Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
She sat forward a fraction. “I think Jarek has turned, Logan. I know it.” On a ragged breath, she touched her chest. “I know it. I just have to find a way to prove it, and I need a place to stay while I do.”
“And when they come for me? Like you said?”
“I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen. My father…he owes me this.” Her knee was bouncing so hard I knew she was trying to convince herself.
“What does he owe you?”
Crestfallen hope singed her expression. “A chance.”
Without giving her a warning, I dragged her to her feet, spun her around, and pressed her back to the desk.
I pinned her to the hard, unforgiving metal.
Shock filled her gasp, and those fire-agate eyes flashed with flames that could sear me through.
She’d ruin me.
She’d ruin me.
I already felt myself coming apart.
I couldn’t let her go there. Couldn’t let her get under my skin.
Still, the words wheezed from my lungs when I bit them out. “How can I trust you?”
She stared up at me, dark chocolate hair spread out on my desk. Her face so goddamn pretty she made my chest feel like it was going to cave.
Her heart ran at an erratic, frenzied rhythm. Her spirit a wail. “I give you my word.”
My eyes squeezed tight.
Her word? She’d given me a million of them.
Promises that had slayed.
I needed to toss her lying ass out onto the street. Let her fend for herself because there was no time in history when she’d actually needed me. Still, the question gritted out, “What do I get out of it?”
“Anything you want. Everything I have.” I saw the flash of grief before she squeezed her eyes closed, as if she were searching around in herself for resolve. For a way to take it back.
Because I think we both knew this wasn’t going to end well for either of us.
Then her lids fluttered open, and I had to stop myself from falling all the way down into their hidden depths.
I shifted to plant my hands on either side of her head, and I angled down, so close our lips nearly touched. The words were quiet threats. “And what if I don’t want anything you have?”
Her hand curled in my shirt, a plea, poison, I didn’t know, I just knew I could feel her sinking her nails right back into my soul. She lifted herself an inch and brought us chest to chest.
“You said you loved me once. If it was true? If it was real? Then do this one thing for me. Let Jarek’s debt become mine, and I will be the one who makes him pay.”
Like a fool, I eased lower, let my fingers toy with the necklace around her throat as the flames lapped and leapt and consumed. The demand was out before I could stop myself. “My rules, Aster.”
She stalled for a moment before she offered me a wary nod. “Okay.”
SEVEN
ASTER
“My rules, Aster.”
My chest was tight as the powerful engine roared down Main Street as what I’d agreed to ran through my mind on a circuit.
“My rules.”
Every cell on my body was edged in agitation.
What had I done?
What had I agreed to?
Could I really pull this off?
And at what cost?
Because if I couldn’t convince my father...
It was an endless cycle of dread and hope.
Dread and hope.
I glanced at the ferocity that vibrated Logan’s profile.
Hope.
It was such a reckless, heedless emotion. One I’d long since given up fighting for, succumbing to the reality of what my life would be.
But there it was, blooming like a poppy.
Quickly.
Rising up through rocky soil to become something beautiful.
The thought itself was something I should fear. It wasn’t like Logan was sweeping in to rescue me, not that I wanted a hero. But I guessed I’d always wanted a partner.
A friend.
A lover.
A home.
And that’s exactly where we were headed—Logan’s home, when it could never be home at all.
Knowing he hated me, and I hated what he’d done, the choice he’d forced me to make. I hated that every plan and promise we’d made to each other had been squashed.
I needed to remember nothing remained but tragedy and debris.
My desire for freedom and Logan’s thirst for revenge.
I peeked his way again, unable to stop myself. At the strength in his jaw. At the sharpness of his nose and the shrewdness of his eyes.
My fingers itched with the urge to reach out and trace the shape.
To restore.
To remember.
To renew.
If he was beautiful then, he was devastating now.
Every line of him was hard and severe. Wide shoulders and defined chest that led to a trim waist. Tall and almost thin, though from the feel of him earlier, I knew the muscle hidden beneath his clothes was rigid and packed.
Rippling with strength and intimidation.
The fitted suit he wore over his chiseled form only amplified that truth.