Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 136(@200wpm)___ 109(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 136(@200wpm)___ 109(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
But I didn’t. Instead, I stared at her for a moment too long as I appreciated the way her blue jeans hugged her hips and the way that sparkly top drew my eyes to her luscious tits. I swear I thought I saw them harden when I called her name but that had to be my imagination. The longings of a man who sees what he can never have. She’s young and sweet. Too good for a dirty bastard like me. If that isn’t enough of a reason to avoid her, she’s my son’s ex-girlfriend.
Now I just need to figure out why she’s here and get her out. I don’t need this. I don’t need her coming in here and disturbing what little peace I’ve managed to carve out for myself.
I cross my arms over my chest when she says she can’t take my bed. I have to shore up my defenses. I can’t let her see how much that light, breathless voice she uses affects me or the way I want nothing more than to drag her onto my bed right now.
She’s lying to me. The simple reminder lets me hold onto the cool reserve that was starting to slip. “How about you tell me what the hell is going on?”
I’ve never lived in her world. I only ventured into it a few times to see my son. But even I’ve heard the rumors. Brooke Lancaster is her father’s secret weapon, and he never lets her out of his sight. If she’s here, it can only mean that something has gone very wrong.
“Did you run from him?” I saw Lionel at my son’s party. I watched the way he looked at his daughter, and I didn’t like it. He had a brutal glint in his gaze and even back then, I wanted to sweep in and save her. She was a beautiful tigress trapped in a cage by a cruel man.
She barks out a laugh that sounds all wrong. It’s too harsh and too sad and too broken. If she lived with me, she’d only ever have a reason for happy laughs. I’d make sure of it.
She shakes her head before she sinks onto the edge of the bed. She stares down at her bright purple sneakers. She has just a splash of green paint on them, and it makes me wonder what she was painting.
“No, not exactly.” Her voice is tiny, lost.
“Something is wrong,” I bark out the words impatiently. I need to know what’s going on. I need to fix it for my tigress. I need to see her smile and know it’s genuine.
Brooke looks different than she did three years ago. Her curves have filled out generously, those broad hips calling to me in her tight blue jeans. I want nothing more than to wrap my hands around them and squeeze.
Her hair is shorter. Before, it was long and piled high on her head. Now it’s short, barely dusting her shoulders. It’s still wavy though and I long to run my fingers through it. The freckles dust along the bridge of her nose. She didn’t hide them with makeup at the party and I admired that. Surrounded by women who wanted to look model-perfect, she showed up as herself. She was her own woman, even back then.
“I’m going to die soon,” she blurts out.
Her words snap me out of my trance, and I scowl. “Not as long as there’s breath in my body, you won’t.”
What the hell is this? I gave up on the idea that I could rescue anyone after that last mission went sideways. Nine months in a cell no bigger than a dog crate. Nine fuckin’ months of endless interrogations, near-constant torture, and psychological torment.
“My dad had a heart attack today.”
She pulls her gaze up to mine, searching. I’m not sure what she’s looking for. If it’s comfort, that’s not something I can offer. You don’t survive the things I did and come back all warm and feely. Instead, I wait for her to go on. I can’t do much, but I can give her the space to talk.
She continues in a scratchy whisper, “He’s alive but barely, and now there will be a war fought for everything he owns…including me.”
“No one can have you,” the words are a snarl ripped from my throat. My beautiful tigress isn’t something to be owned. She’s not property. She’s the greatest damn treasure this world has ever seen.
She nods to her bag, the one she dropped by the bed. “I have all of his secrets right there on that laptop. Every dirty deed Lionel Lancaster has committed has been carefully documented. One machine. No backups.”
“There’s always a way out,” I reassure her. It’s what I learned when I realized no one knew where I was. No one knew where the men that had been captured with me were either. If we were going to get out, we had to fight our way out.