Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 32454 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 162(@200wpm)___ 130(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32454 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 162(@200wpm)___ 130(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
Peyton loved her parents. After taking over the bakery, she had no idea how they were able to keep on going. They had gone past the red, and with sister constantly needing money, she struggled to stay afloat. She somehow managed to get by—until her sister needed her.
To save her sister, she must give herself to Shae Marino. She never wants to see her sister again, so she will bargain with him. He can take her virginity, but he must keep her sister as far away from her as possible.
He agrees. She belongs to him, and he plans to keep her.
When trouble comes calling, she turns to Shae to help fix it. Now, there is no turning back. She knows what he is capable of, and it doesn’t scare her. She loves this man, and she will forever be by his side
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter One
“I want to fuck your sister.” Shae Marino stared at a quivering Lily-May Bride as she looked around, trying to see if he was joking.
From the moment she walked onto his ranch nearly four months ago, he’d warned her not to fuck with him. No one messed with him in these parts, because they knew he meant business. If they took money from him, they paid him back, plus interest. He wasn’t interested in anyone’s sob story.
Everyone had a fucking bad time in life. In all his forty years, he had come to realize there were people that had it good, bad, and then worse, and the fact is, if you were really lucky, you only ever had it good and bad. For unlucky people, it just seemed to be a mix from bad to worse.
Lily-May was a bad one, always had been, always would be. She was the older sister of Peyton Bride. Both women were beautiful, there was no denying that. Both had blonde hair, blue eyes, but that was where it stopped. Lily-May was known around town to give it up freely, to bed jump, and even had a reputation for giving men some infections and itches. Also, she had a bad gambling habit, along with being an addict.
Peyton was the complete opposite. Yes, she had long, blonde hair, intense, beautiful eyes, but where Lily-May looked at you and wondered how you could get the next score, Peyton ... smiled. Now, he had never had Peyton smile at him, but he had seen it. She had taken over their parents’ bakery, even managed to pull it out of the gutter and into some profit. He knew, because he knew everyone in Fort. Being one of the wealthiest men in the entire state, if not the entire country, no one could touch him.
He made his money in a variety of ways. Where Lily-May and Peyton inherited a bakery upon their parents’ deaths, he inherited a ranch, along with everything associated with it. On the outside, they were just cowboys without a care in the world.
His father had completely blown his mind, when he was just fifteen years old, and realized there was a hell of a lot more to being a cowboy on the Marino Ranch than he first realized.
It would seem, many, many, many years ago, his great-grandfathers fought for this ranch, made a solid name for themselves, and in doing so, rumor had it, they dealt with the Devil to keep it. The people of Fort didn’t realize that his ranch was the first line of defense all around town.
A long time ago, a lot of people wanted to take this land from his forefathers, along with the people of Fort. It was agreed that anyone living on this ranch had the sole responsibility of taking care of the whole town. Shae had the original document in a sealed case—an agreement between the town and the ranch, insuring no one ever tried to invade, harm, or hurt.
He owned the sheriffs along with the cowboys. The only problem was, Fort was a very beautiful tourist location, which meant there were always many people stopping by. The town needed it as well.
The tourists brought in money and helped many of the shops. Everything worked well. However, from time to time, he did have to kill people. At fifteen years old, he had been riding the fence, because in his heart, he was and would forever be a rancher. That day, all those years ago, his father had no choice but to tell him the truth about the history.
He’d been checking on the fence, to make sure the cattle couldn’t get out or hurt, when he had stumbled on a man—a damn tourist—who had kidnapped a young girl. She’d been fifteen, just like him, and had been fighting for her life, as the man stabbed her repeatedly.
Shae recalled that moment, as if it were happening right now. It changed his whole fucking world. To him, Fort had never been a scary place. He loved the town, the people, every single person in it. Until that moment, when he realized the town of Fort was a dangerous-as-fuck place.
He didn’t have a gun or a knife, but without hesitation, he grabbed a rock, and with his bare hands, he smashed it repeatedly across the head of the man who had been attacking the young girl, Marsha, he believed her name to be.
And ... he’d held her in his arms, because the man had struck the main artery in her neck, and there was nothing he could do but hold her and sing to her. He waited until she died in his arms, which had been less than two minutes. Shae liked to think he gave her peace. He carried her home, and his dad told him that day he became a true man.