Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 117505 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 588(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117505 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 588(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
“Jesus. I didn’t exactly intend for you to wear the dress here,” he choked out.
She turned in a slow circle, her hands out, palms up. “You don’t like it?” she asked.
“You know damn well I like it,” he growled. “What I don’t like is all of my men seeing you in the damn thing.”
“We’ll suffer through it somehow,” Justice drawled from behind him.
“Oh, I’m sure you will,” Drake muttered.
Then he dropped a kiss on Evangeline’s lips. “I missed you,” he said where only she could hear.
Delight fizzed in her veins like a shaken-up soda.
“I missed you too,” she said huskily.
Then she turned to the others. “Where’s the champagne? Surely you can’t have a New Year’s Eve party without champagne?”
“Allow me,” Jax said, stepping up with a fluted glass of bubbly champagne.
Drake guided her back to his desk, where he sat in his chair and then promptly pulled her down to sit in his lap. She relaxed against him and sipped at the delicious drink.
“So who’s going to dance with me tonight?” she asked mischievously.
Drake’s hand tightened at her waist. “I’ll be the only damn man you dance with.”
“Oh, come on, Drake,” she pouted. “Surely you’ll let them all have a dance with me at our wedding.”
His gaze softened even as fire ignited in his eyes. “They get one minute apiece at the reception.”
“You’re so generous, man,” Zander drawled. “You’re taking the prettiest and sweetest woman in the entire damn city off the market and you give us one minute to dance with her. Nice.”
“Shut up or you lose her cooking as well,” Drake said with a scowl.
“Consider me shutting up right now,” Zander said, holding his hands up in surrender.
For the next few hours, the office held a festive air as they refilled Evangeline’s champagne glass until she had a full-out buzz going. She laughed, smiled and made jokes over the stupidest stuff, but the men didn’t seem to mind at all. Drake grinned the entire time, even going as far as to tell her what a cute drunk she was.
“I am not drunk!” she gasped.
Maddox snickered. “Don’t bet on that, sweetheart. You’re buzzing pretty good right now, I’d say.”
Her eyes narrowed but the problem was, when she did so, Maddox sprouted into three of him. Deciding not to share that particular piece of information with him, she instead ignored him.
“Hey, countdown is on,” Hartley announced. “Thirty seconds to midnight.”
Evangeline seized Drake’s hand and sent him a dazzling smile. “This is going to be the best year ever,” she whispered.
His eyes glittered and he cupped her face, drawing her down into a long, deep kiss.
Behind them, the guys started counting. “Eight, seven, six, five . . .”
They got all the way down to one and the dance floor below them erupted at the precise moment the doors to Drake’s office exploded inward and men carrying assault rifles, yelling for everyone to get down, poured through the entrance.
Drake surged up from his chair, pushing Evangeline behind him just as two guns were pointed at his head.
“Get down!” one of the men barked. “NYPD! We have a warrant to search the premises.”
“What the fuck?” Drake snarled.
Evangeline had to clamp a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming, but when two of the men went for Drake, who hadn’t obeyed their command to get down, she launched herself at them, spitting fury.
“You stay away from him!” she shrieked. “What are you doing to him? You can’t barge onto his private property, point guns at him and then manhandle him like this!”
Silas and Maddox were both being subdued but not easily. And when one of the cops went for Evangeline, Drake erupted in fury, but it was another cop, the apparent leader, who halted everyone in their tracks.
“Leave her alone,” the cop barked. “She’s with us. She’s legit. Leave her and take care of the rest.”
The cop let go of Evangeline’s arm, causing her to stumble back, her alcohol-fuzzed brain trying to make sense of what the cop had just said. Dear God, he made it sound like . . . Oh God, he’d actually implied . . . No. She would not allow this to happen. She would not let Drake ever think she had any part in this.
She watched in horror as each of his men was cuffed and made to lie facedown on the floor while she just stood there, untouched or bothered by any of the officers. What the hell did they think they were doing? Was this her payback for refusing to help them bring Drake down? They implicated her anyway? Why? What purpose could they possibly have for fucking her over so horribly? Did they hate Drake that much? That they’d seek to take everything he cared about away from him?
No, Drake would never believe them. He wouldn’t. He believed in her. But one pleading look in his direction found his gaze on her, smoldering with rage and betrayal. He looked right through her, like she was nothing. Like she was the worst sort of person in the world.