Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 23115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 116(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 116(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
“Ew, would you stop?” I slap her arm, images of Gareth skipping through my mind, pulling at me like invisible hands, grabbing at every inch of my body. My thighs are getting hot too.
No. Not here. Not at work!
“He’s not like that,” I protest. Sarah may be my bestie, but she just doesn’t understand.
“That’s what they all say,” she replies. “Until six months in you’re making him dinner while he’s ‘working late’ with some other girl he pulled over.”
“Okay, I’m gonna kill you—” My voice cuts off mid-sentence when the door jangles and a form enters. A massive, muscled form, wearing a police uniform.
Gareth…
“Oh my God…” I whisper. “Sarah, it’s him.”
“Who?”
“Him! Who do you think?”
“The cop?” she asks, glancing over her shoulder. “What is he—?”
She stops too. Her voice catches in her throat when she sees him. Every massive inch of him, striding into the truck stop like he owns the place. The very walls seem to bend around him. I nearly melt as he fixes his eyes on me.
The heat between my thighs sparks into a scorching fire. I shift my weight from one foot to another and feel the wet spot already starting. Even my breasts are tingling.
How does he know I’m here? How does he know I’m working tonight? I should be scared, but I’m not. What does that say about me?
He steps right up to Sarah, towering over her, and gives her a curt nod. “Evening.” She doesn’t even respond. She just stares up at him, probably trying to process his overwhelming sexiness. “Briar, come outside with me for a moment.”
I try to speak, but my throat protests. I cough quietly and try again. “I’m working…Officer Rawls.”
Something shifts behind his eyes, like a window opening into a house on fire. It quickly closes again. “Come on, Briar. We don’t need to be that formal, do we? Call me Gareth.”
It almost pisses me off how hot he is. It shouldn’t be possible. All this power he has over me without even trying. Without pulling me over, without cuffing me. He still has my body reacting, pleading with desperation for his touch. And when I see the other women in the diner glancing over at him, whispering to each other, I start to boil.
“Oh, because we’re friends now?” I ask. “The man who arrested me and stole my car?”
“Stole your car? Who stole your car?”
Is he messing with me? Or is he serious?
“Um, you did?”
His slight smile turns into a soft smirk that sends a wave of heat rushing through me. My eyes trace the sculpted line of perfection that is his jaw, all the way to his lips…
…those lips. That tongue.
I nearly lose consciousness as I’m taken over by the images of him between my legs, staring up at me as he touched places on me that no man has ever touched. Did things no man has ever done.
“No one stole your car, Briar,” he says, interrupting my day-dreaming. “In fact, I’m here to return it to you.”
Sarah scoffs, finally interjecting herself into the conversation. “Yeah, right.”
Gareth raises an eyebrow at her. “A skeptic, eh?” He looks back to me. “Why don’t you come out and see for yourself?”
5
GARETH
I’m actually excited as I walk with Briar out of the truck stop.
Can you believe that? Me. Excited?
Just a few days ago, I would have thought it would be impossible. But then she stepped into my life. And now it’s like I can feel the continent moving beneath my feet.
My eyes travel up her body as she takes the steps down to the parking lot. She’s wearing the same torn-up jeans and another T-shirt beneath her apron that’s seen better days. But she is still a goddess. A bolt of lightning in the darkness of my life.
She may not know it yet, but she was made for me.
I’m fighting back a smile as she walks up to her car. I watch her face light up as she sees the repairs: a fixed broken taillight, new back door panel, new wipers, new driver’s side door handle, and of course a wash and wax.
When she finally looks back at me, I see the probing curiosity in her eyes. “Are you messing with me?”
I have to laugh. “And how would I do that?”
She waves her hands aimlessly at her Honda, stunned. “I–I dunno. You replaced my car with another one?”
“No, that’s your car, Briar. Just had a little work done on it.”
She frowns and walks right up to me. “You just ‘had a little work done’ on my car in less than a day?”
I shrug. “What can I say? I pulled some strings.”
Her eyes flash again, like they’re holding something back. Something she desperately wants to reveal but is afraid to.
I hear the door groan behind me and look back to see the girl she was sitting with step out. “Briar, Ross is shouting about wanting some hash browns.”