Series: Willow Winters
Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 50025 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 167(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50025 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 167(@300wpm)
Closing my eyes, I imagine this may be what heaven feels like.
“It’s dangerous, Ella,” he repeats with emphasis and I have to laugh.
“We used to jump,” I tell him, the youthful memory bringing a smile to my lips.
“From here?” he says and the shock in his tone is comical to me. I keep my distance, though, so as not to worry him.
Nodding, I keep the smile in place and tell him, “Yeah, from here.”
“Why the fuck would you do that?”
I shrug and give him a rueful grin. “Because we were young and dumb and it was here.”
“Who’s we?”
“Me. Trish. My girlfriends.” I shrug again and he wraps an arm around my waist.
“Don’t worry. I’m a good listener and I heard you tell me not to jump,” I joke, taking his hand in mine.
He roughly chuckles and squeezes my hand back.
“Besides,” I say and peek behind Z to where Silas is watching from a short distance away, “I wouldn’t want to give your backup a heart attack.”
I’m rewarded with another short, rough chuckle.
“What about Kam?” His tone is more serious now although he tries to play it off.
“What about him?”
“Did he ever jump with you?”
“He knows but he’s never jumped.” I confide in him without thinking twice. Which is dangerous and yet there isn’t an ounce of worry in the confession. Although I know I’m on the edge of unraveling something that’s been kept tightly wound and should remain that way. “He’s picked me up a time or two before, late at night, soaking wet even.”
“You trust Kam,” he says almost like it’s a question. His gaze stays pinned on me, no longer interested in the fall in the least.
“I don’t just trust him, I love him and if you knew—” I stop myself before finishing my statement but Zander picks up where I left off. I swear he knows what I’m thinking before I do sometimes.
“If I knew all your secrets …” he starts.
“If you knew all my family’s secrets and those of his too …” I say and trail off, then huff humorlessly and look away but not for long.
With his thumb on my chin and his forefinger beneath it, he tilts my head up so I look him in the eye. His gaze is intense and he pauses a moment, searching my eyes for something before confessing, “I’d still love you.”
The intensity is all too much. Like something breaking and crumbling apart in a way where it will never be repaired. Something I don’t want to be fixed. Something I don’t want to think about ever again.
He leans down, his warm breath meeting mine and he nips my bottom lip before capturing my mouth with his, silencing the sudden gasp from the hint of pain.
He’s good at that. My Z … my Dom. He excels at silencing the pain.
“That’s my girl,” he whispers against my lips and I smile.
A warm feeling in the pit of my stomach flutters like butterfly wings as he kisses me once again. Deeply, with longing, then hungrily. I meet his want with my need and deepen the kiss that much more.
ZANDER
It’s tense as Cade and I sit facing one another on the opposite ends of the meeting table in The Firm’s temporary office. Damon’s here too. Along with the rest of the guys.
Anxiousness creeps up the back of my neck, but I do everything I can to shake it off. It didn’t hit me in the moment, but looking back on it, I’m sure I lost the respect from the members of The Firm. What happened … I’d do it all over again. There’s no way I could ever not be with her. She’s mine and she’s meant to be mine. But that doesn’t mean I’m proud of how it happened. Or that I can’t acknowledge I made mistakes that put The Firm and even Ella, at risk.
With a steady inhale, I keep my composure and wait for the mandatory meeting to begin. No doubt it was ordered by Judge Martel.
Scanning the room, it’s obvious no one is comfortable. We’re all a little restless. I can tell by the way Damon taps his foot and keeps checking the large clock on the wall. He’s not usually one to get antsy about meetings, but he’s right now, he’s impatient.
“So.” Cade taps a stack of papers against the desk, straightening them. “We have our update on the conservatorship to submit to the judge. Here’s what we’re handing in, Zander.”
Shock lifts my eyes to his and then back down to the report.
He pushes the papers toward me. It’s a slim file. There is no legal reason I should see this right now. That anxiousness increases tenfold thinking there must be something damaging, something my brother is letting me see ahead of time to save our personal relationship.