Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Her nipples pressed visibly against the leather. I rested my fingers at the top of the zipper and watched her breathing quicken. “Stand up.”
Tamsin placed her hand in mine and climbed from the bed. Wearing only the vest and pale panties, she padded beside me toward the full-length mirror, her bare legs and rounded ass making my cock hard before we reached it. I stepped behind her and settled both hands at her waist, turning her enough to see my name across her back.
“That’s better.”
Tamsin met my gaze in the mirror, her eyes bright and already shining. “How long have you had this?”
“Long enough.”
I turned her to face me. The ring had been waiting inside the vest’s pocket, and her breath caught again when she saw it resting between my fingers. I took her left hand and held it firmly in mine.
“I love you, pretty girl.” I looked directly into her eyes. “Marry me.”
Tamsin glanced from the ring to my face, tears gathering along her lashes even as the beginnings of a smile curved her mouth. “Is that a question?”
“No.”
“You’re very sure of yourself.”
“Shouldn’t I be?”
A laugh slipped through the emotion, and her cheeks turned pink again.
“Yeah. You should.” She squeezed my hand and smiled fully. “I love you, Gavin. I can’t wait to marry you.”
I slid the ring onto her finger, then closed my hand around hers while my other arm locked around her waist. Tamsin rose onto her toes, caught my shoulders, and kissed me with enough hunger to make the leather creak beneath my grip. I took control before the first breath ended, driving my tongue into her mouth until she melted against me and the ring pressed between our bodies.
When I finally lifted my head, she looked down at the vest and ran her fingertips over the edge. Her lips were swollen, her eyes hazy, and the leather bearing my name framed her bare breasts in a way that promised I was going to develop a serious fucking obsession with seeing her wear it like this.
“Should I take this off?” she asked.
My smile turned darker.
“Not a chance.”
EPILOGUE
GHOST
The rebuilt launch field stretched beyond the southern drainage cut, carrying no visible trace of the sabotage that had nearly turned the Black Crowns veterans’ fundraiser into a massacre. Stronger barriers guarded the perimeter, every access point was monitored, and Bellamy employees moved between clearly marked stations beneath procedures Tamsin had personally rewritten.
Veterans, club families, company employees, and members of Tamsin’s family filled the event grounds behind us as we crossed toward the clubhouse, my hand settled possessively around her waist. Her engagement ring caught the lowering sunlight whenever she moved, and my name stretched across the leather covering her back, giving my body several filthy ideas about how I’d remind her who she belonged to when we got home.
Bellamy Pyrotechnics had spent the past three weeks dragging itself back onto solid ground. Tamsin’s parents handled the clients, canceled contracts, and ugly conversations left behind by Len’s betrayal, while employees returned to the warehouse in stages as the damaged areas were repaired. No full display went onto the schedule until Tamsin approved the revised safety and inventory procedures, and her parents formally placed final authority over both operations in her hands. Every adjustment now required two approvals, original field sheets were stored separately from final reports, and individual credentials had replaced the shared access that had allowed one man to hide inside the company for years.
Tamsin decided how every new procedure would work, and I dealt with how someone might get around it. She gave me a practical list of security changes, listened when I added a few of my own, then laughed when the Black Crowns turned the warehouse, range, and secondary property into buildings capable of surviving a siege. Brothers replaced damaged doors, reinforced access points, mounted cameras at the loading approaches, and stayed visible as employees found their rhythm again. Tamsin controlled everything happening inside Bellamy’s operations, and I made sure anyone trying to threaten it from outside would have an exceptionally bad day.
My responsibilities to the club and Black Castle had eventually forced me to spend more hours away from her, but Tamsin had discovered I could handle a remarkable amount of work from the chair in her office doorway. She claimed I appeared often enough to qualify as company equipment, although her smile made it clear she did not mind finding me there. Every time she bent over her desk, stretched toward a shelf, or walked past close enough for her hip to brush my knee, my attention developed priorities that had nothing to do with security.
“Ghost.”
I turned to find a prospect approaching with a young woman beside him, her arms locked around a battered wooden shadow box with scratched glass and tarnished brass corners. She looked barely old enough to drink, and nerves had pulled her shoulders tight, but the way she protected the box against her chest suggested someone would lose fingers before taking it from her.