Total pages in book: 16
Estimated words: 14860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 74(@200wpm)___ 59(@250wpm)___ 50(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 14860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 74(@200wpm)___ 59(@250wpm)___ 50(@300wpm)
When he’d suggested meeting in person, I hadn’t even thought to say no. It was like my fingers had taken over, ignoring the warning bells in my head telling me that I was already in too deep and that I would end up being left with internal scars that would torment me far more than the physical ones I carried ever would.
“I said take your fucking hands off him,” the stranger holding my arm said. Even as he spoke the warning, I yanked myself free of both men and hit the floor hard as I lost my balance in the process.
“Don’t touch me!” I screamed as I tried to clamber to my feet. My body felt hot and cold at the same time, but I didn’t care. I didn’t care that all eyes in the place were probably on me. I didn’t care about anything but escape.
Gentle fingers closed around my wrist as I fumbled to get to my knees. Shots of electricity fired up my entire arm and the lead in my stomach disappeared, only to be replaced by a crazy weightlessness that left my head spinning.
“Don’t—” I began to say but was interrupted.
“Mouse, look at me.”
I knew that voice. I knew it all too well. It haunted me. Night after night I heard that voice saying my real name as his lips worshipped my body or as he pushed gently inside of me, his gorgeous brown eyes locked with mine and his fingers intertwined with mine as I arched up into his perfect, sweat-slickened body.
And I heard it when he came inside me. My name, my real one, was whispered with such reverence in that moment that I’d felt my own release drench my cock as I’d masturbated alongside the fantasy.
Hudson Warner.
Hudson Warner, owner of one of the most profitable cattle ranches in the state, probably even the country.
Hudson Warner, the man I’d been fantasizing about from the moment I’d first met him.
Hudson Warner.
My employer. My boss. The man who held my future in his strong hands. The man who could take away the comfort and sense of safety I’d finally started to feel with just the snap of his fingers.
Shit.
CHAPTER THREE
HUDSON
The moment I said his name, all the fight seemed to leave his body.
But just for a second. Then he was yanking his hand free of mine and scrambling to his feet. “Mr. Warner…” he began before his voice dropped off. He reached his hand up to yank the flower from his pocket and shoved it into his jeans. “I, um, I…” Mouse’s eyes locked on the man who’d been groping him.
The man I wanted to pound into the ground for daring to lay his hand on Mouse.
I’d meant to subtly leave the bar down a set of stairs opposite the ones closer to Mouse, but then I’d seen the way the man had leered at Mouse the second he’d sat down. Jealousy had eaten at my insides as I watched him order Mouse a drink, then lean into the younger man and whisper something.
If Mouse hadn’t looked in my general direction, I would have walked out of the place in a fury, thinking the man I’d been sharing such intimate details about my life with for the past several weeks could so easily give his attention to the fat fuck who’d bought him a drink. But the fear in Mouse’s eyes had stopped me cold, and when I’d realized Mouse’s lack of movement had nothing to do with wanting to be in the situation but everything to do with not knowing how to escape it, I’d been moving before I could even stop myself.
“I, um, I was waiting for some—”
Mouse stopped abruptly. He looked like he was going to throw up. His hands wiped nervously over his jacket. “I mean, I, um, was just driving by on my way home and wanted a drink…”
It was the most pathetic lie I’d ever heard.
“Mouse,” I began but stopped because I had no clue what to say. I certainly couldn’t say why I was there and why I’d interceded on the episode with the ugly prick when no one else in the bar had even noticed the interaction.
“I should go,” Mouse continued quickly as he stepped around me and hurried for the steps leading down to the dining area of the restaurant.
“Hey asshole,” the man who’d been groping Mouse snapped. “Go find your own fuck. That one’s mine,” he said as he motioned with his chin in the direction of Mouse. He downed his drink and threw some cash onto the bar.
He didn’t make it more than two steps before I knocked him on his ass, breaking his nose in the process and fucking up my own hand at the same time. I shook the pain away and hurried after Mouse.