Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
In that one passing second, silence wrapped us whole.
Dense and deep.
An awareness so thick that I could taste it on my tongue.
“Off you go, darlin’.” I went for normal. Same way as I would have talked to her a month ago, except that was fool’s thinkin’ since there wasn’t one goddamned thing that remained the same.
Raven swung off. There was no reason for me to warn her to be careful since she knew the drill. She had already removed her helmet, and she took a couple steps back, facing me, wearing those heels and that dress.
God, she was a vision.
An innocent temptress.
A dark angel.
I didn’t know.
Just knew that I couldn’t breathe when I looked at her like that. Those ink-stained eyes doing dangerous things, watching me like they knew me. Like they had me pegged.
I swung off my bike, and the second I did, Raven turned and started up the stairs.
I followed, keeping three steps back like that would offer enough distance that I wouldn’t want to reach out and touch.
Only thing it accomplished was every time she stepped up, the skirt of her dress would shift and give me the barest glimpse of the perfect round globes of her ass.
Lust clutched me in a vise. Took everything I had not to stretch out a traitorous hand and glide my palm up the outside of her thigh so I could take a good fistful of that ripe, juicy bottom like I’d done at her shop.
Maybe sink my teeth straight into the flesh.
A quiver rocked through her like she had a tap to my brain, and she inhaled an unsteady breath as she pushed open the door into the house. I stalled out at the doorway, watching her stride into my place like she belonged there.
Like she’d become a permanent fixture.
A painting inscribed on the walls.
So stunning it was hard to look at her without dropping to my knees.
The problem was it went so much deeper than the physical. So much deeper than the need that barreled through me on a rampage of greed so severe I didn’t know how I remained standing.
This woman who deserved every fucking thing the world had to offer.
A normal life.
A three-bedroom house with a white-picket fence.
Some dude who would check in to work at eight in the morning and be home by five-thirty in the evening.
Loyal.
Kind.
One who didn’t kill and maim.
She needed out of this life. To stretch those wings and let them carry her someplace safe.
Raven waltzed into the kitchen, light on those heels, hips swishing from side to side in a spellbinding sway.
The woman nothing but a snare.
A hook directly in my soul.
She pulled open the refrigerator and pulled out the half empty bottle of pinot she’d drank last night. She reached into the cabinet beside it and grabbed two glasses, and she waved one in my direction. “You want?”
Fuck, yes, I wanted.
“Why not?”
She poured us each a glass, and I carefully edged her way, feeling like I was making my way through a field of landmines. Unsure of which step was going to cause the blast that would completely annihilate.
Do us in.
Implode the very shaky ground we were walking on.
“Here you go.” Raven passed me a glass, and she tipped those gorgeous eyes up to me.
“Thank you,” I told her, voice rougher than it should be. Standing too close to her as I lifted my glass so I could clink it against hers.
“What are we toasting?” she asked.
“That you’re here. That you’re safe.”
“I think what we should really be celebrating is that you’re still standing.”
“Of course, I’m still standing, darlin’. It’s going to take a whole lot more to take me down than some candy-ass fucker who goes runnin’ scared. Tossing out threats like the night is going to keep him concealed. Going to end him. Make sure he is no longer a threat to you.”
I just laid it out. It wasn’t like she wasn’t fully aware of what was coming for the bastard.
“I never believed for a second that you would let anyone get to me.”
“I won’t. I promise you I won’t let anyone get to you. Promise I’ll stand in the fire.”
She took a sip of her wine, never breaking our stare. “That’s what I want, Otto. I want you to stand in the fire with me.”
A charge struck the air.
A crackle of greed.
Electricity.
Hunger curled through my guts.
I took a sip of the wine, the tart but fruity flavor on my tongue, my gaze glued to hers before I set the glass aside. I reached out and ran my fingertips down the sharp angle of her cheek, overcome with the urge to touch her.
“Thought we discussed that we were going to forget about what happened last night and this morning?”
Raven leaned into the bare connection, her voice going raspy. “You know that I can’t, even if I wanted to. And you’d be a liar if you said you didn’t want it, too.”