Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 52241 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 261(@200wpm)___ 209(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52241 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 261(@200wpm)___ 209(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
“Well, well—and who might you be, girly?”
As pick-up lines go, it wasn’t very good. But I didn’t think the speaker cared.
Turning, I saw it was the taller of the two men I’d seen when we entered—the one with dirty blonde hair and sharp green eyes. Those eyes were presently raking over me, lingering a lot longer than was polite on my chest.
Now, when Jack looked at me that way, it gave me a delicious little thrill—a tingle that seemed to run from my ripe nipples all the way down to my pussy and back again. But when this new guy looked at me, I felt the urge to cover myself—his nasty gaze made me sick.
“You heard Drake—he asked who you were,” the shorter of the two said. “We haven’t seen you around these parts before.”
“It’s none of your business who I am,” I snapped. “All you need to know is that I’m here with Jack Thornton and you’ll be sorry if he catches you bothering me!”
“Jack Thornton? That old dog!” the taller one named Drake scoffed. “He’s never going to take a mate—he’s a lone wolf for life.”
Take a mate? I thought that was a strange way to talk about Jack ever getting married, but I had to set the record straight.
“He’s not my husband—he’s my…my protector. My guardian. I mean, he looks after me now that my parents are gone,” I said stiffly. “Again, not that it’s any of your business.”
“Wait a minute…” Drake’s sharp green eyes narrowed. “You must be the daughter of Patrick Lawson—Thornton’s Blood-Brother who moved back East all those years ago.”
“So what if I am?” I lifted my chin and crossed my arms over my chest because I couldn’t stand their eyes on me any longer. Not only did I wish for my bra—I wished for a big, thick winter coat to wrap around myself. Honestly, just having them look at me made my skin crawl!
There was a feeling of wrongness about them, the same way there was a feeling of rightness around Jack. I couldn’t explain either emotion, but I felt them in my gut. They made me want to stay far away from the two men—but they clearly weren’t going to make that easy for me.
“Why, if you are Patrick Lawson’s daughter, then that makes you Thornton’s Blood-ward.”
“Blood-ward?” I frowned. “What does that mean?”
“Means he shouldn’t be parading you around town like this, sweet thang,” Drake drawled. “You’re too damn ripe—a hot little bitch like you, so near the full moon—”
“What did you call me?” I demanded, getting really angry now. “How dare you use that word?”
Drake frowned like he didn’t understand what I was getting worked up over.
“What? Bitch? That’s what you are, honey—and don’t think I can’t smell your heat! You want it bad—so how about if you come around to the back storeroom and Billy and I will give it to you?”
“Yeah—come into the storeroom, the shorter one with dark brown hair echoed. I guessed his name must be Billy—not that I cared. I just wanted to get away from both of them.
“You ever been double knotted?” Drake asked, giving me another lecherous look. “Two guys at once? One knot in your pussy and the other in your sweet little asshole?”
At this point, I completely lost it. They were coming at me and I was sure that in another minute, they would be pulling me into the storeroom—which was right behind them at the end of the aisle—and doing all kinds of horrible things to me! I wasn’t going to wait around for that to happen.
With a cry, I threw the extra large jar of spaghetti sauce I’d been holding at them. It hit Drake in the stomach and he made a sound like “Whoof!” and grabbed for it as he doubled over.
But the glass was slippery—probably because my hands had started sweating when they began with all their nasty talk. The jar slipped out of his hands, landed on his foot and then bounced onto the ancient linoleum floor where it exploded like a bomb, spraying glass shards and sticky red sauce everywhere.
I jumped back, managing to avoid the words of the splatter, other than a few droplets that landed on my little white tennis shoes. And then Drake was coming for me.
“Why, you little bitch!” he snarled, looking down at his sauce-soaked jeans and splattered shirt. “You’re gonna pay for that!”
“The only one paying is going to be you, if you come near my Blood-ward again, pup!”
Suddenly Jack was there, pushing me behind him protectively. A low growl rose in his throat and he seemed to grow ten feet tall, looming over Drake and Billy, who cowered back from him.
“Drake Wilkes and Billy Masters,” he thundered, the very picture of protective rage. “What the hell have you been saying to my Blood-ward?”