Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 26557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 133(@200wpm)___ 106(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 133(@200wpm)___ 106(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
I’m shivering in my seat as his hand reaches for mine. He captures them both, stopping the drumming of my fingers as the heat from his touch makes my core clench.
He clasps both of my hands between his. They are rough and calloused from what I know was a working man’s life before he became the great Cade Jamison. I also know he used to work on vintage cars and motorcycles in the garage at his mansion.
That is, until the fire destroyed them all. His prized possessions all gone the night I met him. A fire that took the garage also almost killed his mother.
Not the best start to a marriage.
Guilt chills me as I think of Mom. Cade’s thumb glides back and forth on my wrist, and I push away the thoughts of where those hands may have been on my own mother.
“Why were you alone in that room with that boy?” His voice is throttled, held back, but I sense the anger behind the question.
I have so much to say, but if I tell him the truth, he will hate me forever. Guaranteed.
“I was trying to sign him to the agency. At least…get a meeting with him. I would have turned it over to Davis, but I wanted to show you I could do something right for once. Make myself useful to the agency.”
Make you want to keep me around. I’m nineteen and you could kick me out whenever you want. I need you to need me like I need you.
“Have I not told you how dangerous this world is? All the glamour and sparkles hide the darkest underbelly in this world. I knew better.” His voice is raspy and pained as he shakes his head, eyes downcast, pulling his hands away, leaving me lost.
His touch, his kiss, the way he rubbed against me only turned on something deeper inside me. Something I know I can never turn off.
“Yes.” I answer, my mind rushing around the secrets and details of what I had hoped to be the end of the proof of my secret.
I’ve known Ryan since the night of my mother and Cade’s reception at the mansion. Two days after they came back from Vegas, they threw a huge party announcing their marriage and everyone who was anyone in Hollywood was there.
He was an up and coming actor already, and I was, well, me. Awkward and unsure even growing up with my mother’s fame, it paled in comparison to the level she’d reached by marrying Cade. As they celebrated, I read an old encyclopedia I’d found in the library. Ef – Ez. I was on Elephant when a young boy with blond hair and a bright smile stood in front of me.
He was friendly. Kind. And before long, he was telling me things about Cade and the mansion I didn’t even know, like Cade’s only love, besides money and making deals, were classic cars and motorcycles.
He’d been a mechanic when he was younger, dreamed of owning a Indian 438 and a Ford Falcon. From there, he caught the collecting bug and had an entire climate-controlled garage built on the back of the property that housed his prized collection.
A huge guest apartment was also built above for his mother. I’d met her that night only briefly, some bad shrimp on the flight from Michigan to LAX set her back and she was resting in her room when it happened.
“If you never sign a client, I don’t give a fuck.” His eyes graze up and down my body, leaving a shiver in their wake as he reaches forward to brush his hands down my cheek.
He strokes my flesh in silence as I try to understand what he’s saying.
“If I don’t make you any money at the agency, I’m of no use to you,” I protest.
My greatest fear tumbles out in that sentence as Cade’s eyes snap to mine, his fingers moving to the back of my neck as he turns me toward him.
“I’ll burn that fucking agency to ground before you go anywhere. If it makes you feel useless, then fuck it. I’ll spend my life figuring out what makes you feel good, baby, and give it to you.”
His hand tightens on the back of my neck and my confusion twists with the liquid lust pooling between my legs.
I swallow, my cheeks turning to hot coals. What is going on right now?
“I’ve noticed your light on in your room at night. Later than usual. I should have asked but coming to your bedroom door…” He releases a low, growly breath before finishing. “It pains me to be that close. Knowing you are in there, on your bed, wearing your nightgown or the plaid boxers and white t-shirts I know you steal from my drawers. Pains me to know that fabric that once touched me, is touching you.”