Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
He was ready to hand me off to the man who was my father. I sat up, wincing as I did so from the sudden movement. How did I get him to let me stay here?
“Easy,” he said gruffly, noticing my wince.
“I don’t know Mal,” I told him.
“Yeah, but you need to get to know him.”
Tears stung my eyes. “I want to stay here.” With you. “I can help Jayda. I can cook, and I can clean.”
He let out a heavy sigh. “Sure, you can with cracked ribs and a fractured wrist. Besides I’m not letting you work at this house. You’re a Bowen, for God’s sake.”
That sounded so odd. I’d been a Halsten, and I had hated it, just as I had come to hate the man who carried that last name.
“I don’t want to leave.” I stopped when my voice cracked, and a tear slid down my cheek.
“Lace,” he said, “look at me.”
It was instinct to obey him, but I didn’t want him to see me crying. I shook my head and tried to wipe the tears without him seeing what I was doing.
“Are you crying?” he asked as his fingers curled around my upper arm and tugged me toward him.
He leaned forward so that he could see my face. I tried to turn the other way, but he pulled me closer to him, into his earthy scent mingled with leather and smoke. I inhaled deeply, loving that smell.
“Why are you crying?” he asked me.
Oh, because I’m a baby. One you want to get rid of, and I am giving you more reason to do it.
I shrugged, not trusting my voice to speak.
“Dammit, Lace. Look at me.”
Reluctantly, I lifted my eyes and met his. There was concern there, but I also saw regret.
“You want to stay here?” he asked.
I nodded.
“You’re crying because you don’t want to go?”
I nodded again.
He blew out a breath. “Fuck,” he muttered, then let go of my arm. “What am I going to do with you? Mal doesn’t want you here—with me specifically.”
I didn’t care what Mal wanted. “Why?” I asked.
He smirked. “I’m not a good man, sugar. I’m actually the last man anyone would trust to take care of someone.”
“You are good,” I argued. “You saved me.”
He rubbed his face with both hands and groaned, then laid his head back against the tall headboard. “Yeah, well, that was a onetime thing. A first for me. But you were a female who was hurt. And you looked so damn broken and helpless.”
I was broken. But I wasn’t helpless. Although, that night, I had appeared that way. I was stronger than he realized.
“I’ll stop being difficult, and I’ll try to eat more. I won’t get in your way,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. I was begging.
He stared at me for several seconds.
“You’re real damn hard to tell no,” he said in a husky voice. “It’s those eyes. Fucking lethal. Your momma must have been a beauty. That shit didn’t come from Mal.”
Was he saying he thought I was beautiful?
“He’s fighting me on this. Just so you know. You might have to tell him yourself. Mal doesn’t want you around me.”
Mal was getting on my nerves.
“I’m an adult.”
A crooked grin curled his lips. “Yeah, you are. I don’t need that reminder.”
We sat there in silence for a moment. I fantasized about burying my nose in his neck and breathing him in.
“You can’t look at me like that.”
My eyes snapped up from where I had been staring at his neck like a weirdo. “What?” I asked, unsure.
“Listen, sugar, I’m not one who denies himself what he wants. But you’re different. I can’t take you. It’s a first for me, and right now, it’s a struggle. What you’re wearing, your hard nipples poking through the satin—yeah, all I can think about is sinking my dick in you. And we can’t do that. So, don’t look at me like you want a taste.”
I wasn’t sure I was breathing—or that I could breathe. I was gaping at him though. I closed my mouth when I realized it.
“Told you I wasn’t a good man. Now, lay your sexy little ass down and go the fuck to sleep.”
I licked my lips that had suddenly gone dry and inhaled a shaky breath. The area between my legs had come alive in a way that was almost painful. Images of him doing what he’d just said played wildly in my head. I’d never had sex. I’d never been around a man long enough to have a relationship that led to sex. Arun hadn’t wanted sex from me. I was just…I was just his cover. The answer to his problem. But I had watched sex. I’d read about it. I had fantasized about it.
Now, I wanted it more than ever and with the man sitting beside me.