Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88879 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88879 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“How the hell did they get a warrant that quickly?” I snap.
My lawyer mutters some legal jargon about national security. Ah, the go-to of all tyrants around the world. Two little words and you can do anything you want. Raid an innocent man’s office, drop a bomb from the sky on a wedding celebration. Anything.
“This... this is a fucking joke. What are they taking?” I bite out, my voice tight with fury.
“Looks like everything. Files, papers, hard drives, the works. Anything they think will help make their case.”
Outside the windows, fluffy clouds envelop us. In my ear I can hear my team thousands of miles away arguing with the authorities, my lawyer trying to hold his ground, but it’s clear—the situation is slipping out of control. They have the legal right. There is nothing my lawyer or my staff can do.
They are going on a tip from an anonymous source. There is no sense to the raid except pure spite and jealousy. I’m a billionaire so I must be corrupt. Whoever fed them this information knew exactly how to light the match and there is not a damn thing I can do about it. I’m not used to feeling so helpless and vulnerable.
I rub my temples, frustration coiling inside me like a vice. “Let them take everything they want,” I growl, exhaustion creeping into my voice. “Let them take it all. We’ve got nothing to hide.” I end the call and put the phone down on the table. My movements are slow and controlled and do not reflect the fury and frustration simmering just under the surface.
I’ve been so consumed by the chaos, I forgot… Lara.
I turn my head and catch her watching me, a frown on her forehead, her eyes curious. She quickly looks down at her open book and pretends she wasn’t staring, but there is tension in her shoulders. She is also gripping the book too tightly.
I buzz the flight attendant and she arrives immediately. “Bring me a whiskey.”
I need the burn of it, something sharp to settle me. She returns quickly with a glass generously filled with amber liquid, the scent of peat and smoke filling my nostrils as I take a sip. The warmth spreads through my chest, but that doesn’t ease the gnawing sense of impending disaster inside me.
My eyes flicker toward Lara—still book in hand, still so tense the air around her crackles. I hit the do not disturb button on my console.
“Lara,” I call, my voice guttural and raw with emotion.
Her head jerks up, and her eyes are enormous. And I remember again, that time I found her on the floor at my feet and I fell hard even though I didn’t know it then. She’s so innocent. So pure.
“Come here.” It sounds like a demand, but it’s a desperate need to lose myself in something beautiful. The command lingers, hanging thick in the air between us, a reminder of everything unspoken and unresolved between us.
Slowly, she sets her book aside, her fingers lingering on the cover for a moment as if considering her options, hesitating, her eyes searching mine. Then she understands the unexpressed. It’s not sex I need, it’s her. Only she will do. Only she can drown out the fury tearing at my guts. Only her touch, her skin, can make the prospect of losing everything acceptable.
She holds my gaze, a strange expression on her face. Is it pity? I don’t think so, but even if it is, I don’t care. Right now, all I want to do is lose myself in her sweet smell. Then she rises from her seat and walks toward me, her head held high, her movements graceful and sure. Every step she takes sends my pulse hammering harder.
“Take off your clothes.” The words rap out like a harsh order, but underneath, I can hear the tremor, the unspoken vulnerability.
Her lips part, like she’s about to say something, but she doesn’t. Underneath that stubborn, fiery exterior she’s kind. She can feel how on edge I am, how desperate. So she nods and reaches back, fingers trembling, and slightly pulls down the zip of her yellow dress. She slides the fabric down inch by inch, revealing her shoulders, the swell of her collarbones and then she lets it go. It glides down her curves like water until it pools silently at her feet.
Underneath she is completely nude, Not a stitch in sight.
It sends a shock wave of heat through me, and just like that the tension flies out of my system. Fuck them! They are nothing but cackling hyenas. Scavengers. Well, they can steal everything away from me today and in a few years, I’ll win it all back again. Every last cent. Will she be here then, though?
There is a catastrophe happening in real-time outside this cabin, but my mind is focused only on her. Oh, Lara, Lara, Lara. Goosebumps start to appear on her skin, but she stands there, motionless, her eyes locked on mine, her chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. Her naked body trembles in the dim light of the cabin and yet she cuts a proud figure. She is the strong one. I watch her nipples harden as my gaze rakes over her, devouring every inch of her as lust surges through me.