Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 78487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
“I… I don’t know.” I hugged my arms around my waist. I didn’t feel safe, and I wanted to leave this garage. I wanted to get far away from my brother, and I didn’t know why. I’d never seen him like that before, and I didn’t like it.
“It’s because you’re in love with him.” He stopped moving, but his stillness was just as creepy. “And you love him more than you ever loved me.”
I met his gaze and saw the madness there.
“That’s not true,” I whispered.
He disappeared into the darkness, and I turned around, searching the blackness for him. I couldn’t see him, but I could hear him, and he began to taunt me from the shadows, singing like a child.
“Rory and Ares sitting in a tree…”
“Stop it,” I said.
“K.I.S.S.I.N.G.”
“I said, stop it.”
“First comes love, then comes marriage...”
I slammed my palms to my ears. “I’m not listening.”
A stillness settled over the garage.
“You love him, don’t you, sister?”
My arms fell to my sides. “No.”
“Yes, you do, and you love him more than you ever loved me.”
“That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is. Because if you loved me half as much as you love him…” He rushed at me from out of the darkness, his face twisted into a snarl and blood gushing from a gaping wound in his throat. “You would’ve put a bullet in his head!”
I wake up in a rush, my heart pounding.
It takes me a moment to catch my breath, and as I do, the images and emotions of my dream begin to rapidly recede. When they’re gone, a wave of emotion washes over me, and I have to fight back the surge of tears behind my eyes.
I sag against the pillow and glance over at Ares. He’s sound asleep, his powerful body heavy with slumber, his beautiful face softened as he dreams. This man really is the most breathtaking man, and I have to stop myself from reaching out and touching the sharp contours of his beautiful face.
He’s an oxymoron.
A vicious killer with the strength of a giant and the body of a god.
But he also has the beauty of an angel, right down to the long soft eyelashes that delicately rest against his smooth cheek as he rests.
Frustrated and confused, I shove off the sheet and leave the comfort of my bed, carefully padding across the floorboards so I don’t wake Ares. In the kitchen, I pour myself a glass of water and gulp down a couple of cold mouthfuls, then lean my elbows against the counter and drop my head into my hands.
Behind the sugar and coffee canisters is a Ruger SR1911 handgun.
Fully loaded.
I reach for it, my palm closing over the cool metal shell, my fingers resting against the trigger.
Ares took my brother from me.
And it’s my job to make him pay for it.
I know that.
I agreed to that.
My father would want that.
“Everything okay?”
I look up to see him standing in the doorway of the bedroom, looking sleepy and disheveled as he palms his eyes and yawns, and a familiar kick thumps in my heart.
Even crumpled from sleep, he still looks like he could carry the world on his broad shoulders. He smiles sleepily, and a knot of desire tightens in my gut. My hand remains on the gun, but as I watch the Adonis in tight trunks walk toward me, his golden body rippling with muscle and power, a new need takes over my body, and a tiny pulse flutters between my thighs.
I remove my hand from the gun. “I had a bad dream, but I’m okay now.”
He comes around to my side of the counter and towers over me, engulfing me in the warmth of his body. I’m not worried about him seeing the gun because I’ll say it’s for protection. But it’s hidden, and he doesn’t see it.
“You want to talk about it?” He reaches out to touch my face, his fingertips feather-like against my throat. I close my eyes against the sensation, and without thinking, I lean into them. “Sometimes it helps.”
“No,” I whisper, seduced by his touch.
When I open my eyes, I’m met with a gentle warmth in his and a tenderness I’m not expecting. It tugs on my heart, and I have to push the feeling away and remind myself of why I am here and who he is. I can’t forget that no matter how intoxicating his touch feels against my skin or how mind-blowing it is when he covers me with his muscular body and grinds into me to make me come…
… this man murdered my brother.
I take a step away from him, but he catches my wrist, and the warmth of his gaze sears into mine as he takes my face in his big hands and leans down to kiss me.
His kiss is comforting, his mouth warm and inviting. As it moves over mine, I think about the gun behind the canisters. I think about reaching for it. I think about raising it and pressing the tip of the barrel to his jaw and completing what I came here to do. But then he takes the kiss deeper, and a growl falls between us, and those thoughts fall away as small pleasurable fires ignite throughout my body.