Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
With a chuckle, he pressed his body into mine. “They trained me to kill through the scope of a gun. To win at all costs. And I do it with extreme efficiency when something stands in the way of my prime directive.”
“And what’s your prime directive now that you’re a civilian?”
He leaned in farther and nipped my bottom lip in answer. “Finding peace,” he whispered, before devastating my senses with a searing kiss.
In my twenty-three years, I’d never been kissed like that. It felt as if Logan was desperate to inhale me. Like he couldn’t breathe unless he kissed me, and it was intoxicating. My hands moved of their own volition, tugging at his shirt until I could touch the warmth of his skin. When I ran my hands over the plains of his hard muscles, Logan shuddered beneath them. Kissing him was like consuming a drug. My body relaxed fully, my head spun, and time disappeared until the only thing that mattered was the way he made me feel.
“I dreamt about this in the desert.” He spoke those words softly between drugging kisses and nipping the skin on my neck. “Dreamt about finding a woman like you.”
Needing air so my head would stop spinning, I pulled my head back and looked up at him. “A woman like me?”
Dipping his head, he rested his forehead against mine and took a shuddering breath. “A woman who consumes me so completely, the ghosts in my head are at peace.”
My own breath skipped. I’d seen those ghosts working behind his eyes, knew he’d seen more death than most would encounter in two lifetimes. “How is that possible? You barely know me.”
“The how doesn’t matter, the only thing that does is from the moment I walked up to your truck, I’ve been able to think more clearly than I have in a year. You broke through the prison of guilt I’d wrapped myself in.”
Tears threatened, but I held them back. Logan had to be the strongest man I’d met since my father, yet he’d freely admitted he was vulnerable. I figured he deserved to know the feeling was mutual. That he’d broken through my fear until I could breathe again. That when he was in the same room with me, I felt safe.
“Then we’re even, because I haven’t truly been scared since you stepped foot inside my bar. I was crippled by fear this morning, but the moment you and Max came to my rescue, I’ve been able to battle it back. You make me stronger, Logan.”
His eyes flashed hotly, then he wrapped his fingers around my ponytail and tugged gently until I was fully open to him. “Those days are over, count on that. No harm will ever come to you or your brothers as long as I have air left in my lungs.”
“Cool,” Josh chuckled from the doorway, “but I draw the line at watching you suck face with my sister. Get a room already.”
Startled by the intrusion, Logan and I broke apart instantly, but it wasn’t quick enough to avoid Jake’s fist connecting solidly with Logan’s poor nose.
Eight
Mexico
“WHY DID YOU hit him?” I turned my attention from the road to Jake, who was brooding against the passenger door. The whole scene left me grinding my teeth. Jake was as bad as Ty when it came to men hitting on me. Between the two of them always crowding me, I’d never get married.
Josh snorted, pleased, of course, by the whole encounter. It didn’t surprise me my youngest brother found it funny, because even though Jake had blindsided Logan, the end result was the same: Jake on the floor with Logan’s knee in his back as blood streamed from Logan’s nose. I was certain it was broken this time. The bruising under his eyes had already set in before I left with my brothers.
“Jake can’t handle his sister having a sex life.”
Oh, boy, that was the wrong thing to say.
Jake whipped around and pinned Josh to the seat just as I expected. “Don’t talk about Skylar like that.”
“Guys!” I started to pull off the road for the third time that day, but Jake let go of Josh and looked out the window.
“Logan’s cool,” Josh mumbled, straightening his shirt. “He can take out anyone with a single move, so what’s the problem?”
Jake scowled at Josh. “You don’t see a problem with some drifter sniffing around our sister? Are you mental?”
“He’s an ex-Delta Force operative, not a drifter. I googled all about him after he told me what branch of the military he was in. These guys are like SEAL Team 6, only stealthier. They’re dubbed the president’s private army because they’re like ghosts. For years no one would even admit they existed.”
Jake looked at Josh like he was nuts. “Jesus, Josh, he’s probably making that up.”