Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 35974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
“If a man’ll hit a woman as hard as that motherfucker hit you and do it in front of a room full of witnesses, he’s a lost cause.”
“I agree,” she continued. “Which is why that’s usually the last test. Though, there were three of the five who didn’t make it that far. They’d have killed me, and I knew they would because the suspicion was they’d already killed at least one woman.”
I waited until she met my gaze once more, this time, pinning her with my stare so I could let the weight of what I was about to say settle over her as fully as it could. “Listen to me, Hannah. I mean no disrespect to you or your abilities. But you will not do this again. Not on your own. You want to continue takin’ these scumbags out, great. But you do it with backup and a solid plan everyone agrees to.”
“This isn’t a worldwide operation, Knuckles. Just me.”
It was my turn to lift my chin. “You’re part of Kiss of Death, ain’t ‘cha?”
“No.” She chuckled. “I’m part of Bones MC. At least, that’s my home.”
“And your twin is part of Kiss of Death MC. That makes you ours. You want to do this, you’ll have help. Help I trust.”
“But --”
I cut her off with a kiss. We weren’t nearly done, but she wasn’t going to argue with me. If that meant I distracted her, I’d enjoy the shit outta distracting her.
My tongue tangled with hers and I loved the silky glide. The sweet taste of her mouth nearly drove me insane with want. I pulled back, my chest heaving as I struggled to maintain control. Hannah’s eyes were dark with desire, her lips swollen from my kiss.
Her hands tangled in my hair, pulling me closer. When I finally broke the kiss, we were both breathing hard. Her pupils were wide, and her face flushed with desire. God, she was beautiful, even with the bruising from that bastard’s fist.
“You can’t just kiss me to win an argument,” she whispered, but there was no conviction in her voice. In fact, she had an almost dreamy look on her face, and I began to realize I might have missed more social cues than I first thought. This woman wanted me, but it was more than simple lust. I’d had that with Beth in spades, and knew what that felt like. While there was definitely a healthy dose of lust with Hannah, I wasn’t willing to settle for anything less than her being mine.
“I’m not tryin’ to win,” I murmured against her lips. “I’m tryin’ to make you understand. You’re not alone in this anymore.”
She looked up at me, and I saw something crack in her facade -- a hairline fracture in the armor she’d built around herself since she was seventeen. “I’ve always been alone in this.”
“Not anymore.” I brushed my thumb across her lower lip. “You think I’m just gonna let you keep puttin’ yourself in danger without backup? Without someone watching your six? Think again, baby girl.”
“I’m not your responsibility or under your control. Like I said before, you ain’t the boss of me.” The callback was probably supposed to be funny, but to me it sounded exactly like what it was. Hannah’s attempt to justify her going it alone when she knew she was wrong.
“Nope. You’re mine to protect.”
That got her attention real quick. “What?” She sat up straighter and actually shoved at my chest. “I’m not yours,” she said vehemently. “I’m my own person.”
“Never said you weren’t.”
“I don’t even know you. Not really. You don’t know me either.”
“I bet I know you better than you think. And if I’m right, you’re doing everything in your power to make up for what you perceive as weakness on your part when Gunnar went to prison for killin’ the man who tried to rape you.”
Her tears, which had mostly dried, started again, and she let out a little sob. “He didn’t even tell the cops that much. He said Robert had threatened to hurt me. If he’d said he walked in on us while I was screaming for him to stop or anything other than what he said, he might have gotten off. At the very least he wouldn’t have been locked up as long as he was.”
“He didn’t want any of that to touch you any more than it already had. He thought you havin’ to kill that scumbag was punishment enough. He said it gutted him to think of you havin’ to go through any kind of trial, so he got through it the fastest way he could. He said you’d been through enough.”
“He shouldn’t have been the one to make that decision! Don’t you get it? I should have told Mom and Dad at the very least!”