Total pages in book: 211
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
“No filter equals honesty. Keep it coming. And for the record, you look damn good in my shirt. You’d look better in my bed. I may have to go back to New York for a meeting on this NFL deal. Come with me.”
She sets the coffee down. “I can’t leave in the middle of this, but you need to leave before this all blows up on you. I fell asleep thinking about that. You need to go.”
“I’m not going anywhere without you. Come into my world, into my life, and be a part of it.”
“Would that include you telling me what all your tattoos mean?”
“Yes, Harper. I’ll tell you what my tattoos mean.”
“That’s tempting, really tempting and I wish I could, Eric, but I can’t leave. You know I can’t leave.”
“You can,” I say, and when she opens her mouth to object, I hold up a finger. “Hear me out, sweetheart.”
She hesitates but nods before I continue, “We’ll convince them that I gave you a reason to leave and backed you the hell out of this mess. In theory, they then let down their guards while the Walker team is hacking and watching.”
“You really think that will work?”
“I know this family far better than I wish I did, Isaac especially. He is never smart about how he covers his tracks.”
“He covered them well enough to keep us from uncovering them now.”
“You’ve been in his face, you’ve been pushing him. Come to New York with me.” My hand comes down on her leg. “Sleep in my bed with me. Live in my world with me. See what life outside the Kingston world is like. They’ve consumed you. And if you see it, if you love it, you’ll sell it to your mom.”
Her eyes soften. “I want to. God, I really want to.”
“Then do it. Remove yourself from the target zone, too.”
Worry pinches her brow. “Does that put my mother there instead?”
“We’ll watch for trouble, but I don’t see her as a target.”
“How would that look? What would we do to set this up?”
“I’ll go at them hard for a few days and you stay your course. Don’t change how you’ve been acting at all. Don’t say a word to Gigi about backing down. Then I’ll pull back and tell my father that I’ll bow out in exchange for your protection. I’ve walked away before. He’ll believe me.”
“You think it will work?”
“Yes, and I read my father well. I’ll know when to play the cards if it’s working.”
She considers me several beats. “Me going to your home is our play?”
“Yes.”
“Me in your bed?”
“The best fucking play ever,” I assure her.
Her lips curve, her mood shifting to yes before she ever speaks it. “I have a condition,” she says, her eyes lighting with mischief.
“What condition?”
“Every tattoo I lick, you explain.”
I laugh and kiss her hand. “Condition accepted and feel free to start that process before we get to New York and my bed.”
“A suggestion worthy of consideration.”
I lean in and cup her head, dragging her lips to mine. “How about I lick you all over instead?”
“Can we take turns?”
I kiss her, and the throb of my cock is instant, while my conference call is imminent, and it’s all I can do to leave her in her bed, all but naked in my shirt. But I do, and only because soon she’ll be in my bed where she’ll stay naked.
Harper
I have to tell him my secret before I can go to New York with him. I have to. I will. It’s the right thing to do. It’s the only thing to do. These are the thoughts in my head as I dress in a black dress and lace topped thigh-high but it doesn’t stop there. My mind is racing the entire time I go through my morning routine. I’m falling hard for this man. I have been from the day I met him and now, we’re here, we’re together, we’re doing this, and the past hangs over our heads. The consequences of our first night together reach far beyond what Eric believes to be the reality.
I grab my purse and briefcase and head downstairs, following the echo of Eric’s deep, sexy voice to the kitchen. I find him at the island, coffee cup in hand, his MacBook open on the counter, while the phone is at his ear. His tattoos peek from beneath his sleeve, a canvas of all the lives he’s lived and I want to know them all. I can’t bear the idea of my secret destroying us, but not telling him isn’t an option. We said no secrets and this one isn’t one I could dare keep from him.
I approach the island, his gaze warming with the sight of me in that way every girl wants a man of her heart to look at her. And he is the man of my heart. I’m falling in love with him. I have always been standing on a ledge above a sea of wild blue love with this man, ready to jump. But I can’t jump and have that water become ice.