Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91990 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91990 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
The club’s on its own. I handled Herrin. I paid my dues. I put a lot of things in play, and I’ll be there when it comes to a shit storm. No regrets. No responsibility.
“Rush, you can’t be seriously doing this right now. Pop is—”
“You really want to be around for all that aftermath, Kara? Do you need that closure?”
She opens and closes her mouth. “Actually, no. I don’t. I spent too long worrying about what I needed to survive him. You and all your crazy actually gave me closure. That’s scary,” she says very seriously.
She turns, putting her feet in my lap, and I smirk as I reach down, patting her ankles.
“I won’t struggle. Cut me free. Please.”
“Only if you plan on giving me road head—” A pained breath hisses between my lips when she presses down on my balls with the heel of her foot.
“Fine. You win. I’ll cut you free and won’t charge anything for services rendered,” I concede.
She smiles like she’s won something, and I let her continue to think she’s more badass than she is as I pull over to surrender to her demands.
Her lips are on mine in the next instant, and I pull her closer, my arms going around her. She’s finally mine. I feel that last bit of surrender in the way her body bows so easily to mine.
She’s willing to do whatever I ask, so long as I ask it the right way. I was hers for a very long damn time. I’m going to savor every moment of making her as fucking crazy as I am…in the non-scary way. Whatever that means.
This time, I’m not worried about losing her, because she won’t go anywhere without me ever again.
“Quit thinking crazy thoughts. Your lips are curved in that scary grin, and it’s seriously creeping me out how much it’s turning me on,” she says against my lips, just as Bad Romance starts playing.
The intense air is stolen between her random interjection and the song choice that has apparently struck a relatable chord she finds hilarious.
“Glad you find this so funny,” I tell her dryly, as her entire body writhes with somewhat hysterical laughter.
Tears start falling out both corners of her eyes, even as she laughs harder.
Holy shit, I’ve had her all to myself for thirty minutes and I’ve already broken her. Damn it all to hell.
She wipes her eyes, her lips finding mine again, as I love her while she’s clearly vulnerable.
“It’s like I don’t even know how to imagine a future where I’m not looking over my shoulder for Herrin,” she says on a broken whisper. “And come to find out, he wasn’t even hunting me like I thought he was. The effort was lazy at best.”
She bats her tears away, eyes landing on mine again.
“Stop thinking about the past,” I tell her, dragging her closer to me on the seat as I sit up.
She buckles in next to me, and she dries her eyes again as I get my arm around her shoulders, pulling off onto the road as the moment gets stolen by reality.
Everyone can call me crazy if they want to. I’m the one who got exactly what I wanted.
I wanted Kara Caine to love me and be under my control. My lips twitch as I pass the sign that tells me I’m leaving Halo with everything I planned on taking with me all along.
Epilogue
One month later…
KARA
“He really is insane,” I note as I stare at all the rose petals on the floor, trying my damnedest not to smile.
Mostly because I usually have to clean up the big romantic gestures he throws in from time to time.
We’re quite literally living on an island that is in the middle of a privately owned lake in an undetermined state.
The house is small, but adorable. You have to take a boat to get to land that can be driven on. He wanted me in isolation. The crazy bastard got what he wanted.
Two arms come around my waist, and I grin to myself, unable to even convince myself any of this is wrong anymore. He kisses down my neck, arms tightening on me.
I’ve surrounded myself with people who never knew me. Rush knows me. I want to know everything about him so that I’m just another person he can only be half-honest with.
Out here, it’s just the two of us, and we don’t get out much, so it makes that easier.
“What’s the reason for the romance today?” I ask, half-worried he’s trying to get pregnant. I keep checking my birth control pills to ensure they’re the real deal.
Yes, I know he’s crazy. I love him anyway. I just don’t think kids are the best idea.
“I killed a man and it made me horny,” he deadpans.
“That joke still isn’t funny,” I inform him.