Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
A shoulder bounce. “Nothing to explain. You did what you had to, as did I.”
He gritted his teeth. “Disagree. You deliberately put yourself in danger. Then, as I had to track you down, when I locate you, I find you getting all cozy with some hot-ass man and his kid, looking like a family.”
“So I should have smacked a kid who was being nice to me because he saw me crying?” She strode over the floor to him and propped her hands on shapely hips.
Lance gulped hard, reached out and snagged the waistband of those going-to-be-the-death-of-him shorts, pulling her flush to his bare chest. The urge to go scorched earth slammed him. “Why were you crying?” His tone was low and about five hundred nautical miles beyond feral.
She flattened her lips and shook her head in the familiar brisk Jasmine “Nothing Gets to Me” Hoyer way.
“Fuck no,” he muttered, gripping her throat as he’d done in the alley. His thumb moved slowly along her lower lip, caressing, even as his hold was absolute. “Talk to me, baby. Why were you crying? Who do I need to kill? I’m happy to start with that dick who bought my woman ice cream.”
She cocked an eyebrow at his statement but he didn’t refute it. Fuck no, he meant every word. Every. Single. One.
“It’s stupid.” She shook her head, or rather tried to, but he refused to allow it.
“Never diminish your feelings, baby. It’s not stupid.” He softened his touch and tugged her closer, spreading his left hand over her ass cheek, fingertips caressing the soft skin below the hem of her shorts. “Tell me.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’d called Caro.”
God damn it he wanted to make all her pain go away. “How is she? Your nephew? Declan?” He’d gotten along fairly well with Declan McBride when they’d been protecting Caro, who had—unbeknownst to the law—taken Jasmine’s place, but since he’d gone under, he hadn’t reached out and made contact. At all. Had there been a man he would have considered a friend, it was Declan.
Tears glistened in her gorgeous big brown eyes. They didn’t fall. “I didn’t say a word but it’s like she knew it was me. Said she missed me, they missed me and they loved me.”
Her voice cracked on that last admission and her legs wobbled. Turning them so the wall supported her back and wedging a leg between her legs, he kept her there. Her heated core was on his thigh and he groaned low in his throat when she rocked on him. Clenching his jaw, he didn’t respond. This was an avoidance tactic he knew well. Distract him with sex.
Normally he was all-in for that, but right now his woman needed more than just physical from him. Tightening his grip on her neck, he waited for her gaze to slide back to his.
“Talk to me, baby.”
Her plump lower lip trembled. He leaned close and dragged his nose along her face, inhaling her subtle and all-too-fucking addictive scent.
“I miss her, okay?” The four words were sharp and angry. Accusatory almost. “She’s my fucking twin and I miss her.” Jasmine’s voice broke on the admission and Lance’s heart did the same.
* * * *
She ached. And not in that good, I’ve been fucked within an inch of my life ache. More like the I bawled like a baby ache.
Jasmine Hoyer rolled over in the queen-sized bed, flopping her face into the pillow that smelled like Lance. He’d done it. Gotten her walls to not simply drop but fucking shatter.
Raw. Exposed. Vulnerable.
Nothing she’d allowed herself to be since she’d escaped the second abusive foster home. But this man, this arrogant, sexy-as-sin detective who was risking his life going undercover, had revealed it all.
“Gahhh!” She screamed in the pillow before punching it then leveraging up and off the bed. He’d rolled from bed maybe ten minutes before her.
Naked, she made her way to the bathroom and allowed herself a swift shower. Normally, lingering would be something to indulge in but this morning her emotions were still too open and she would think about how Lance was getting to her far more than she wanted to let him, or had believed she would ever allow someone to. Dwell. Sink further into her head.
Barely pausing to dry off, she pulled her light gray cut-off sweats up over her ice blue thong before tugging on her pale green razorback tee. She tossed her hair up in a messy bun as she walked up the hallway.
Lance stood in the kitchen over the stovetop frying some eggs and bacon. Shirtless.
Honestly it wasn’t fair. No man should be like this when they first woke up. Not that he changed the longer the day went on, but still. Not fair. Without looking away from the food he worked on, he reached out his right arm and, without hesitation, she walked right into him, allowing him to drape that arm around her shoulder and tuck her close.