Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 98561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Gabriel Kain. Sinfully gorgeous and ferociously smart. Once a Marine, he's now the world's most notorious thief. From the second he's brought into the prison infirmary as my patient, the attraction is off the charts. He's like no man I've ever met: hypnotic and masterful, he sees through all my defenses and his growly, teasing voice leaves me a weak-kneed mess. But he's a prisoner: one kiss and I'll lose my job. When I see his Marines tattoo, he tells me he's no hero. But the closer we get, the more I'm sure there's good in him.
Months later, while doing charity work in Ecuador, I'm captured by a drug cartel. With the government unable to help and time running out, all seems lost. But help comes from a guardian angel I never expected. Gabriel cuts a deal with the authorities, assembles a ragtag team of former military badasses and risks his life to come and rescue me. Deep in the rainforest, our feelings build and build and those molten hazel eyes burn the clothes right off my body. Can I let myself fall for a criminal? And when the mission goes wrong, will Gabriel be the cold-hearted thief he claims, or the hero I know he can be?
Standalone romantic suspense, guaranteed HEA, no cheating
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
OLIVIA
Gabriel Kain. A man so wicked, so tempting, so damn seductive, he’d give Lucifer himself a run for his money. Appropriate, then, that I’d meet him in hell.
We were in a heatwave and in south-east Arizona, that meant the temperature was pushing a hundred and twenty. Through the window of the infirmary, I could see the heat haze shimmer over the parking lot. It was noon and by now, the asphalt would be softening and the cars would burn your fingers if you touched exposed metal. But inside, it was much, much worse.
The concrete buildings of the prison soaked up the heat and trapped it. My infirmary had air conditioning but the cells didn’t, and the air there became as thick and heavy as soup. Over a thousand men, all maximum-security prisoners, panted and cursed as they struggled to breathe. And as the temperature rose, tempers frayed. There’d been four serious fights so far that week.
The door buzzer sounded and I hurried over and thumbed the intercom. “Yes?”
It was one of the guards, Louis. A lot of the guards in this place are thugs, but Louis is a sweet old guy in his fifties. “Got two injured for you, Doc,” he told me. “One’s not too bad, one’s got a knife wound.”
“Bring ‘em in.” I unlocked the door and ran to get supplies while Louis and the other guards hustled the two prisoners onto gurneys in separate exam areas. Whatever the two of them had been fighting about, we didn’t want it to restart here.
I gave the first patient a quick look: a split lip, a cut above his eye: he’d live. “Check him over,” I told my nurse, Alicia. “I’ll take the other one.”
As I started towards the other exam area, Louis blocked my path. “Uh, before you go in there…just be careful with him, okay?”
I tensed. “Is he violent?
“No…”
“Grabby?”
“No, he’s…” Louis sighed. “It’s Gabriel Kain.”
I frowned. I didn’t know the name but then I’d only been at the prison a few months. Who?
Louis shook his head and stepped out of the way. His expression said, you’ll find out.
I pulled back the curtain.
There's something that happens to all men in prison, a cold fog of despair that settles into their bones and leaves them hunched and fearful. It hadn’t happened to this man. He was grinning, proud. He wore his orange prison jumpsuit like it was a thousand-dollar Armani. He didn’t lie on the gurney, he lounged on it like a billionaire in a VIP terminal waiting for his private jet.
He’d been chatting away to one of the guards but, as the curtain opened, he turned and looked me in the eye and—
I was looking right into bad.
Pure. Unadulterated. Wickedness.
His eyes were the richest, warmest hazel I’d ever seen. But it wasn’t the color that made them so hypnotizing. It was the way they glittered. I could feel the intelligence working away behind those eyes, a tireless, efficient machine. He was assessing everything: the guards, the room, me…he wasn’t just planning, he was three, four, five steps ahead. I could actually feel the schemes forming as he gazed at me. Looking into his eyes felt like falling: I plummeted headlong into those rich hazel depths until I was so deep I was helpless. And what shocked me was that part of me didn’t want to escape because…
Gabriel Kain was absolutely, completely, blink-twice-and-curse-under-your-breath gorgeous.
A lot of the prisoners kept their hair shaved short, so it couldn’t be grabbed in a fight, but Gabriel had let his hair grow into soft black curls, as if he wasn’t scared of anyone. A couple of curls had fallen forward to kiss his forehead. He had his head tipped slightly forward and those glittering hazel eyes were gazing at me from behind those dark locks. I had a sudden, crazy urge to reach forward and brush them back, like a bird daring to groom a lion.
He was a little older than me: mid-thirties, at a guess. His jaw was ruggedly, brutally hard, and as I watched, he lifted a hand and stroked his chin with his thumb as if in thought. He hadn’t shaved for a few days, and I stared at his dark stubble as his thumb rasped across it, self-consciously imagining how it would feel against my cheek.
His lips twisted into a smile and suddenly, I couldn’t look away from them. A pouting lower lip to tempt you in and make you part your lips in expectation. Then a hard upper lip to take control of the kiss and just freaking own you.
Scoundrel. A weirdly old-fashioned word, but it’s the one that leapt into my head. Gabriel had a scoundrel's lips. Lips made for stealing kisses.
I mentally shook myself. He’s an inmate. But the thought was muffled, like I was hearing it from three rooms away. He’s injured. You’re meant to be examining him.