Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 105825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
She threw herself against me, so hard and fast it took me off guard. Her arms were wrapped around my back, her face was tucked into the side of my neck and she was pressed against me all the way from chin to groin. I could feel the warm softness of her breasts against my pecs and the scent of her hair filled my nose. My cock started to swell and I flushed because I knew she’d feel it. But then all that was swept aside by something stronger.
She was trembling. She’d been so brave, through this whole thing, and now that she was safe, she was realizing how close she and her kid had come to dying. The protective need surged up inside me again. I wrapped her in my arms and crushed her to me, wanting to shield her from the whole fucking world. And…something happened.
Years ago, there was this place, deep in my chest, where they had lived. Jillian and Max. My whole world. They were a warm light that kept me going, even when I was far from home. When they were taken from me, that light was ripped out of me.
I’d left that place alone for four years. It was a shrine too precious to touch, a wound too painful to visit. But she was like sunlight streaming through a dusty window and lighting up a dark room, bringing that place back to life. The memories locked up there shook free, a million icy, jagged razors slicing through my body. Max getting lost at the shopping mall. Jillian cutting my hair at the kitchen table. The three of us picking strawberries. Worse were the shadow memories, the ones we’d never got a chance to make. The Star Wars toys I’d had wrapped ready for Max’s birthday. The college fund that would never get used.
The pain tore at me, unbearable. But I still didn’t let her go.
“Lorna!”
I looked up. Her dad was standing in the entrance of the hotel, a bandage taped to his temple.
Lorna turned, saw him, and gave a groan of relief.
I slowly released her. “Go,” I said, my voice ragged. And pushed all the feelings down inside.
She unwound herself from me, those glittering gray eyes big and hesitant. Cops were hurrying down the steps toward us. “Senorita McBride?” one of them asked urgently.
She trailed her fingers against mine until the last possible second…and then the cops hustled her and her kid up the steps. At the top, her dad grabbed hold of both of them and pulled them into a fierce hug. He looked at me over Lorna’s shoulder and gave a nod of thanks. I nodded back, finally getting myself under control.
The police hurried the three of them inside. I knew I should get out of there before the police started looking for the gringo who’d shot three guys in the middle of their city. But I just stood there like an idiot, staring at the last place I’d seen her. McBride. Lorna McBride.
Now I knew why I’d recognized her dad. Russ McBride was always showing up on the business news in a suit and hard hat, standing in front of a part-built skyscraper. Business isn’t my thing, but he’d always seemed like a straight shooter, an architect who’d built his company up from nothing until it was worth billions.
And Lorna was his daughter. But she definitely wasn’t some spoiled rich kid. She was brave as hell. She’d insisted on trying to save the driver. And she had saved me, guiding me back to that doorway when I’d told her to leave me behind. I…
I liked her.
I turned from the hotel and stalked away. Of course I liked her, she was hot as hell, with those gray eyes and that luscious, curvy body. I couldn’t understand why she hid it under that loose blouse. I kept imagining how she’d look in something tight…and then I was imagining her in nothing at all, her breasts creamy and perfect, bouncing as she walked, or hanging like ripe fruit as I took her from behind. And I didn’t have to imagine how she felt, I kept reliving the warmth of her waist against my palms, when I’d lifted her up to the window, and the soft press of her breasts against my chest when she’d hugged me.
But it felt like more than lust. There was a strength to her, a determination, that drew me in. And the way she’d protected her kid… The further I got from the hotel, the more it felt like I was marching uphill. All I wanted to do was spin on my heel and run back the other way…
I caught myself and a stab of guilt hit me right in the chest. What the fuck is wrong with me?
I shook my head and walked on.