I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

A rush of yearning so deep it made my stomach riot collided with a spike of fear, and the two exploded. Scattering the debris of hope across my consciousness like the fall of spent fireworks, his promise rained down on me and gripped a hold of my deepest desire.

I’ll tell you everything you want to know.

Playing on repeat, his promise tasted like sin, but I told myself it was salvation.

It had to be.

I’d waited four years for this. The truth would free me, one way or another. It was everything I’d been searching and hoping for. This was it. This man knew things about me. He had answers. That was salvation, and this was my chance. I could trust that.

I could trust him.

But I wanted a piece of trust in return.

I asked. “Why not tell me my name now?”

Saying nothing, his gaze didn’t waver.

Not giving up, I

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