Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
**Wicked and Bare is part of the Wicked Lovers: Soldiers for Hire romantic suspense series. Stories in this series are told in a duet of two full-length novels. Each duet can be read as a standalone. Includes strong language, sexy times, alpha male attitude, and a guaranteed happily ever after. Enjoy!**
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
CHAPTER ONE
Monday, July 16
Atchafalaya Basin, LA
Madison Archer-Pershing swallowed her horror. Her estranged husband stood ten feet away, arms crossed over his chest, staring at her with a grin somewhere between smug and malicious.
Oh, god.
She knew nothing about chess, and Todd had come to play the ruthless, four-D kind. The husband who had once tried to kill her was her worst nightmare, bursting the bubble of safety and passion she’d shared with Matt Montgomery for the last twelve achingly beautiful days and threatening to tear them apart.
She didn’t dare let him. She refused to give Todd an inch.
Madison had ducked and run for too long. The time to fight had come.
“No.” She stepped out from behind Matt’s protective body, hands on her hips defiantly, and glared back.
“What did you say?” Her husband’s narrowed eyes filled with threat, terrifyingly reminiscent of the night she’d fled his bloody knife and run straight to Matt, despite their agonizing three-year separation.
Matt shoved her behind him again with a reprimanding scowl. “Madison…”
The submissive inside her yearned to obey almost like a physical ache. Matt had taken on the role of her Dom and her lover. He had listened. He had cared. He had kept her safe. He had shown her a side of herself she’d never indulged and made so many of her fantasies come true. He had become her moon and stars. But the woman in her would not obey. Todd was her mistake. Matt shouldn’t be the one to pay for that. She had to meet the bastard she’d married head on.
Madison wrenched away, burying the guilt for her disobedience, and sent Matt a silent apology. Todd only respected power, and if she gave hers to Matt, her husband would interpret her submission as weakness.
“I said no,” Madison repeated, then faced Todd. “If I didn’t have any leverage, you wouldn’t be here negotiating our divorce in person. You would have sicced lawyers on me while you fucked strippers, snorted an average family’s annual salary up your nose, and engaged in whatever shady shit keeps you from kissing your grandfather’s ass. I’m not spending three months in DC with you.”
“Listen, you little cunt…” Fury twisted his face as he stomped toward her like he intended to crush her with the fingers he’d balled into fists.
Matt stepped between them, his demeanor a warning. “Don’t you ever call her that again.”
“Stop embarrassing yourself, Romeo. You think Madison cares about you?” Todd scoffed. “You’re a stiff dick to her. I stopped giving it to her more than a year ago, so I’m not surprised she went looking for a chump with a hard-on. But her spread legs don’t mean anything. Do yourself a favor and bail. Her pussy is nothing special, and there’s plenty more out there.”
“I’m going to fucking end you.” Matt lunged for him.
Madison pushed him back with a silent entreaty.
“Oh, try it. Please,” Todd drawled, looking almost gleeful. “What was it your pal said? You’d look pretty in prison?”
“You’re disgusting,” she spit at her husband. “And transparent. Stop attacking Matt and deal with me. I’m the one you’re married to. I’m the one who captured you murdering your cousin on video. I’m the one threatening to blow up your house of cards.”
To her left, Deke chuckled, enjoying Todd’s humiliation. When she glared at him, he disguised the sound by clearing his throat behind his fist. “Sorry.”
Todd glowered at Matt. “See what happens when you give the girl some dick? She grows a set of balls. Given the dungeon equipment I saw through the open door at the end of the hall, I’m guessing you like her a lot more when she only opens her mouth to scream or suck cock.”
Matt looked an instant from beating the hell out of Todd, and Madison had to stop him. His fury merely told Todd their weakness and gave him a cudgel to use.
One-Mile stepped between the men, shooting his best friend a quelling stare before he addressed her husband. “How about less trash talk and more negotiation?”
Todd acted like the proceedings were beneath him, but he relented with a roll of his eyes. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Matt?” One-Mile prompted, asking indirectly if he’d gotten his temper under control.
He cursed under his breath, then nodded. One-Mile turned to her, gesturing with a sweep of his big hand.
The floor was all hers.
“Like I said, I won’t spend three months with you,” she told Todd. “I need to be with my dad.”
“Don’t act like his condition is life-or-death. He’s going to survive, for fuck’s sake.”
“The doctors think so. But it’s cancer. It’s unpredictable. And he’s going through it alone.” Guilt for that was killing her. When her dad needed her most, it must seem as if she couldn’t be bothered to spare him even a phone call. If not for Todd, she would be by Daddy’s side, holding his hand through every test and procedure.