Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 24429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 122(@200wpm)___ 98(@250wpm)___ 81(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24429 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 122(@200wpm)___ 98(@250wpm)___ 81(@300wpm)
“Watch your mouth.” His eyes turned to slits and his voice lowered two octaves, but his formidable body remained perfectly still in the chair. "Have you forgotten our agreement?"
“What agreement? You telling me how things are going to be isn't an agreement, it's..." I tried to think of the right word, but nothing seemed right. Entrapment? Coercion? "You can’t tell me what to do, Jesse. I’m an adult.”
I whipped the cover off and bounced to the edge of the bed. Today I was dressed in soft white flannel pajamas with little bears on them, complete with lace trimmed collar and bottoms that snapped onto the pajama shirt around the waist and had feet in them.
They were cute, I had to admit. And they made me feel special.
His special girl.
No. No, no, no. I would not admit that I liked it.
"This is baby shit, Jesse! It’s weird!”
“So, you’re all grown up then, are you? What exactly does that mean?”
It was making me more nervous that he was just sitting there, his body flexing but not moving. The muscles in his jaw clenched and released, revealing his growing irritation, but he always stayed calm. Scary calm.
I knew there was so much more brewing behind that icy stare.
There was a smart part of me telling me to be careful, but there was also a not-so-smart part of me that always seemed to drown it out.
“Jesse... Thanks for letting me crash, but I think it’s time for me to go.” My feet hit the floor and my righteous indignation lost some of its steam when I looked in the mirror and caught my reflection staring back at me.
The pajamas were adorable. And comfy. My long sandy blond hair was tied in two neat braids, and my eyes were actually bright and visible, not sunken in. My cheeks were the color of the living instead of the dead.
Something about the girl looking back at me made my heart break. She looked…happy. And cute as heck to be honest.
Dragging my gaze away from the mirror, I dared to meet the dark penetrating stare of my pseudo-brother as he crossed his legs and leaned back in the chair. His power seemed to cling to everything in the room, including the air I was breathing.
Without warning, our conversation just before he gave me that bizarre spanking in the office came back to me. What did he mean he stayed at that club for me? He was right, he owned eight other very successful businesses. The one he let me work at was not on the top of the prestige list, but was probably the quietest and safest.
But what did he mean he stayed there because of me?
I looked around the huge guest suite and realized I barely knew anything about his life anymore. I mean, I knew he left and went off with the Marines, and was later a Green Beret. Then, when he came back, he had an honorable discharge and the deed to the Diamond Rocks.
And honestly, I was there at the beginning, and it was probably more of a curse than a gift from that guy he saved the life of. But somehow, Jesse made it work.
He managed to make a profit. And when word got around that he had pulled off the impossible, it wasn’t long before he was offered other floundering businesses at cut down rates...
I guess I never put it together until now just how successful he was.
This house on Wolverine Lake, with the mountains in the background. It had to be a million.
Maybe two.
All that in the... I counted up in my head... Less than two years since he'd walked back into my life, offering a steady job and a way out of the mess that had crashed down around me since Kent’s funeral nearly a year before.
I shook my head, trying to get my thoughts straight.
“Where are my clothes?” I demanded.
“Right there. In that closet.” Jesse’s demeanor was calmer than usual and a shiver wiggled down my neck, slithering around my spine until it reached my toes. Something in his voice felt different, and I felt like I was about to be punked.
I eyed him as I walked into the closet backwards, one eye squinted his way.
Reaching behind me, I felt the cool metal of the door handle… turn, click... then I spun around and sucked all the air out of the room.
The friggin’ closet was bigger than most bedrooms, and mostly empty, but what clothes hung there were most decidedly not mine. My wardrobe consisted of tight jeans. Some blue, mostly black, paired with old concert t-shirts or newer ones with snarky sayings across the chest.
This closet contained no black. Nothing old or snarky either. It was the antithesis of the three-by-three foot space where I hung the items I called mine back at Jenette’s place.