Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 73208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
I blinked, staring up at him and letting his words sink in to make sure I’d heard him correctly. Why would he take me to see the horses?
“You, uh, want to take me? Even if Dovie isn’t interested?”
Storm nodded his head once. “The invitation was for both of you.”
My eyes went back to that hat. Ugh, he looked really hot, wearing it. But then he looked really hot wearing anything. Damn him. Regardless of my body’s determination to react to him, I wanted to see the horses. I loved horses, and I didn’t need a lesson on how to ride one. I’d dated more than one man who had taken me horseback riding.
Uncrossing my legs, I took a moment of pleasure from seeing Storm’s eyes drop and lock in on them as I stood up. “All right then. I’ll go change into the things Maeme set out for me.”
Storm’s mouth curled up as if he found that funny. “You do that. I need to make a phone call. I’ll meet you out front. Oh, and, Briar? Don’t turn your phone off again, or I’ll come turn it back on myself.”
I bit back the snarky comment on the tip of my tongue. Mostly because I wanted to see those horses, but also because I believed him. He would show up … in my bedroom, and, well, I wasn’t sure I trusted myself with that.
“I didn’t expect you to need to contact me,” I explained. “But I’ll be sure to keep it on in the future.”
Walking past him, I could feel the heat from his gaze as he watched me. I added a little more sway to my hips than was necessary, liking the idea that he appreciated the view even if he didn’t like me as a person.
“Don’t lie to me.” His voice held a warning.
I paused and took a deep breath before looking back at him. “I’m not lying,” I assured him, although I wasn’t positive what it was he was accusing me of lying for.
“Yeah, little siren. You are, and when you do, I always know.”
There was that damn name again. I had to mentally coach myself not to grit my teeth. I’d need dental work soon if I kept that up. Storm had a way of making me do it often.
“What is it I lied about exactly?”
He pushed off from the railing and took three long strides toward me. When he was inches away, he tilted his head to the side, and his eyes drifted down to my cleavage. “You turned off your phone because it has a tracker on it,” he told me.
And to keep from getting your texts, I added silently.
Storm smirked then. “It’s not a fucking app. I can track you with it on or off.”
Oh. Well, damn. Where was the tracker then? Inside the phone? I needed to study the thing more. Maybe YouTube could help me with this one too. Because when I left this place, Storm was not going to be tracking me.
• Twenty-Seven •
When she could be trusted, then she would be treated like my queen.
Storm
“The car is parked in your garage. I messed it up some, like you’d said, but all the important stuff was left untouched,” Marty said as I stood beside my truck, watching the front door of Maeme’s house.
Marty was a guy I’d known since high school that I used on occasion to handle things under the table. I’d helped him become a prospect for The Judgment MC, and he owed me for it. I wasn’t ready to say he’d paid me back yet, but this last job I’d given him had been successful.
“Good. If you took anything of value—” I warned him.
“I swear I didn’t. It’s all there. Even the bankroll of cash.”
Cash? She’d been driving around with a roll of cash?
Jesus, Briar. That’s so fucking reckless.
“How much?” I asked him.
“I have no fucking idea. I wasn’t touching it and losing my fingers over it.”
If he’d taken any of her cash, he’d lose more than his fingers. I started to say more when the door opened, and Briar stepped out, looking like a goddamn angel. Fuck, that woman could wear a pair of jeans. Maybe I should have gotten her a different top. I’d seen that one and known it would match her eyes, but I hadn’t thought about the way it would flash her flat, tanned stomach every time she moved.
If she knew I’d chosen, bought, and paid for the clothes Maeme supplied for her, then I doubted she’d be wearing them. The shift inside me, the one I had given up fighting and accepted how I felt about her, was one she didn’t know had taken place. I wasn’t exactly sure when it’d happened myself. But there was a switch I hadn’t known existed, and Briar Landry had found it and flipped it.