Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 126580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Oh. Right.
“He threatened me that night?”
“Make you feel better, he threatened everyone I cared about that night, but yeah. He made it abundantly clear that he knew about you. It’s why I stayed away as long as I could.” He closed the safe and came toward me, raking a hand through his hair. “Want a drink?”
“What happened tonight?”
“I’m going to get a drink.” He came over, stopped, pressed a kiss to my forehead, but moved beyond me to the liquor cabinet. There was a tingle left from his touch and his hand as he touched my waist, grazing it around me before dropping it back to his side. “Is Kelly okay? You were on the phone with her?”
“She wants to know about you and me, more specifically when you and me became you and me.”
He gave me a grin. It was a tired grin, but still a grin. There was a huge boulder of tension in my gut, but a small piece of it chipped away at that look from him. Not everything was totally fucked up.
“Justin came clean with everything about his family, but he also told her about you and Ashton. So, yeah. There’s that.”
“Kelly is freaked.”
I affirmed with a nod, moving over to him as he poured some bourbon in a glass and held it over to me. I took it. “Kelly is freaked.”
He took a sip of his own, watching me over the top of his glass as he did. “I got an offer tonight.”
I took a sip, raising my eyebrow. “Sounds interesting.”
“I’m guessing Nicolai Worthing is related to Justin somehow. He called, said his cousins were imbeciles.”
“Makes me like him.”
He ignored me. “And he offered a sort of franchise proposition. He moves in, takes over everything, while I run the money. The West family still controls everything at the top, but I’m not involved with the dirty business.”
“Except the money part.”
“There’s that. Yes. That part.”
I pointed at myself, raising my other eyebrow. “And you’re telling me? An officer of the law, more so in regard to parolees, but still. It’s in my wheelhouse, and you know, there’s the issue where I’m not dirty. I just like fucking you.”
He grinned.
I grinned back. “Why are you sharing this new player with me?”
He swirled the last of his bourbon around the glass before letting out a small sigh. “I wanted to be straight with you. Assumed you would have questions, and I don’t want to start this relationship off with lies. I’m sure little lies will come into play later, but not yet. And because while he was giving me this offer, I realized something.”
“What’s that?”
He had a look in his eyes, a gleam. It was a light, and he was still grinning at me, in a very delicious way, but while that was making my heart speed up, the look in his eyes was adding to it. He was happy, and that made me happy, and in our present situation, I wasn’t sure either of us should be happy.
But he was, and that made me, so I was going to accept it.
“I realized tonight that when you chose me, it made me want to choose you back.”
My eyebrows dipped down. “Huh?”
The grin was gone. He put his glass down on the counter, reached, and put mine next to it. Then he started forward, coming and placing his hands on my waist. “I realized tonight that I am in love with you.”
He picked me up before I could react, and I squealed as he did. My legs locked around his waist. My hands went to his shoulders, but I leaned back to see his face. “What?”
“Yeah.” He turned serious, his voice dipping down into a whisper. His gaze scanned over my face, going to my mouth, lingering, and then moving to my eyes. A whole new look was coming from him. Sincerity, but also a light. It was a new light. Like a bulb was turned on inside of him. He began walking, carrying me backward. “I didn’t realize that after the call. I realized that when you stood next to me when we were facing off against those guys, but then the call came, and while I have no interest in accepting this guy’s offer, I did realize something else.”
“What’s that?” I settled back, my hands connecting behind his neck.
His hands went to my ass, but I scooted back enough so I could bounce in place. It was odd, a position that I’d never been in before unless as a child, but I liked it. Felt carefree. Fun. Trace grinned at me almost ruefully as he cupped my ass cheeks, helping me bounce. “I want out.”
I paused midbounce. “Out? From . . . ?”
“From the family business.”
I went still. Tensing. “You mean . . . ?” My heart slammed up in my throat.