Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
I cocked my head to the side. “Can’t have been to many places at your age.”
Sadie quirked a brow and giggled as she lifted the lid on a glass cake stand holding frosted sugar cookies..“How did you know that?”
“I’m good at reading people,” I admitted. “This is your first job.”
She blushed and shuffled on her feet. “Am I that bad at it?”
“You’re perfect, sunshine. An open book. I like seeing your thoughts and emotions so clearly on your face. But then again, at eighteen”—I guessed—“you haven’t really learned to close yourself off yet.”
“I’m nineteen,” she corrected with a frown. “And that sounds lonely.”
“Can be,” I acknowledged. “Doubt anyone would feel that way around you, shining so bright.”
“Um, thank you.” She placed one of the sugar cookies—frosted in bright yellow—in a small bag and handed it to me.
I reached into my pocket for my wallet, but she waved it away.
“My treat.” Her face flushed as she smiled bashfully. “A little sunshine to take with you.”
“Thank you,” I murmured. Our fingers brushed when she handed me the cup and cookie.
Electricity raced over every nerve ending, and it took every single shred of my control not to leap over that counter, throw her over my shoulder, and run.
“Hunter,” Viper interrupted, his tone apologetic. “Gotta run, brother.”
My hand flexed, itching to wrap around his neck and strangle him so he’d stop trying to drag me away from my sweet girl. Unfortunately, he wasn’t wrong. And killing him in front of Sadie would probably make claiming her a fuck of a lot harder. I didn’t want her to be afraid of me. Ever. I wanted to be the one to take away all of her fears.
First, I had to get this club shit out of the way. Since I’d already been planning to take a few days off when I got back, now I could devote all that time to her.
“Soon, sunshine,” I told her in a low, gritty voice. My lips twitched when she shivered and blushed.
After looking her over once more, etching her face into my fucking bones, I turned and walked away.
Sadie Morgan was pure sunshine.
I felt a little unbalanced for the first time since I was seventeen. But from the first moment I laid eyes on Sadie, I’d known one thing for certain.
She didn’t belong to this place, this bakery, this town.
Sadie belonged to me.
She just didn’t know it yet.
3
SADIE
The alarm on my cell buzzed, and I blinked up at the ceiling, already wide awake even though it was only six o’clock in the morning.
I’d barely slept. Every time I closed my eyes, I pictured Hunter.
He hadn’t said much when he was at the bakery yesterday, but that hadn’t lessened his impact. I didn’t think any woman would blame me for wondering about the tall, broad-shouldered biker.
He struck me as the strong, silent type. The kind of man who didn’t need to say much because just being there was enough. At least for me.
It wasn’t because I’d been scared, except maybe for my reaction to him because I had never felt a magnetic pull like this toward a guy before. I hadn’t been able to get his tall, muscular body out of my head. Or his thick black hair, beard, and kissable lips.
And then there was his piercing amber gaze. I’d never seen eyes quite the same color before. They were wild and sharp, almost animalistic. Like a lion sizing up something he wanted. Not that I actually thought he wanted me when he could probably have any woman he set his sights on.
He was easily over a decade older than me and drop-dead gorgeous. Not the kind of man who noticed someone like me. But for a second, when our fingers had touched while I handed over his coffee and cookie, I could have sworn that I caught the barest flicker of something.
He’d only been at the bakery for maybe fifteen minutes, but that had been just long enough to set my entire world spinning. And it felt as though it hadn’t stopped yet.
I was too inexperienced to know what my type was, but I never would have thought it to be a tatted-up biker. We were so different; even calling us opposites didn’t seem like enough. But that didn’t stop me from wondering about him. Which I didn’t have time to do if I wanted to make it to my second day of work on time.
Groaning, I rolled out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom, splashing cold water on my face in a futile attempt to knock some sense into myself.
“Get it together, Sadie,” I muttered at my reflection.
I needed to focus. Just because I had another shift at the bakery today didn’t mean that Hunter would show up again. Replaying his low, rumbling “thank you” over and over in my head wouldn’t make him magically appear. No matter how much I wished otherwise.