Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Lights strobed over the crowd, and lust stroked the air with an undercurrent of greed.
Tonight, a cover band was on the stage, the place packed and wild and hedged with a vibe of decadence.
I inhaled it like it might help me regain my footing.
Because I was tripping in a direction I couldn’t allow myself to go.
I should’ve always known Aster Rose would be a dead-end, and I was pretty sure if I didn’t get smart, that dead-end was going to land me six feet underground.
Things were already turning south in my brain. Leaving her there tonight? After walking in on her wearing that nightie? That shit had been one second from being impossible. How easy it would’ve been to slide my hands under the slip to get to all that sweetness.
To set my dick free and take her against the wall.
It’d been so fucking long since I’d been in that body, in that perfection, that I’d nearly walked right over that line.
Felt what she might give.
Topping it off was the memory of the way it’d felt sitting next to her at my niece and nephew’s performance. Like she’d been there all along. Where she’d belonged. My mind raced with the possibilities that my brain knew better than to go to.
It’d left me shaken.
Hungry for things that really should sour on my palate.
I’d only intended to push her a bit. Tease her. Tempt her the way she was tempting me. Then I’d touched her, and all bets were off. I couldn’t handle the way she’d looked at me with those fire-agate eyes.
The way she had to stop herself from letting the pleas drop from her tongue. I had nearly lost it right then, and I knew I had to get the fuck out of there before I did something stupid.
Like putting a wall between us was going to cure the need.
My cock still raged, and my fingers were itching with the desire to sink right in.
Mouth watering for any taste of poison she might give.
Funny since there was a huge piece of me that still wanted to tell her to fuck off.
This was the girl who’d destroyed me. One who’d left a hole so deep and wide it didn’t stand a chance of callousing over.
It was just this gaping, festering mess that would forever hate what she’d done.
I didn’t trust her.
Not at all.
And the really sick part of me didn’t give a fuck. That part didn’t care what she’d done or where she’d been. Her place was with me.
It certainly wasn’t wise.
I’d known it in the hard panic that’d taken hold of my brothers when they’d seen me walk up with her like rolling in with a Costa was perfectly normal.
It was a line in the sand.
A beckoning of trouble.
A middle finger to the type of people who were not to be trifled with.
The kind of people we used to be, but it was a life that we’d left behind.
Permanently.
And now a Costa princess was in my penthouse apartment.
I shouldered through the crush to find my brothers were already waiting for me in our regular booth reserved for us at the very back of the club.
Trent sat on the right and Jud on the left, Trent sipping from the expensive scotch he preferred and Jud sipping from a foaming mug of his favorite beer.
It wasn’t all that rare of a sight.
I slipped into the booth on Trent’s side and cut them both an overzealous smile. “I’m here, boys. Let the party begin.”
Trent grunted. “Think you know full well we didn’t call you here for a party.”
Right.
It was an inquisition. I’d figured Trent wasn’t looking to chill when he’d leaned in like he was going to tell me goodbye after the recital and told me to be here at ten.
I rocked back against the booth like I hadn’t dropped a nuclear bomb on them earlier tonight without giving them a reason for war.
“Why so glum? Tell me the honeymoons haven’t already worn off?” I said it like it was a sad, sorry state of affairs. “Are your poor, tiny dicks shriveling up from disuse? It’s an injustice, you know.”
I cracked it the way I always did, rubbing it in like they were the ones going to be missing out for the rest of their lives when they’d tapped into what really mattered. “I warned you guys…but did anyone listen to their baby brother? Nooo. When are you all going to realize I’m the smartest of the bunch?”
Jud pointed at me from across the table. “Cut the crap, Logan. Don’t think you’re going to bullshit your way out of this one because I’m not buying that smile on your face for anything.”
Trent went right for the throat. “Care to tell me why the fuck a Costa showed up at my kid’s performance tonight?” he demanded.