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 lifted her chin, and her voice shifted, went deep the way it used to do, like she wanted to believe I was someone I was not. “I don’t think you would.”
I rammed on the brake, had the car in park, and was in front of her so fast she nearly tripped. My hands shot out to grip her by the arms to keep her from falling. An avalanche of greed hit me so hard it came close to knocking me from my feet.
Urges slammed me from all sides.
Attraction.
Want.
An old devotion that should have been crushed underfoot.
Clearly, I was the fool.
I gripped her by the chin. “You’d do well not to underestimate me, Aster Rose.”
Without giving her a chance to respond, I scooped her up and tossed her frozen ass over my shoulder.
“Are you kidding me?” she shrieked, her legs kicking in a bid to get free. “Put me down.”
“Nope. Not going to happen.”
She screeched as I tucked her into the front passenger’s seat of my car so she wouldn’t end up an ice block. I yanked the seatbelt across her body and clicked it into place.
“There.” I smiled like I was proud of the great job I’d done.
“Logan.” Ferocity and frustration filled every line of her expression.
I just held that smug smile, shut the door, and rounded the front of the car so I could slip into the driver’s side.
I didn’t dare glance that way as I put the car into drive and gunned it because having her this close promised to do me in.
I ignored the tugging of inevitability. The lure. The draw.
Gravity.
It felt like this moment had been coming for a billion years and there would have been nothing either of us could have done to stop it.
Her breaths were shallow. Short and panted and filling the cabin like an intoxicating dream. Every twitch of her body I felt like a spark.
“What do you want from me, Logan?” Her attention was focused ahead, her fingers clutched together on her lap so tightly her knuckles were white.
“Did you actually think I was going to leave you out there in the snow to fend for yourself?”
I heard the thick swallow that got lodged in her throat. “I can take care of myself.”
“You’d get eaten alive out there.”
“By you.” A ripple of distrust vibrated through her body.
Like I was to blame and not her dumb-as-fuck husband who’d been stupid enough to meet my proposition?
The laughter that ripped from me was low. “There isn’t anything within twenty miles, and you aren’t going to get service. You really want me to dump you on the side of the road? Fine. Be my guest.”
I wouldn’t. But fuck. I could barely handle the hatred that emanated from her. The distrust. The disbelief.
How the fuck did we end up here?
Because I remembered…I remembered.
I roughed my fingers through my hair like it could staunch the roil of agony that was threatening to burst.
She inhaled a sharp breath before she released it in surrender, her teeth gritting when she pressed, “Why would you make that bet?”
Because he was a monster.
Because she no longer shined when she was standing at his side.
Because I still didn’t fucking understand.
I boiled it down to the barest, most basic thing.
“He took what was mine, so I took it back.”
Dejection shook her head. “So that’s how it is to you, too? I’m just a possession? A plaything? A commodity to be bought and stolen? Used how you want? What, are you going to force me?”
Her voice was hard, but a single tear slipped down her cheek.
A shock of rage spiraled down my spine at the thought of someone hurting her. It lined my insides in steel. This feeling like I wanted to gather her up. Protect and hold her. Ease whatever horrible shit had been introduced into her life.
But she was the one who’d chosen it, wasn’t she?
She didn’t fucking wait. Didn’t fight. Destroyed the hope we’d been given.
I had to hold every demand back, the why that screamed from my brain. My hands cinched tight on the steering wheel to stop myself from doing something stupid like reaching out, touching her, and begging her to stay.
It really fucking sucked loving someone you were supposed to hate.
I forced myself to stare out the windshield when I let the bitterness override. “Who said I wanted to fuck you, Aster?”
The words were daggers.
Lies.
Bred of the years that pledged that neither of us knew the other anymore.
Hurt tangled her fingers together like doing it could keep her from coming apart, the words thin wisps of pain. “Then why are you doing this?”
Nonchalance filtered out with my shrug. “Some people need to be taught a lesson.”
Distaste and disbelief filled her scoff. “So that’s why you lured Jarek here…for you to teach him that? A lesson? Do you realize how dangerous that is?”