Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 134531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
Hansen looked at me, the left side of his mouth turning upward to expose his teeth. “Sorry, Kate… There was definitely an upturned picky.”
Macy slapped him on the chest. “You’re not supposed to agree with Swiss,” she snapped.
Hansen looked to his wife. “Sorry, darlin’,” he conceded immediately.
I grinned into my beer, leaning against Swiss as I watched the president of one of the most dangerous outlaw motorcycle clubs in the country back down without a fight to his small, fairy princess looking wife.
A sight to see.
“Kate.”
The smile froze on my face as the beer slipped from my fingers, smashing on the floor.
Everyone looked to me, smiles gone.
“Baby?” Swiss asked in concern, pulling us back from the glass and liquid quickly spreading on the floor.
But Swiss didn’t exist. The man who spoke my name had all of my attention.
I turned my head to see Preston, standing in the middle of the common room.
I had no idea how he got in there. Much later I would find out how he’d found me, how he’d managed to make an appointment at the garage then walked into the clubhouse as if he owned the place.
But that wasn’t important now. What was important was that my husband had found me.
He was wearing a cashmere sweater with a shirt underneath, designer jeans and leather sneakers. His skin was tanned, jaw square and clean shaven. Not a hair on his head was out of place.
For a second, I thought I was hallucinating until Swiss turned his head to Preston and said, “Who the fuck are you?” pulling me closer into his body.
“I’m Kate’s husband,” Preston replied, not even looking at Swiss. His eyes were glued on me.
I was frozen in place, quickly shrinking all the way down to the size I had been before.
“It was a challenge to find you, Kate, I’ll give you that,” he scowled. He shook his head slowly, his hands were dangling casually at his sides, his posture too relaxed. An act, a careful one. “Though obviously not impossible. But it seems I’m too late.”
It was then that his eyes went to Swiss, who was staring daggers at him.
“You left me to take up with this...” his eyes traveled Swiss’s body with a sneer and a curled lip, “criminal.”
My blood turned hot. It boiled, in fact. Suddenly, I was no longer two feet tall.
Swiss was already stiff with fury, already wearing the dangerous, alpha male battle stance which Preston hadn’t noticed because he was much too narcissistic and self-absorbed. Beyond that, he was so insulated from any kind of danger. He truly thought that he wasn’t at risk here, that he was the one in control here.
I’d known the man was deluded, but this was something else. You’d have to be detached from reality to not recognize that Swiss was in control of everything right now, that Preston was minutes away from getting his arms ripped off. As much as a part of me wanted to watch that happen, I wasn’t going to let Swiss fight my battle. I was more than capable. So I stepped forward, around him because he’d done the alpha male thing and stood in front of me. I‘m sure he wasn’t happy about that, but I wasn’t focusing on him.
“You’re either coming to that conclusion because of the color of his skin or the cut on his back, and neither of those options are okay in the slightest,” I hissed at Preston. I knew that he liked to be seen by the town as accepting and liberal, but behind closed doors he was nasty and small-minded.
It weighed heavily on me just how long I’d let this man control me. How I’d rotted in his presence, held captive by fear and helplessness.
It was me who left that day. Only me. But it was Swiss, this club, that introduced me to a different part of myself. One that was far from helpless.
Something in me snapped in response to the way he’d looked at Swiss. The way he’d spoken about him.
I leveled my gaze at Preston. “I am not yours,” I announced, the words tasting sweet with truth. “In fact, I was never yours. The way you ordered for me at every restaurant was misogynist and not at all charming. I literally had to stifle the urge to stab you with my fork every time you did it.” I sucked in a frustrated breath. “If I had a fork right now, it would be protruding from your eyeball.”
Preston’s face was red and getting redder. Usually, this would be when I stopped speaking. When I tried to apologize, when I tried to appease him. Try to escape a beating. But not now. Not with Swiss behind me.
“You are one of the most selfish people I’ve ever met, sexually or otherwise. You look so stupid in those fucking glasses, and none of your jokes are funny. I faked every orgasm you ever thought I had.”