Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 139606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 698(@200wpm)___ 558(@250wpm)___ 465(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 698(@200wpm)___ 558(@250wpm)___ 465(@300wpm)
“Thanks,” she murmured, leaning back against his bare chest. He was in a pair of pajama bottoms and nothing else.
It had been the most erotic afternoon of her life, and she wished it wasn’t under false pretenses.
The way this man looked at her…and she was lying to him.
This was why her father told her to never fuck for intel. Because it took a piece of her soul.
She told herself she wasn’t doing that. She’d gone to bed with Dare because she’d wanted to, and she’d absolutely wanted to see him again. But there was no way around the fact that she was in this room for a reason other than desire.
“You all right?” He nuzzled her neck. The man was proving to be deeply affectionate.
She had to stop wallowing in guilt and get to the job at hand. Really getting to know this man. The truth of the matter was he never had to know why she’d come back to him. He could go through the rest of his life believing it had been only because she wanted him. Because she did. So fucking much more than she was willing to let her team know. She turned and gave him a smile, tilting her head up. “I’m amazing. It’s shocking what a couple of ridiculously good orgasms can do for one’s state of mind.”
The smirk on his face proved the man was pleased with himself.
It made her heart clench because she got the feeling this wasn’t an arrogant man who always felt on top of the world.
“I’ll remember that. Come here and sit on my lap.” He tugged her back to the sofa, easing her down. “Now is probably the time we should have that talk. I meant it when I said I want you to stay with me. I know you’re here to visit your cousin, but I want you with me as much as you can handle.”
He was making this far too easy. “You want me to move into your suite?”
“Yes. I know it’s fast, but we don’t have a lot of time.” His hand was curled around her hip. “Tasha, I don’t want to lie to you.”
It wasn’t hard to figure out what he was talking about. “I live in Dallas and you live in Toronto, and we both have busy lives. Long distance is hard and probably wouldn’t work, so what we have is these two weeks.”
“It’s more than that.” He seemed to think for a moment. “The long-distance thing I could work on. It’s my family. My father is a controlling son of a bitch, and I would never expose you to him.”
That was news. She’d heard a bit about his father, but she’d thought he was talking about him as a boss. She often bemoaned working for her own dad, and he was all kinds of awesome. “What do you mean by controlling?”
A long breath came from his chest, and he looked weary.
“You don’t have to talk about it,” she whispered. “That’s the great thing about a two-week affair. We can pretend to be anyone we like. You can be my Dom and I’ll be your sweet sub, and that’s all we have to know about each other.”
“And if I want more?”
“I think you’ll find your sweet sub is always willing to listen, but from what you’re telling me we have an end date.”
“What if I want all of it even though it does have an end date? Even if I know I’ll regret leaving you behind for the rest of my life? Hell, maybe someone will assassinate the fucker and I’ll show right back up on your doorstep.”
“Assassinate? That feels like a harsh word to use.”
“It’s true. My father… He’s had some shady dealings in the past. There are whole parts of our business I’m not allowed in. He says I haven’t proven myself to be enough of a Nash yet.”
She didn’t like the sound of that, and yet it was a path she felt compelled to go down. The Agency was worried about Oakley. Maybe they needed to be worried about the senior Nash. “How old do you have to be to be enough of a Nash?”
“I’ve only been a Nash since I was nine. I lived with my mother for the early part of my life. My parents weren’t married.”
So Tristan had told her, but she’d like to hear the story from Dare. “Lots of parents aren’t married.”
“Oh, my father was married,” Dare corrected. “Just not to my mother. Helena was his first wife. They didn’t have kids, and he divorced her over it. He had started to date the woman who would turn out to be his second wife when he found out about me. My mom was a sex worker.”
He said it like he was dropping a bomb he expected to explode.