Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Jude hadn’t had anyone to call his own before. Not truly. He didn’t know what to think of that.
Sloan toweled off her hair and stood there, gloriously naked and without so much as a blush. “I’m being realistic. It’s only in the last twenty minutes that you’ve changed your tune, and that’s on the heels of some rather large news I’m still reeling from. So forgive me if I don’t take what you said in the middle of sex as the Lord’s honest truth.”
“I can protect you—both of you.” If there was a baby. If there wasn’t, well then, they’d figure that out, too.
She opened her mouth, hesitated, and finally shrugged. “It’s all a moot point until I take the test. We’ll know more once we have the results.”
Which also sounded a hell of a lot like she was making more plans without him. He couldn’t blame her. He had more than enough money to last several lifetimes, but what else did he have to offer a woman like Sloan? Sure as fuck not stability.
And there was his vendetta to consider. He might be pathetically relieved to have his options taken away when it came to Callista—and Sorcha, for that matter—but that didn’t mean Sloan would forgive him for killing Colm. Taking that bastard out would hurt Sloan’s sister-in-law, which might hurt Sloan. Something he never could have taken into account when he put his plans in motion—or when he took that goddamn contract from Romanov.
He’d laughed when Dmitri talked about him having a change of heart. Fast forward twenty-four hours and he couldn’t help weighing his vengeance against the woman who stood before him. Even after such a short time together, could one really compare to the other?
Killing Colm might be enough to make her walk away from me for good.
For so long his revenge was everything. Now? Now he wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
* * *
Sloan pulled one of Jude’s shirts over her head and sighed. “I need to go get some clothes.”
“You don’t need clothes.” He didn’t look up from his laptop.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Am I allowed to have a book? Or should I just quit my job and plan on being here and naked for whenever you’re ready for me?”
He looked up at that, brown eyes so dark, they were almost black. “Don’t tempt me.”
“For goodness’ sake, Jude, I have a life. It might not be a fancy one, and it might be changing dramatically, but it’s still mine. You can’t lock me up as a prisoner and try to tell me it’s for my own good.” She still had shifts for the next four days, and she wasn’t about to jeopardize that when Marge had finally put her on a regular schedule. And there was Sorcha to consider. Though the woman would disappear for hours on end, she’d be sure to call Callie if a day or two went by without her seeing Sloan.
He looked like he wanted to do what she’d said and lock her up, but he finally gave a short nod. “Make it quick.”
They were going to have to have a talk about the fact that she may like it when he was overbearing in bed, but she had no intention of bowing to his every whim when it came to the rest of her life. For now, she’d settle for some clean clothes, a book, and something resembling a plan for going forward.
Romanov found me.
How am I going to face Sorcha knowing Jude had fully intended to kill her?
Not to mention warning Callie that her aunt might be up to no good.
She was working very hard not to think too closely about either thing, but they were there, lurking in the back of her mind. Her brothers finding her was one thing—the worst she had to expect was being dragged home, kicking and screaming, and thrown into an advanced sort of lockdown. Her brothers loved her, and while they might put the O’Malley family before her mental health, they wouldn’t physically hurt her.
Dmitri Romanov?
He was a different kind of threat altogether. Sloan hadn’t forgotten that he’d tried to have James Halloran killed, or that he’d bargained so coldly with her sister while planning that. He wasn’t done with her family, and she was currently the weakest link, Jude’s protection or no.
I have to get out of Callaway Rock.
Away from Sorcha. Jude might have said that he wasn’t going to pull the trigger when it came to her—or Callie—but even in her limited experience, Sloan knew that things said in the heat of the moment couldn’t be trusted. She wanted to trust him, but to walk blindly forward without reservation was beyond her. If Sorcha had truly done something to deserve death, she selfishly didn’t want Jude to be the one to deliver it.