Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Still buckled up in that armor I was pretty sure she thought was required for her survival.
But it kept slipping.
Jolts of surprised laughter ripping free from her while Raven and Charleigh would crack up at whatever story they were getting up to.
“Told you.” Theo’s laugh was filled with suggestion as his attention jumped between Otto and River.
“What?” Should have known the inquisition was coming. Might as well be done with it.
“Those hearts that are currently buggin’ out of your eyes.”
“Fuck you, man,” I told Theo the way I normally would.
Casual and easy.
Pinning on a wayward grin.
Doubted it cut it.
Not with the way my guts were knotted. Twined in bolts of lust I couldn’t tamp down no matter how hard I tried. My cock twitched every time any noise got free of that lush, sexy mouth, extra keen whenever she shifted in that chair, drawing attention to those bare, smooth legs.
The woman was pure, utter temptation.
“Heart eyes, and he’s drooling, too,” Otto taunted.
“Drooling?” I cocked my head.
Emery giggled and leaned over, and that fall of shiny blonde swished around her shoulders.
The smallest swath of flesh was exposed at the center of her back.
Okay, I was totally drooling, and I was about five seconds from just owning it and stalking over to Emery so I could tell her all the ways I wanted to own her.
In precise detail.
A cataclysm of fantasies rolling through my brain.
Every delicious way I would have her.
Too bad the last was an image of the two of us sweaty and sated where we were snuggled up naked in the middle of my bed.
“Dude’s fucked,” River grunted with a laugh.
Jolted by it, I realized I’d been staring, and I whipped my attention back to the three of them gawking at me.
Yup.
I was completely and utterly fucked.
“Weird she’s your kid’s aunt?” River arched a brow, the question true.
Agitation stirred through my spirit.
“Should it be?” Mine was just as earnest.
River shook his head as he took a swig of his beer. “Nah, man. You said you didn’t even know her sister.”
Unease slithered through me, hit by the same disturbance when I thought about how something with Emmalee had been off.
Wasn’t like it mattered now, anyway, except for the way it affected Emery.
“Think that might be what bothers Emery most,” I admitted.
“That you and Maci’s mom weren’t together?” Theo asked.
“Just the fact that we were together at all.”
“Since when do you have a problem with banging sisters?” This from Otto, the bastard.
I sent him a scathing look.
In surrender, he held out his hands, attempting to hide his laugh. “Fine, fine. That crossed a line.”
I sighed because this was something that didn’t feel like a joke. It was something that bothered Emery and, fuck me, if I didn’t want to gouge my eyes out at the thought of hurting her in any way.
A trickle of Maci’s laughter flooded the air, and my focus drifted to the child.
She was beelining my way, her arms thrown over her head as Nolan chased her across the yard.
How could I regret it? That night with a stranger that had brought this little girl to me?
“Damn, brother…” All the teasing had drained out of Otto’s voice.
Throat thick, I looked back at Emery.
Otto reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “You really are fucked.”
“There’s just…something about her.”
Something I couldn’t shake.
Something I wanted to drown in.
“Then don’t be an idiot and squander it,” Otto urged below his breath. “As far as I’m concerned, we’ve all wasted too much time thinking we didn’t deserve the best things in life. Going after that temporary thrill that could never really satisfy since we thought we couldn’t have something that actually counted. It’s bullshit, man, so fuckin’ make it count.”
I stalled as all those uncertainties came at me full force.
“And I’ll be taking on next week’s job.” Theo dropped his voice to be sure we were the only ones who could hear it, though I could almost hear the undercurrent of a question. His words prompting me toward what had taken me away during the middle of the week.
The guy urging me to be careful.
To see what was right in front of me.
But all of this?
It was for them.
The innocent.
My head shook. “I’ve already been debriefed. I’m doing this one.”
“Kane, you can’t—”
“Not up for discussion.” The faces of that family spiraled through my mind, and I was unable to stop the way it interchanged with my mother’s.
The same as how those haunted faces always filled my mind when I stepped out beyond the bounds of Sovereign Sanctum to enact the only justice that I could.
A bridging of my failures.
The promise that I would never let it happen again.
River blew out a sigh, and I knew he was going to say something to try to convince me otherwise, but Maci bounding up the porch steps with Nolan hot on her tail interrupted us.