Total pages in book: 174
Estimated words: 159159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 796(@200wpm)___ 637(@250wpm)___ 531(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 159159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 796(@200wpm)___ 637(@250wpm)___ 531(@300wpm)
They had a group of five members walking down the street together. She was in the center with Ice, and they were halfway down the street when she realized they were protecting her. The members of Torpedo Ink recognized that she was afraid of someone.
She had deliberately let her fears about Kevin’s death not being an accident slip out because when she turned up dead in an accident, she wanted someone to know it was murder. Maybe they would remember her and care, maybe they wouldn’t, but at least she’d told someone the truth.
Ice suddenly leaned into her and brushed a kiss along her jaw. That little brush of his lips set her heart pounding. Her body had come to life after being frozen for so long. Blood rushed like a fireball, pooling low and reminding her she was really alive and that not only could she respond to a man, but rockets had gone off. More, he responded to her. He thought she was beautiful and sexy, and he wanted her. She could see it in his eyes and feel it in his touch. See his body’s staggering reaction to her. For the first time ever in her life, she felt everything she had ever wanted to feel as a woman.
“I can’t imagine what your friends think of me,” Soleil whispered. She didn’t care that she’d been bent over a pool table in a bar with Ice’s hands and mouth all over her, but he might. She might have embarrassed him.
Ice stopped dead on the sidewalk, turning to block her forward momentum. He framed her face with both hands and bent until his head was level with hers. “You don’t worry about what anyone else thinks but you or me, Soleil. My brothers have our backs at all times. They won’t judge you. They’ll always look out for you. But you’re mine. I stand in front of you. Some asshole wants to say something to make you feel bad because we make each other feel good, they better know they’re sayin’ it to me too—and all of them as well.”
His glacier-blue eyes stared directly into hers, mesmerizing. Hypnotizing. She couldn’t look away. He had some kind of power or, more likely, he was saying all the right things to her, things she desperately needed to hear. She had told herself a hundred times that she didn’t need anyone. That they were after her money, and time and again that had been a proven fact. She’d all but thrown herself at Ice because he was that prince in the fairy tale and she desperately wanted to be a princess—his princess—if only on what could be the last night of her life.
She couldn’t help it when tears filled her eyes. “I don’t know what happened, Ice.” But she did. She had set out to seduce him and she’d done it. She was still doing it. She wanted him exactly the way he was. She couldn’t help touching his face, stroking the pads of her fingers down his jaw. He was so incredibly gorgeous. Maybe when someone only had one night, they were given the perfect gift—and Ice was hers.
“What happened was perfect. You’re so fuckin’ beautiful I can’t believe it.” He kissed her eyelids. Brushed kisses down her face to the corner of her mouth. This time, when he kissed her, he was so gentle her heart turned over.
She’d never had that kind of caring from anyone. She didn’t remember much about her time with her parents. Aunt Deborah had been gentle and kind with her, but her life after she’d died hadn’t been that way at all. Her aunt Constance had made an art out of slapping her, reminding her constantly that she was costing her money. That she was in the way. That she was an ugly, stupid child that no one wanted. She still felt like that unwanted, ugly child, and Winston had only confirmed her aunt’s opinion of her.
Ice was physically a gorgeous man. He had scars, but they enhanced his good looks rather than detracted from them. He looked scary dangerous, she wasn’t so far gone on him that she couldn’t see or acknowledge that, but with her he seemed unfailingly sweet. She needed sweet. She needed someone to be nice to her. To be kind. Gentle. Caring. Not want to kill her just because she had money.
The liquor continued the buzz through her veins. It rushed along with her blood, hotter than ever before. No one had ever treated her so kindly or said the things Ice said to her, and God help her, she needed that tonight.
“You still with me, princess? You going to come with me tonight and let me have you?”
No one, not even Kevin, had wanted her in their life. No one. She ate alone. She slept alone. She was always alone. Ice had turned the worst night of her life into something wonderful. He hadn’t complained about what she was wearing, even though she clearly didn’t fit in. He hadn’t made fun of her when she didn’t know something and when she’d gone a little crazy in the bar, throwing herself at him. Rather than act like she would be entertainment for his friends, he’d protected her.