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)
“You think I don’t see you come in here every night with that look on your face? You’re fucking flyin’, man. And you know I want that for you. For you to find that happiness. To get that love I see blazing in your eyes. But you can’t do it with a Costa. You’re gonna end up in the ground and put the rest of the family there, too.”
Agitation gathered as sweat at the nape of his neck.
How the fuck did he know?
“I’m not.” It tremored from his mouth.
Nathan sighed without any anger. “You are, man. I know you are. You can’t wait to get there every day and you come home later and later every night. Not sure how Trent and Jud bought that bullshit you fed us when you walked through the door, but you and I both know it’s exactly that—bullshit.”
“Nathan…” He drew it out like a plea.
Nathan pushed from the wall and came toward Logan. He set a hand on his shoulder, looked him straight. “I’m just scared for you, Logan. I mean, I’m fucking terrified every day for all three of you. But what you’re doing? An Owl moving in on a Costa? One who’s already pledged to another? You’re signing over your life, man.”
A heavy sigh pilfered from Logan’s lungs.
“You’re right, Nathan. I’m signing over my life. Because that’s exactly what she is. My life.”
TWENTY-FIVE
ASTER
It was surreal waking in the arms of a man you were supposed to despise and know you’d never felt safer.
Knowing you’d never felt more alive than you did with the steady thrum of his heart beating against your ear.
The blankets were down around his waist, and every inch of him was bare except for his underwear. His skin was warm and smooth, glowing like bronze beneath the streams of early winter light that bloomed at the base of the window in a show of brilliant golds and blazing oranges.
His breaths were long and deep, even and sure, as sure as his arms that still held me the way they’d held me the entire night—as if they were created for me.
For security.
For surety.
A promise to see me through the night where he would continue to love me in the light.
I knew it.
I felt it in the way his pulse sped at my touch. In the way his chest expanded each time he looked at me. In the oaths that fell from his tongue. The way even in his sleep, he seemed aware, as if his body gravitated to each movement of mine.
Every shift, tucking me closer.
Each breath, drawing me nearer.
It terrified me. Terrified me because I couldn’t fathom ripping myself away. Couldn’t imagine having to leave this sanctuary that had come to feel like a home.
It was getting harder and harder to deny that I hadn’t stumbled into where I belonged.
I knew I was falling.
Sinking.
Going under.
And I wasn’t sure I’d ever break the surface again.
Just thinking it felt like a risk. For both of us. For our hearts and our minds and our physical safety.
It wasn’t just our hearts on the line.
Jarek was a monster, and my father was the overlord of it all. But I’d seen his compassion before. Both times it had been given to me out of the love he held for me, as twisted as it was.
Hope sparked in that secret place I’d kept like a dream.
What if…what if my papa could understand? What if he really saw? In his harsh, traditional eyes, could love ever count?
I angled so I could peer up at Logan’s face—so perfect I had to wonder if he were real. Wonder if I’d gotten so lost in the loneliness—in the vacancy—that I’d conjured it all.
That game.
The bet.
My plea.
This man, who through it all, through all the pain I had caused him, still promised to stand by me.
Fight for me.
As if he felt every question ripple beneath my skin, those stony green eyes blinked open in the rays of sunlight that streaked into his room. It was the gold flecks that glinted and flamed.
Severe and without shame.
He didn’t hesitate. He pulled me on top of him until my chest was pressed to his. That was all it took for my breaths to jolt. For my heart to hammer and the blood to pound like chaos through my veins.
One touch from this man and I lit.
A needy rasp flooded from my mouth when I straddled him. The slip I wore bunched up high on my hips, and on instinct, I rubbed myself against him, his dick hard and huge where it was pressed against the thin fabric of my underwear.
Tiny pinpricks of bliss flickered. They spread like the splay of fingers around my waist and pooled low in my belly.
I whimpered a needy sound. Rocked over him again. I needed more because when it came to him, it would never be enough.