Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
“Charles!” Clover runs from behind the tree and flings herself into my arms. I catch her. I always will.
“You saved me.” I kiss her cold nose and warm lips, then pull back to look into her eyes. “I know you saw.”
She swallows hard and nods.
“This is who I am, pretty eyes. Who I’ve always been and on some level, who I’ll always be.” I hold my breath, waiting for her to reject me, to call me a monster, a killer.
“You saved me. First on the road. Then with your love. And now with your knife.” She kisses me hard, a burst of passion in the middle of the bloodied snow. “I want you always, just the way you are.”
I’m not a sentimental man. Never have been. But when she says those words to me, my eyes start to tingle, and I kiss her again before she notices what she’s done to me. Even so, she knows. I can tell from the way she clings to me, embraces me, and loves me. Forever. Just the way I am.
CLAIMING HIS BRIDE
CLAIMING HIS BRIDE
MINK
Performing onstage in front of tens of thousands of fans is a rush, without a doubt. But one look from Diego sends an even hotter thrill of excitement through my veins. He’s huge, a man of few words and hungry eyes. No matter how much I try to get him to open up to me, he won’t. So, I have to change my tactics.
This mountain lodge is full of mysterious men, and Diego is the one I’m desperate to solve. He’s madly protective, but he won’t get close. Pushing him over the edge has become my main goal. I tempt him with skimpy outfits and my signature chocolate cake.
My plan is going perfectly until my biggest fear comes true. I thought I would be safe out here in the snowy wilderness with Diego. Was I wrong?
1
AURORA
It’s crazy how fast your life can change. One minute you can be performing in front of thousands of people chanting your name, and the next you're in the middle of nowhere watching the man you’ve been crushing on fight over who gets the kill count for the dead man who’s currently on the snowy ground. If you told me a week ago that this would be my reality, I would have said you were insane.
Yet here I stand in front of the window watching it all play out. The dead man’s blood is turning the fresh snow crimson. I should probably be scared or screaming; maybe both. But I’m not any of those things. I lift my eyes to see Diego turn to look at me.
His light blue eyes show no emotion. I give him a soft, small wave that gets me one of his scowls. He stands up to walk to my window. I open it, and the cold winter air flows in, nipping at my skin. I wish Diego would nip at me. All he does is grunt and point.
I step back, but I don’t give him enough room to climb back in without touching me.
“Now are you scared of me?” he asks gruffly.
I've been here for almost two days, and he is always asking if I’m scared of him. I get it. The man is huge. Bigger than the other men that run this lodge. He’s also the quietest of them all.
They saved us when we got stuck in a snowstorm. We were trying to escape hectic popstar life and one particular asshole. I needed a moment to shut down. So we picked a town in the middle of nowhere and started driving with the hopes that no one would recognize me. The good news is, none of the men knew who I was until we told them. Maybe that should hurt my pride. It doesn’t. If anything, it makes me feel free to be myself instead of “Aurora the headliner” or “Aurora the Grammy-winner” or whatever pop princess tag they attach to my name.
Diego doesn’t know about any of it, and I think that’s wonderful. On the other hand, he doesn’t seem to think having me around is wonderful. Not at all.
Three angry scars run down one side of Diego’s face. I bet if I could see him naked, there would be more of them. I’m thinking he may have been in the military or something at some point. I’m not sure what he did there, but I’m guessing it was something involving special ops.
It’s not like he’s going to tell me. He never talks. But he does a whole lot of staring at me. Especially when I’m going on and on about things. The hard lines on his face make him look as though his face was carved out of stone. What always gets me are those striking eyes of his. They are the softest blue I’ve ever seen.