Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 144908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
She was a woman who would honor her vows. That didn’t mean she was with him because she wanted to be with him. Any of the others would have done for her if she had seen the killer in them first. She hadn’t looked at him and fallen like a ton of bricks the way he had. He was intelligent enough to know she’d come along when he was hanging on by his fingernails, and there she was—his dream woman. She’d given herself to him, and he was more than willing to accept the fantasy. But he was handing over his fucking heart like some teenager, and he was going to get it shattered. It was probably too damn late already.
Ambrielle sat in the truck on the way to the restaurant looking like a million bucks, casting little anxious looks at him. She didn’t know what she’d done wrong. She could sense his withdrawal. She was very sensitive to those around her, and especially him. They’d formed some kind of connection, and he needed to find a way to break that connection as quickly as possible before she tore his heart out.
It wasn’t her fucking fault. He wasn’t blaming her. She’d always be his fairy princess. But he was going to have to do something to save himself. He always thought he’d die from a bullet. It never occurred to him a little princess was going to be the one to take him down.
He parked the truck in the back parking lot reserved for Torpedo Ink. They had a separate entrance they often used when they were entering the restaurant. He glanced at his watch. Her friends were already there. Several of the other members of Torpedo Ink were there having dinner and keeping an eye out. Czar and Blythe were joining them for dinner, and no one was taking a chance with Blythe out in public just in case the Russian woman had sent another assassination team that had slipped into Caspar without them being aware.
“Ink,” Ambrie said as Master opened her door to help her from the truck. “Would you mind going in? I need to talk to Master in private for a minute. I don’t mean to be rude, but it’s important.”
“I can give you privacy,” Ink agreed, “but I’ll wait over there.” He indicated the door into the restaurant, across the parking lot. “I have to watch over you two lovebirds.”
Master winced but refrained from reacting. He didn’t even give him the finger. He just stood, wedged between Ambrielle’s thighs, wondering if there was a special hell for men like him to serve right there on earth. Most likely, because he was in it. He couldn’t stop himself from pushing back stray strands of dark hair falling around her face.
Ambrie waited until Ink was completely across the parking lot before she looked up at Master, her strangely colored eyes darkening to that almost violet that got him in the gut every damn time. He tried to keep his armor on, but just looking into those eyes of hers could turn him inside out.
“Princess, your friends are inside waiting. You’ve been anxious to see them.”
She ran her palm up and down his forearm and then switched to her nails, so they were lightly moving over his skin. “I need us to be together, Master, and we aren’t. The things Czar said to you really upset you, and you applied them to us.”
She’d made that leap. He couldn’t help but be proud of her. His woman was damned intelligent. Made it difficult for him to put anything over on her. He shook his head. “Czar didn’t say anything that wasn’t true, Ambrielle. I don’t get upset over the truth. I learned to live with that shit a long time ago.”
She continued to run her fingernails lightly up and down his inner forearm from wrist to elbow, sending fiery arrows straight to his groin. “I did marry you because I wanted us to hunt Thompson down and kill him. That’s true, Master. Not just you. The two of us. Now, I don’t know exactly what I want. I’m a little confused because, honestly, I didn’t expect to develop feelings for you so fast. I knew I could, or I would never have agreed to a long-term marriage.”
“You knew I would have let you out of it.”
She nodded slowly. “But I wouldn’t. I gave you my word, Master. I meant every single word of the vows I said. I mean to keep them. I know you think I look at you like everyone else does, but I don’t. We have a chance at something good. Don’t take that away from us before we have time to make it work.”
He wrapped his hand around her neck, feeling her heart beat into his palm. His hand looked enormous, a dark stain of guilt against her skin. That heartbeat didn’t accelerate in the least. The trust in her eyes didn’t change.