Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Love. Protect. Never cause harm to the innocent.
But it was the one I’d made her brother that shouted loudest right then.
The one thing I had to remember most. To accept.
She deserved so much better than this life. So much better than what I had to offer.
My thoughts drifted to what still had to be done, and my stomach knotted in shame.
Guilt rising high as I sat here bumping fists like I wasn’t betraying every single one of them.
ELEVEN
OTTO
It was early evening the next day when I was driving my truck down the main drag through Moonlit Ridge. I wasn’t sure if I was a sadist or a masochist, which one of us I was hurting most, but I couldn’t stay away.
She was always the balm.
The one who could soothe the sting that forever lived in me.
I made a right onto Broadway then the left onto 9th Street. Moonflower was on the opposite side of the road, so I flipped a U-turn so I could pull up at the curb in front.
My chest panged, heart beating errant as I hopped out of the front seat and strode for the door that’d been propped open by a small A-frame chalkboard sign.
Today it read in Raven’s swirly font: Snip, sniff, smile, repeat. All stems 25% off.
Swore, the woman spread those smiles all over town, and mine probably came a little too easy when I strode inside to find her standing facing away at the long work counter that ran the back wall, the customer counter separating us.
Since she hadn’t noticed I’d walked in, I took a second to admire her where she was doing a little of that snipping as she put together a bouquet.
Taylor Swift played from the speakers, and she was bouncing to the beat, totally different than the way she always danced at Kane’s. This was sweet and innocent as she bobbed along, those lush hips barely swaying, completely oblivious that anyone had even walked through the door.
Which had her whirling around on a gasp when I rumbled, “Sign me up for a sniff or two.”
But it was her own floral scent that I was interested in.
Those dark, dark eyes gaped open wide, completely caught off guard, before she narrowed them at me. “Otto Hudson, what do you think you’re doing, sneaking up on me like that? Are you trying to give me a heart attack at twenty-five? That would just be embarrassing.”
“The question we really should be askin’ is why you didn’t even notice that I came through the door. Place is wide open. I could have been a murderer, for all you knew.”
I was not going to delve into the irony of the statement. Only thing that mattered was I’d never harm a hair on this woman’s head.
“Um, hello, Otto, that is not going to happen. Are you even standing inside my shop right now? This is a place of happiness.” She spun around and acted like she was tossing fairy dust into the air.
Of course, because she loved to drive me out of my mind, she was dressed in a white dress with black polka dots, cinched at the waist and flared at her hips, and sky-high black stilettos.
My dick kicked.
Yeah, this definitely was a place of happiness.
“Some creeper steps through the door and all ill intentions go scadoosh!” She did some crazy wild flare of her fingers. “Right out the window.”
A slight chuckle rolled out of me as I edged forward and rested my forearms on the counter that separated us.
“Is that how that works?”
“Yep. That’s exactly how it works.”
For someone who’d been through the most brutal shit, she had a beautiful way of looking at the world. Fuck, how I wanted to protect that. Make sure she never suffered any pain again.
“Just do me a favor and watch out for these assholes around here? Someone could get obsessed watching you through the window dancing around in that dress.”
I tried to play it a tease, but my mind was back on that bastard who’d been bugging her the weekend before last at Kane’s. I still wanted to hunt the prick down and squeeze the life out of him.
She rolled those pretty eyes that were rimmed in black liner with the lashes coated thick. “No one is obsessed with me, and from where I’m standing, you’re the one who should be listening to his own advice. You’re the one running around doing dangerous things.” She dropped the last like we might have an audience when we were the only two in the store.
I didn’t want her to know just how dangerous they were.
I lifted my arms out to the sides. “Look at me. Do you really think anyone would mess with me? You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Those eyes took me in, and a roll of heat shattered the air, before she seemed to yank herself out of whatever thoughts she’d drifted into and scoffed. “The only thing I do is worry about you boys. Every single one of you is a boatload of trouble.”