Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 133(@200wpm)___ 106(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 133(@200wpm)___ 106(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
She stops in the doorway and looks back. “What?”
“No more going behind each other’s backs. If we’re going to make this work, if we’re going to win over Joe, we have to be a team. Not opponents.”
Charlie’s expression warms. “Deal.”
11
Joe
I’m only on my second beer, but the television above the bar has already begun to blur. The dark establishment is loud and messy around me, stools being knocked over due to drunkenness, skirmishes taking place by the pool tables. A biker and his missus make out in the darkness of the dance floor while a country western band plays at a raucous pace. I’m dead still in the middle of the chaos, making no move to stop any of it. I’m off the clock. And I can’t feel a thing besides guilt.
Yearning for my girls.
A sense of dread.
“How about another one, sheriff?” asks the bartender, who is around ten years younger than me. She’s been attempting to flirt with me since I arrived, but the idea of flirting back makes my skin crawl. I only see Bella and Charlie. I only want to feel their touch. No one else’s. Hell, at this stage, if their mother came back from the grave, I’d still burn for Bella and Charlie. I’d still be lost for them, unable to resist. I’m starting to forget what my late wife’s face even looks like, they dominate my mind so completely.
“Yeah, I’ll take another,” I rasp, sliding my empty bottle across the bar.
She sets a new bottle in front of me, on top of a napkin. Her phone number is clearly written on the edge. She waits for my reaction, but I don’t even make eye contact with her. When she doesn’t seem to take the hint, I stand up. “Going to the men’s room. Don’t let anyone take my seat.”
“I’ll be right here waiting, honey.”
“Shut up,” I mutter, weaving my way through drunk people toward the bathroom.
I’m not even in there for thirty seconds—and halfway through a piss—when I hear it.
Or them, rather.
“We’re looking for our stepdad!” Charlie yells over the music.
“Joe!”
“Joe!”
The band stops playing. Men immediately start catcalling. “Are you the bitch?” That question from Bella.
“We’re going to kill you!” There’s Charlie.
Glass shatters.
Jesus Christ. I give myself a shake and zip up, just in time for a man to enter the bathroom with a goofy grin on his face. “Holy smokes. Some girls are out there with bats. They’re pissed off and hot as fuck.” He elbows me aside at the urinal. “I need to drain the lizard so I can go shoot my shot. Bet they’re hellcats in bed.”
“Whoever came here on a date with Joe better run,” Charlie shouts. “Last chance.”
More glass shatters, followed by a chorus of ooooohs.
I’ve been in a state of shock until now, my senses dulled slightly by the beer, but now I mobilize, nearly ripping the door from its hinges in order to reach the girls and mitigate any more destruction. I can’t deny the way my heart beats erratically knowing I’m about to have them in my sights. Can’t deny the stiffening in my briefs or that low, starved twist in my loins. Fuck it, I’m thinking. Fuck it.
And my surrender only becomes more imminent when I see Bella in a white leather dress that barely covers her ass, her tits boosted by the strapless corset top. Charlie in a black mini skirt and a bra. That’s what she’s wearing. A fucking bra. They’re a male fantasy come to life—and they’re waving a bat at a woman, demanding to know if she’s on a date with me. Hell if a small smile doesn’t play around the corners of my mouth.
That’s my girls.
I need to get them out of here before they start a brawl. Or a feeding frenzy.
Men are practically salivating at the sight of them.
“Bella,” I bark. “Charlie.”
When they both turn to look at me, their dual attention impacts me in the chest. I’ve been fighting something inevitable, haven’t I? I’m not doing that anymore.
They’re mine. That’s how they’re going to stay.
And so, despite the fact that a lot of people in this bar know me, know I’m the sheriff and these are my stepdaughters, I stride toward Bella and Charlie, anyway. I scoop them both up with a forearm beneath their juicy little asses, and I kiss them both in turn, my lips twisting over Bella’s, pressing them open to earn a whimper and the sweep of her delicious tongue. Charlie, refusing to be left out, grips and turns my face, planting a moaning kiss to my mouth, the rightness of holding them both sending a dramatic ripple through my engine.
Goddamn, the way I’m going to plow these two brats tonight.
“Where is your date, Joe? Who is she?” Bella demands to know.
“We’re going to kill her,” Charlie informs me with a serious nod.