Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 90075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
A lance of jealousy filled me.
How many other girls had he fucked until they were speechless, only to tend to her as if she was the most precious thing in the world? How many towns had he found a girl like me? Sexually repressed and just waiting for him to wake her up?
He’s not yours, Ella.
It was just one night.
And besides...
I focused on the man embracing me. The man I’d lived with for so long.
I had Nick.
An effervescent glow filled my chest.
Nicholas.
After what happened here tonight...he couldn’t deny that something existed between us. Something passionate and real and raw.
Sucking in a breath, Nick nudged his knuckles beneath my chin and stared into my eyes.
I smiled with my heart wide and trusting, but then I stiffened as ice trickled down my spine.
“Ella, I...” Whatever openness he’d shared while his body had been inside mine swiftly closed. A door over his soul and blackout curtains over his eyes. Just like I hadn’t been able to read him for the past eight months, I struggled to read him now.
My glow extinguished.
“Nick?”
Frowning, he ran his tongue over his bottom lip.
He went to speak—
Someone knocked on the door.
All of us glanced at the exit, freezing into statues.
No strangers watched us anymore, drifting onto other rooms where circus goers still played, but I wasn’t prepared for it to open and Giselle to step inside.
Gasping with embarrassment, I snatched for the bedsheet, wrapping the black satin around me the best I could. Nick draped the end over his lap while Hunter stepped down the three steps and padded toward his second in command as if she’d seen him naked all the time.
“What is it, Gis?” He cupped between his legs as he reached her, shooting Nick and I a look before forcing his entire attention on her.
Giselle shot me an apologetic glance before squaring her shoulders and saying, “I waited for you to be done, but...we have a situation.”
“What situation?”
“Two guests brought a girl with them. Their paperwork checked out, and their identifications showed the appropriate ages, but...”
“Fucking hell, not again,” Hunter snarled. “Bloody predators.”
“What...what’s happened?” I asked, fisting the sheet between my breasts.
Hunter stalked to his slacks strewn on the floor. Yanking them on, he zipped up, then stabbed his arms into his shirt. “Instead of following the rules, lowlife scum think they can do what they want. In my circus! A place of freedom and enjoyment, not abuse and terror. I’ll gut them if they’ve laid a single finger on her.” Whirling on Giselle, his voice tightened. “Why did you wait for me to finish? You should’ve alerted me the moment they stepped foot on my ground.”
“I’ve been watching them. They’ve merely been taking in the sights so far. The girl is currently having a good time. Either she’s open to being with them or they’ve lied to her, but right now, she hasn’t been touched.”
“How old?” Hunter balled his hands.
“I had my suspicions when her ID said she was twenty-two. I used the automatic photo capture and ran a facial recognition check.” Giselle spoke quietly but calmly. “The two men she’s with are her uncle and one of his friends. Her true age is fifteen.”
“And how old is her sleazy uncle?”
“Forty-seven.”
“Jesus.” Nick cursed beside me. “What sort of place are you running here, Hunter?” Standing, he shot down the steps and grabbed his jeans. Shoving his legs into them, he hoisted them up and tucked himself away, judgement oozing out of him. “Those sick bastards have brought a minor here, and you’ve given them the space to—”
“I haven’t given them anything. Yet.” Hunter charged at Nick and shoved a finger in his chest. “Stick around, and you’ll see what they’ll get for being such raping bastards. I have a special treat for predators who think they can prey on innocents.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked, glancing at my dress on the carpet, craving the thin fabric to wrap around my nakedness.
“I’m going to teach them a lesson.” Hunter smirked with sin in his amethyst eyes, the lightning bolt on his cheek slightly smudged from our evening. “I’m going to show them exactly how it would feel to be on the receiving end of whatever games they were about to play with his underage niece, and then I’m going to hand deliver them to local law enforcement.”
“Is that wise?” Giselle asked quietly. “You remember what happened last time you took police matters into your own hands? Perhaps we should just print out the file on him and make a citizen’s arrest? He’ll be dealt with.”
“Not dealt with enough, in my opinion,” Hunter muttered. “You know how I like to make these guys suffer, Gis.”
“File? What file?” Nick asked, glowering at Giselle.
She flicked a look at Hunter, asking permission to share. When Hunter nodded, she said, “We have an advanced database—courtesy of agencies we shall not name. We have technology and protocols in place to protect our guests in every way possible. Every town we go to there are always one or two bastards who can’t help themselves and think they can use our big top as a safe place to do God knows what to victims who are either known to them or snatched off the street.”