Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 122578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
Regret shook her head. “I should have known he wasn’t sincere if his dreams were more important than mine. But I’d done it, anyway, and it was the biggest mistake of my life. He took that money and used it up and expected me to be working at his restaurant night and day. Worst part of it was I’d missed being here for when my grandma got sick. She’d had a stroke, and I didn’t make it back in time. But while I was here for her funeral, trying to be here for my grandpa, he cheated on me. One of the servers who I’d become friends with had let me know, texted me proof, not that I needed it because by then, I’d already realized just how selfish Jeremy was.”
She gave another tiny shrug. “So, I stayed here, where I belong.”
Rage pulsed deep, and my fingers dug deeper into her hip to keep myself from flying from this bed and going after him.
As if what he’d pulled today wasn’t enough.
“I can’t fucking believe a single man could be so stupid.”
Giving up a girl like this. Treating her like she wasn’t the most important thing in his world.
Fucker should have worshiped the ground she walked on.
The angel that she was.
“It was a lesson learned, Caleb. A hard lesson I won’t repeat.” Redness pinked her cheeks, and shadows danced over her face as she peered up at me. “Don’t worry. All’s not lost. I’m going to rebuild it. I knew the second I crested that hill and saw your ranch sitting below in the valley beneath me that dream wasn’t over for me. I was going to chase it. And I’m going to get it back.”
I traced my fingertips along the curve of her side, riding up over her hip, wanting to sink back inside. “You belong with horses. With people like Evelyn who need them.”
Her nod was tight, affection so fierce I felt it drive deep into my spirit. “With people like Evelyn.”
She hesitated for a moment, her throat locked, before the confession wheezed from her. “I love her so much.”
Grief constricted. “And she loves you, too.”
Tears welled in her eyes, and Paisley shifted to straddle me. So fucking gorgeous. Hair all around. Tits large and pert and round. Stomach quivering. Pussy bare. But she was so much more than that.
This chaos that battered at the walls inside me, fracturing and cracking and seeking a way through.
“I need you to know you deserve to be loved, too.” Her nails dragged over the clock that sat over my heart.
“Reckless Angel,” I murmured because I couldn’t respond. Couldn’t give her what she wanted, what she needed, even when the foolish side wanted to give it to her anyway.
“Reckless for you.”
She pushed up onto her knees, took my dick in her hand. I was instantly hard, and she guided me to her throbbing heat. She whimpered as she sank down, her pussy wrapping me tight.
And Paisley Dae rode me.
Rode me into chaos.
Into carelessness.
Into this abandon I couldn’t keep from falling into.
THIRTY-EIGHT
CALEB
FIVE YEARS AGO
“You’re done.” Caleb stared down Donovan Paltrow who sat on the opposite side of his desk. The man was slung back in the chair, an ankle hooked on his opposite knee, smirking back at Caleb like he had forgotten his place.
Obviously, he had.
Donovan chuckled like Caleb was ridiculous, roughing a hand over the top of his black hair. “I’m not sure what you mean, Mr. Greyson.”
He almost sneered it, as if the fucker thought when Caleb’s father died, he would be the one sitting in this seat.
“I said you’re done. You no longer work for Greyson Industries.”
As if that could be what it was considered.
Incredulous, Donovan scoffed. “You’re firing me? And for what reason would that be?”
Disdain wrapped around the disgrace, tendrils that constricted, Caleb’s conscience on fire. He knew what he deserved. The penalty. It wasn’t as if he were any more innocent than the disgusting man sitting across from him.
But Frank Aston’s blood should never have been on his hands.
“Did I give you an order to handle Frank Aston?”
Donovan rocked back in the chair with a grin sliding up the edge of his too-thin face. “Got a tip he was headed for the police, so I simply headed him off.”
“You didn’t have authorization to do that.”
“I made the choice I had to make. You should be thanking me for saving your ass.”
“Thank you? You killed an innocent man.”
Derision puffed from Donovan’s nose, a scoff of a laugh riding in behind it. “Who knew you were such a pussy, Greyson?” He sat forward. Aggression riddled the dark amusement that played through his features. “It seems your father picked the wrong man to lead this company. You know you can’t do this without me.”
“I’m absolutely doing it without you. Now get out of my office.”