Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 22685 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22685 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
Then destroyed me before we ever said "I do." Just-turned thirty, just-fired, and just-homeless Evelline Ramirez is officially out of options.
Her only way forward? A fake engagement with the man who once accused her of ruining everything.
Billionaire rancher Hunter Ferguson’s offer is No love. No trust. Just a deal.
But the moment he learns she’s still untouched…
All his rules go up in smoke.
He touches her like she’s everything.
Then pushes her away like she’s nothing.
And drives Eve to her knees with one act of betrayal.
Now the girl who swore she’d never beg...has become the woman who whispers, “Please.”
But some betrayals don’t come with second chances
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter One
THE PHONE RANG, AND Eve’s stomach twisted into a pretzel of dread.
I can’t do this.
No, wait, I can.
I should.
I have no choice.
Yeargh, I...
Her hand moved of its own accord, sending her phone flying across the room just as the call connected. Hunter’s hatefully familiar voice filled the halfway house’s common room.
“You have five minutes to tell me what this is about.”
Eve immediately started gnashing her teeth. Had she really hoped he would be less, what, arrogant?
In front her, Hilary nodded and smiled at her encouragingly.
You can do it, the other woman mouthed.
Oh yes, she could.
She could tell her former stepbrother exactly where he could stick his five minutes...but because she had truly repented after the past week, Eve managed to swallow the bitter retort crawling up her throat.
“Four minutes forty-five seconds.”
The countdown made her teeth grind together. Eve fought off the urge to end the call as she forced herself to retrieve her phone from the floor.
“Hello, Hunter.” Her voice came out strangled. It was the best she could do, since right now she wanted to do some strangling herself. "Thank you for taking my call."
“Four minutes thirty seconds.”
Deep breath. Don’t kill him. At least not over the phone.
“I...need your help.” The words tasted like ashes in her mouth.
Silence stretched between them for three endless heartbeats.
“I’m sending a car."
If he wasn't even bothering to ask where she was, then that meant he knew she had lost her job. Her apartment. And just about everything that used to define her.
"Be ready in fifteen minutes.”
The call disconnected before she could respond.
Eve stared at her phone, wondering if selling her soul would have been less painful.
Hilary squeezed her hand. “I'm proud of you, and so's God. You did great.”
“I just want to throw up," Eve muttered. "I feel like I sold my soul to the devil.”
Hilary shook her head with a laugh. “Eve.”
Eve made a face. “Sorry. I’m just really...I don't know what to think. Or feel."
“That’s understandable. It’s been years since you two have seen each other, much less talk.”
“Yeah.”
“And then there’s the fact that you also had a crush—”
"Not another word, please." She knew it. She just knew she’d regret spilling every bean about her past. “Actually, can we just forget I ever said anything? I was emotional and insane, so I said stupid things.”
“I don’t think it’s stupid,” Hilary protested. “I think it’s actually cute—”
Eve groaned.
“That you were so proud, you couldn’t make yourself tell him you had a crush on him, so you rebelled against his authority instead.”
“Can we stop talking about this please?”
“But it’s really cute—”
“No, it’s not, so please let’s drop it.”
Hilary smiled fondly. How cute, she thought again. Anyone looking at Eve wouldn’t guess it, but she was a hopeless romantic under her rebellious and snarky exterior. Thank God (truly!) that Eve would now have a chance to make things right with her former stepbrother.
Fifteen minutes later (as expected of Hunter's usual accurate efficiency). a sleek black car appeared outside the halfway house, and Eve’s stomach performed another gymnastic routine as she said goodbye to Hilary.
"We'll keep in touch," Hilary assured her softly. "And keep praying. Okay?"
Eve slipped into the backseat and the tightness in her chest eased a little when Luther returned behind the wheel and smiled at her through the rearview mirror. “It’s nice to see you again, Ms. Ramirez.” His salt-and-pepper hair was cropped closer than she remembered, but his gentle Texas drawl hadn’t changed a bit.
The familiar voice brought an unexpected lump to her throat. “Thanks, Luther. How’s everyone?”
“Still the same, but they’re sure to be happy to see you again.”
Sure they were, Eve thought unhappily. Everyone that was...except their master, and ugh.
Was she really going to do this?
The leather seat felt too soft, too luxurious against her back. Just like it had eight years ago, when she’d first arrived at Ferguson Ranch, all teenage attitude and secret trembling insides. She’d been nineteen then, forced to move in with her mother’s new husband and his impossibly handsome, impossibly intimidating twenty-five-year-old son.
Every day had been rebellion on her part. Every single day had been her way of hiding her inconvenient feelings for him.
Until the accident happened.
When Hunter automatically blamed her for it, she’d been so hurt that he’d accuse her without question. Pride made her refuse to admit the truth. She’d taken the blame and acted like she’d enjoyed causing trouble.
Ugh, I was such an idiot back then.
The memories alone had Eve cringing, and she could only keep cringing...upon realizing that she was still an idiot, and for the same reason, too.
Pride comes before a fall indeed, Eve thought gloomily, and pride, right now, was why she was thirty, homeless, and unemployed.
It was so tempting to wallow in self-pity, but thankfully, the one night she had spent in the halfway house was more than enough to change her perspective completely. Yes, she did feel like a loser right now...but it was also because she had hit rock bottom that she had been forced to turn to God.