Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 134598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
It’s what he was born to do.
Protect. Dominate. Control.
And everyone always obey him.
Everyone except her.
Cate Ripley.
She’s cool. Emotionless. Removed from the world.
And he cannot stop thinking about her. Worrying over her.
Wanting her.
Cate doesn’t understand Ethan Stone.
She’s done everything she can think of to keep him at a distance.
Yet, he’s always there. Annoying her. Prodding at her.
The last thing she needs in her life is a bossy, overbearing man telling her what to do.
Claiming that she needs a Daddy to take care of her.
Cate put a wall up between herself and her emotions years ago and she has no intention of allowing anyone, least of all Ethan Stone, to shatter that barrier.
Because if he does . . . she knows he won’t stick around to pick up the pieces.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
Ethan Stone was going to kill his brother-in-law.
“What do you mean you’re going to a concert on your own? At night?” he grumbled into the phone. “That’s not happening. What is Stu thinking? Where is he?”
“Ethan! I’m nearly twenty-nine years old. If I want to go to a concert, I will.”
There was a part of him that was aware he was acting irrationally. But he’d always been that way when it came to Lana. She would always be his baby sister. No matter how old she was.
“I don’t care if you’re twenty-nine or eighty-nine,” he countered. “It’s not safe.”
“I’m going with three friends. We have a sober driver. And I’ve packed my mace.”
Well. He supposed that was something.
“You’ll stick with your friends at all times?”
“Yes.”
“You won’t get into a car with a stranger?”
“Of course not.”
“Or drink anything that is handed to you or has been out of your sight?”
“I won’t.”
He sighed, rubbing his forehead. His head was pounding. “Fine, you can go.”
“Jeez, thanks, Dad,” his younger sister said sarcastically.
“Don’t be a brat.” He still wasn’t impressed that her husband wasn’t going with her.
“Ethan?”
“Yeah?”
“You need to stop worrying about me so much. I’m all grown up and I’m fine. Nothing bad will happen.”
But that was just it. Something could happen. Something bad could happen at any time and she should be prepared for that. Lana thought he was a worrywart, but he thought she didn’t worry enough.
“Just be careful.”
“I will. Now, go do something fun. Maybe find yourself a girl, so then you can concentrate on smothering her in protection instead of me, yeah?”
He ended the call, still grumbling as he walked out of his office at Callahan Security.
He didn’t want to go home.
Was he turning into a workaholic?
Or is it because you live in a barren, empty apartment with no warmth.
He could go to the club, but that wasn’t very appealing either.
What the fuck was wrong with him? Was he having a midlife crisis at thirty-eight?
Did he need to go buy a red sportscar? Get a new look?
As he walked past Brody’s office at Callahan Security, he saw the younger man slumped over his desk.
“Brody? What are you still doing here?” he asked as he walked into the room.
Brody sat up suddenly, causing his arm to fly out and knock over a half-full bowl of ramen noodles.
“Oh. Shoot!” Getting on his knees, the younger man started scooping up the noodles.
Stone shook his head as he crouched next to him. “Leave it, man. I’ll clean it up. You should go home.”
Brody straightened, banging his head on the underside of his desk. “Ouch. Crap. Owie.”
That had to hurt.
“Be careful.” He winced at the note of scolding in his voice.
Fuck.
Brody wasn’t his sub or his Little. But he often triggered Stone’s Daddy Dom instincts. It didn’t help that Brody wasn’t very good at taking care of himself. And that Stone liked taking care of other people.
“Here, let me help.” He grasped hold of Brody’s forearm and pulled him up.
Stone felt his presence before he heard him.
A whisper of darkness.
The promise of pain.
“Don’t touch what belongs to me.”
Fuck.
This is why he needed to stop letting his Daddy instincts overtake him around Brody.
Because Callahan Security’s tech guy already had a Daddy.
A psychotic assassin Daddy.
Ethan stepped slowly back from Brody, who huffed out a breath.
“Fox,” Brody scolded. “Don’t scare Stone.”
“I wouldn’t need to scare him if he wasn’t touching you.”
“He was just helping me. I fell asleep while I was working. And when Stone woke me up, I accidentally spilled noodles everywhere. I was trying to clean them up, but I banged my head and, well, here we are . . .”
Ethan wasn’t sure if Brody was trying to help or hinder him. Ethan had never directly interacted with the Fox, but he knew enough to be concerned.
“You banged your head?” the Fox asked.
The other man didn’t step out of the shadows and Ethan didn’t fully turn to look at him.
It was safer not to.
For Stone.
He was pretty sure the Fox was now to his left rather than behind him. Although it was hard to tell. He hated not being able to see him clearly.