Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Cody reached and rubbed the pad of his thumb over the crease that pulled between my eyes. “You’re thinking awful hard there, darlin’.”
Unsure, I chewed at my bottom lip, trying to push it aside and fall into the easiness that Cody emanated. “I just…I didn’t think the two of us were going to end up here like this.”
It was a whole lot safer to let him think I was in a stir about the fact that I’d given in than to expose what I was really thinking about.
His brow arched with a tease, his sweet arrogance twisting into the rugged lines of his face. “Seems strange to me since I knew we were heading this direction all along.”
It wasn’t so hard to find a grin. “Easy for you to say when I’m sure you end up naked with some girl half the nights of the week.”
His thumb kept tracing, and for a flash, his expression dimmed before a fierce softness came rushing back. “Not one of them like you.”
A blush crept to my cheeks, and I tried to remember that this man was a player. A pro. He knew exactly how to turn a woman to putty.
Maybe I was just a stupid girl who’d fallen right into his trap.
Dumb love.
But I couldn’t detect an ounce of dishonesty in him right then.
Hell, I hadn’t detected a trace of it since I’d come here.
I thought he might be the most genuine person I’d ever met.
Still, I attempted the razz, though the words were coarse. “Only because I didn’t give in the first time you asked. You thought me a challenge. How do you feel now, Cocky Cowboy? Is your ego stroked?”
A chuckle rumbled in his chest, and he kept watching me with those tender eyes where he stared at me through the flickering night. “Oh, something was stroked, all right.”
He nudged his cock that still sat at half-mast against the front of my bare thigh.
I tried to smother a whimper.
Impossible.
He sobered and spread his palm across the side of my cheek. “You want to know what I feel like right now, Hailey? I feel like a king who’s just been offered the greatest treasure.”
My heart fluttered in my chest, and still I was going for light. “You think I’m a possession, huh? I think I’ve already been in that role, and I didn’t like it all that much.”
The last went hoarse, a confession that came from out of nowhere. I blamed it on the fact the man had left me goo.
A puddle of bliss.
I didn’t have a lot of fortitude left.
No way to keep him out of the places he kept pushing into.
His palm twitched on my face, his hold both fierce and soft. “I hate him, Hailey. Hate that that bastard could ever make you feel that way. I want to destroy him just for the fact that he would ever try to tamp or trap the beauty that you are. I would never fucking do that. Would never hurt you. Would never use you. Would never think of you as any less than the fiery, sassy, strong, unforgettable woman that you are.”
Affection slipped through my bloodstream, a soft whisper that spread out to touch every part of me.
This spirit that ached to meet with his.
I should be afraid.
Cody might not ever hurt me the way Pruitt had, but I knew how he easily could inflict wounds. Wounds that would scar so deep because they’d be the kind derived of vulnerability and trust. He’d gained the position, taken a piece of my being that he now held in the palm of his heated hand.
And there I lay, a glutton begging for the pain, wishing there was a way to give it to him.
Cody warred, and I could feel the storm build around him. Darkness called from every direction. A severity that blistered and writhed and shivered him to the bone. “Did he put his hands on you?”
You’ll go, Hailey, and you’ll do exactly as I tell you. You don’t want to find out what happens if you don’t.
I could almost smell the foulness that had leached from Pruitt as he’d stood behind me and threatened it so quietly at my ear.
Could almost feel the way my heart had shattered when I’d realized what he was asking me to do.
What he was forcing me to do.
It had taken me two years to realize what I’d unknowingly become. Blinded. A fool who didn’t have a clue. Then another four to gain the courage to rip free of the chains.
My tongue swept out to wet my dried lips, and I fought to find a suitable answer to give Cody, my spirit screaming at me to let him in and the rest of me knowing I couldn’t. Not until I knew for sure how I was going to handle this.