Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 103712 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103712 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Hunter… How oddly fitting for a man who made her feel trapped since the moment she first saw him.
“Leave it?” Hunter’s attention snapped to the blond with incredulous fury. “Every word out of that pretty mouth is a goddamn lie.”
“That doesn’t matter.” The blond’s tone was perfectly controlled, perfectly reasonable, the voice of a man accustomed to being obeyed. “She’s here. She’s agreeable. What difference does it make who she was before?”
Before.
The word hung in the air like smoke after the flame. Marigold realized that, to these men, her past was already dead. Maybe so was she. Even Mary Langford—or whoever she claimed to be—would cease to exist the moment she agreed to their terms. Agreed to be theirs.
What if this was merely them playing with their food and they never planned to let her go?
“The difference,” Hunter growled, voice dropping with malice, “is that secrets are poison. What if she came here for a reason? Someone could be looking for her. We don’t know who she’s working with.”
“Look at her.” The handsy, green-eyed Viking said as he caressed her thigh, dragging his warm palm slowly upward. “She’s already agreed whether she’s admitted it out loud or not. You guys are bickering about irrelevant bullshit.”
Her thighs pressed together, stopping his hand from traveling any further. He stilled, their eyes locking in challenge. He could have easily overpowered her. Instead, he released her thigh and rolled casually to his side. “We all know how this is going to end.”
“Stone,” the blond said in warning. “Until she agrees, nothing is promised.”
“Use your head,” Hunter, the largest of the three, snapped. “She’s making it too easy because she’s hiding something. Stop thinking with your dick.”
“You’re paranoid.” Stone glanced up at her with those penetrating green eyes. “There will be plenty of time to get to the truth. Our little thief isn’t going anywhere. Are you, sweetheart?”
The endearment sent heat spiraling through her chest like liquid fire. He wasn’t her ally, but he wanted her to believe he was.
She glanced out the window at the steel-wool sky, coarse and laden with dark clouds as the relentless blizzard locked her in. Stone’s hypnotic touch returned to her leg, unraveling something inside of her as he traced small circles against her skin.
“Such a long winter…” he teased, tracing his finger higher. She should pull away, should be disgusted by his presumption. Instead, she forced herself to relax under the contact like a flower unfurling beneath the sun.
She needed them. And they wanted her. It was a steep price, but the cost of her survival.
Sensing her agreeability, his mouth curved with a slow grin. “You’ll learn, in time, that I have ways of getting women to talk. Hell, I’ve even made a few drop to their knees and pray.”
“Do we have your agreement?” the blond pressed, reminding the others, “Nothing happens without her consent.”
How strange that they required such an intangible accord when they clearly held all the power. Their cards weren’t on the table, but hers were. She was a body with a stolen identity, desperate to protect her secrets and willing to do anything to survive. They didn’t care if she lay in a bed of lies, as long as she understood it was theirs and submitted to their absolute authority while under their roof.
“Ash asked you a question,” Stone said, his green eyes taunting as his trespassing touch teased at the hem of her sweater.
She looked at the blond he called Ash. “I...”
She struggled to see a safer option. There was so much risk attached to their request. She didn’t fully understand who they were and what—exactly—they wanted from her.
Hunter didn’t seem as eager as the others. But they didn’t seem to need his approval. His silent suspicion made her question her safety. None of these men pretended to be harmless, but Hunter seemed downright dangerous.
The blonde’s cold pragmatism hinted at depth. Perhaps he would be her safest ally. Though she would be a fool to trust any of them.
And the teasing one, Stone, he just looked like he wanted to devour her. “You’ll let me stay?”
“On our terms.”
“You have to agree,” Ash pushed. “Full consent.”
“For how long?”
“Until you change your mind. One whisper of the word stop, and it’s over. You leave, and we go back to our long winter of hibernating.”
“What about the police?”
“No loose ends,” Hunter, the lethal silent one, stated matter-of-factly.
It was as much a promise as it was a threat. They would allow her to stay, on their terms. The moment she disagreed, she was out the door.
“Have you ever surrendered to a man, printsessa? Truly surrendered?” Ash’s voice turned thick like honey. “Unburdened from choice to simply exist for his pleasure and yours.”
She’d surrendered more than she ever wanted to admit, but there had been no pleasure. “Choice isn’t a burden. It’s a privilege.”