Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
When ex-pro basketball player Mitchell Anderson sees an overturned car on the edge of a cliff during a nasty snowstorm, he knows he has only minutes to rescue the woman trapped inside. What he’s not expecting is their instant attraction, or that she can deliver one hell of a pick-up line even under the most terrifying of circumstances.
Hope Roman’s entire life is on the edge. She’s already overwhelmed with grief and upset, and nearly dying is pretty much the icing on a terrible, soggy cake. So it’s just her luck that she’s suddenly snowbound at a charming little inn with the hottest, yet down right grumpiest, man she’s ever met. And naturally, there’s only one room left.
Now the pillow barrier between them keeps disappearing. And the walls are coming down. But Hope knows she doesn’t belong in Mitchell’s world any more than he belongs in hers. The question is whether either of them can trust the other long enough to play for keeps…
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter One
Mitchell Anderson walked around his kitchen as his two best friends in the world moved through their usual reactions to his latest announcement of his ex-wife’s antics. Tully Faulkner, ex-professional hockey player, and Linc Conner, ex-professional baseball player. The best two friends he could ever have and part of the reason he no longer lost his shit when dealing with The Viper.
That and meditation.
“Let me get this straight,” Tully said as he pulled out a massive amount of food from the refrigerator to begin assembling a sandwich. “According to The Viper, you’re a fucking bastard because you divorced her—due to her infidelity—but also because you won’t give her any more money? That about right?”
Mitchell leaned on the marble countertop with a nod. “You got it. My fault because I don’t understand what it was like for her.” A self-deprecating laugh escaped. “Years I was married to her, loved her, and it was hard for her.”
“Fuck her,” Linc snapped. “She should be happy she wasn’t dragged through the mud for all the whoring around she did.”
Mitchell joined his friends in making a sandwich. “No, no, Linc. That was her supporting my career.”
Like she stood in the room with him, he could see her plain as day and hear the voice he’d once believed he loved. Only now, it was akin to rusted nails being ripped over his skin. Like she was using an ancient, unkempt Shuko on him.
The room quieted as if he’d stepped into a vacuum. Hell, even the air around him got colder. Perfectly coifed hair. A skintight dress which didn’t leave anything to the imagination. And the six-carat oval diamond set he’d given her. But it had been her eyes that cut deep.
They’d been hungry. Not for him, he’d learned, but for the money he could give her. Back when he’d been foolish and in love, he’d believed that unquenchable desire had been for him.
Fingers snapped before his face, yanking him off the road his memory had reluctantly dragged him down.
He blinked. “What?”
Linc scowled. “Lost you for a moment.”
Mitchell groaned and leaned over the counter, pressing his cheek into the cold marble. “She’s in my head. All the damn time, and if it’s not her, it’s my mother.”
Tully slid a plate toward him piled high with a sandwich, followed by a bag of chips. The man scratched his chin, muscles flexing in his arm.
“Look, we all know she turned sleeping with teammates and other players into a profession. But you’ve gotten away from her. Yes, it sucks that she did that to you. Made you look like an ass.”
He bolted up. “Wait a minute. An ass? I was a fool, sure, but how the fuck does her cheating on me for years make me look like an ass?”
The men looked at each other before glaring at him. “Because you ignored us. Ergo, you’re an ass.” Linc shrugged as he picked up his sandwich and took a bite.
“There are days I hate you fuckers.”
Tully gestured to his body. “Liar, you love all this.”
Mitchell snorted. “Not that much.”
Both stopped and watched Linc put away his sandwich like it had been nothing more than a tiny appetizer.
“Jesus, man. Don’t you eat anymore?”
Linc wiped his hands off after demolishing his sandwich, then raked his fingers through his hair. “Unlike some of us in this room, I worked up an appetite last night.” A smirk. “And again this morning. And about sixty minutes before I came here.”
“Don’t make him jealous, Linc,” Tully said, taking a large bite. “He’s not getting any.”
That was the truth. He wasn’t, and after The Viper, it was the last thing he was looking for. He looked at a woman and pictured his ex-wife.
Shawnee Deveraux.
He breathed out slowly and realized the high-pitched squalling that had made him cringe was only in his head. Even though it sounded as if the woman stood in the room with him.
Slow breathing.
Stay calm.
She wasn’t here. They weren’t even in the same state and he would do well to remember that.
His friends watched him but didn’t say a damn word while he regained control. “I have no use for a woman right now. I’m still trying to get rid of the last one. Who, according to the screeching voicemail she left, and my mother’s subsequent calls, claims her life was hard as my wife and I will never know what it was like for her.”
What a crock of shit.
He sure as hell knew what it had been like for her. Unlimited money at her fingertips for whatever she wanted. Which was why she was determined to keep her claws in him. She hadn’t realized what her infidelity would net her. Loss of her god—which was money. The other men she’d fucked had seen her as nothing more than a quick lay. They hadn’t wanted to marry her and give her access like he had.