Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 28170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 141(@200wpm)___ 113(@250wpm)___ 94(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 141(@200wpm)___ 113(@250wpm)___ 94(@300wpm)
“When you were young . . . ?” Tank said. “And when was that?”
“Ah.” I nodded. “You wanna know how old I am?” Tank shrugged. “Forty,” I said, and watched his eyes widen. I paused for a second, until I let my laugh free and rolled onto my back. “Shit, darlin’, you shoulda seen your face!”
Tank pinned my arms above my head and smothered my body so I couldn’t move. There was light in his expression. It was a nice change. There seemed to be a whole world of darkness hiding behind those bright blue eyes. “How old?” He rubbed his semi-hard cock along my pussy lips, making me shiver.
He was addictive.
I bit my lip as heat flooded my pussy again. When he moved away, I reached out to wrap my arms around his waist, fighting to bring him back to finish what he’d just started. He cocked his eyebrow, his huge body not moving an inch, waiting for me to answer. “Fine!” I said. “Twenty-five! I’m twenty-five.”
Tank rolled off me. Though his hand stayed on my stomach. Possessively. I liked it. “Only two years then. Hardly a cougar.”
I shrugged. “It was fun to bust your balls.”
Tank grabbed my arms, launched me to his mouth, then let me down again. I smiled, liking that he wanted to kiss me. “So what will you do now?”
Tank sighed, and his eyebrows pinched together. The darkness that I could see lived inside him was back, simmering under his bright eyes. “No fucking idea. Keep moving on for a while. Give my ex-brothers some time to forget about me.” I wondered what stories he had from his days in the Klan. Wondered what he’d done, what played on his mind. Why he left.
What he did to put him in prison.
Lying here now, I couldn’t imagine him doing anything bad. But the way he’d handled the creep and his friends at the bar told me he was lethal under that sweet-ass smirk.
“Your mamma was bad to you?” His question caught me off guard. I nodded, wondering where he was going with this. “You’re twenty-five . . .” His words trailed off to nothing. But I got the subtext. Why the fuck did you stay?
The vodka suddenly seemed completely gone from my system. “Because I loved her.” I laughed, but there was fuck-all humor in it. “Love her.” I sighed. “But she is a leech. All she ever does is take. I’m not even sure why the hell she wanted a kid. Maybe to live her life through me. The failed beauty queen.” Tank brushed back my hair. “When my papa died, I think the last speck of goodness in her did too. There wasn’t much there to begin with.” I looked out to nothing. “But she was all I had left, so I stayed.” I shook my head. “But up on that stage yesterday . . . I don’t know what happened. I’d just had enough. I saw her face, felt the bruises I’d spent hours hiding, and just knew I was done. She’ll be alone . . . but I can’t imagine ever going back. She doesn’t deserve me to.”
A minute or two of silence followed.
“You have a big heart, Beauty.”
I swallowed, but then I looked him dead in the eyes. “And you have a big cock.”
Tank’s eyes widened, but he fought a smile. “Both good things.”
“Amen!” He laughed. “Sooo . . .” I dropped my head to the side. “You want some company as you travel around just ‘moving on’?” My heart suddenly beat fast in my chest, and I realized I was nervous for his answer. And I knew why. Deep down, I really didn’t want to be alone, as much as I talked the talk.
I thought—more hoped—maybe he didn’t either.
“I ain’t a good man,” he said, his face clouding over with an expression that told me it was the truth. The light had faded from his blue eyes and his lips had thinned.
I studied him. Really studied him. The scar, the tattoos, the white-power shit that I knew should bother me . . . but he said he’d left. Which told me there was more to him than he thought. And I thought back to tonight, to the bar, to how he came to my rescue.
“I’ve just fucked you a day after meeting you. Maybe I’m not such a good girl.”
“You are,” he said immediately. “You’re good.”
A lump clogged my throat. I didn’t know why, but I linked my fingers through his. I brought the back of his hand to my lips and kissed the scarred skin. Not letting go of his hand, I climbed to straddle his lap. Tank’s free hand cupped my ass, keeping me in place. He looked right in my eyes. “I’m coming with you,” I said. I leaned forward and kissed his lip, which was starting to bruise from the fight in the bar. I shrugged. “The way I see it, I get protection from a savage, muscled god, and you get free pussy on tap. What’s there to consider?”