Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 110721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“Yep.”
Instead of dragging fingers through her hair again, she was about to yank it out in frustration. “Good,” she somehow managed to say without shrieking. Barely.
He sat up and snagged his beer, but didn’t take another drink. He let the bottle dangle from his fingers between his thighs. He was gearing up for something…
“Okay, once your ex gets out, this is how it’s gonna be…”
She knew it.
“You ain’t goin’ back to teachin’ classes at that place in Camp Hill. You keep one of the prospects with you at all your jobs. If not one of them, one of my brothers if I ain’t available. I’m available, it’ll be me. You wanna teach cookin’ classes, there’s a thing called the fuckin’ internet. Set up a camera in the kitchen and cook.” Then he downed what was left in the bottle before setting it back on the deck.
Her eyebrows shot up. “You must have the memory of a gnat. I just told you you’re not my boss.”
“Can’t forget since it was just a minute ago.” He tapped his temple with a finger. “Got a memory like a trap.”
With all the pot he smoked, she doubted it. “Right. And that was why I had to remind you.”
“Got it.” He sat back in the chair and stretched his long legs out in front of him.
She wished she could be that relaxed right now. Only, the men in her life, both Stone and Vic, were making that difficult. “I’m not sure you do. While I appreciate your concern and offering your protection, I need you to stay out of my actual business.” She was talking about her professional business, but that could apply to her personal life as well. She came here to help out with this daughter and to get out from under a house she couldn’t afford, not to live with a dictator.
Her business was her only source of income.
He pursed his lips and drew a hand down his beard. “No.”
“No, you won’t?”
“Gonna treat you how I treat you. Either gonna like it or you ain’t.”
Say what? “And if I don’t?”
“You’ll get over it.”
“Wow. No wonder you’re single.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Ain’t the only single one sittin’ on this deck, babe. Anyway, bein’ single’s my choice.”
“So is that attitude.”
Stone’s lips pressed together to smother either amusement or annoyance.
Taryn’s guess? The first one.
Good God. Sunny got her attitude honestly. She was Stone in a much younger, female form. No DNA test needed.
“Wanna talk about attitude? You got a smart mouth.” A grin slowly spread across his face as he stared at her there. “What else can you do with it?”
Of course, his focused attention made her lick her lips out of instinct. “My attitude?”
“Your mouth.”
Damn. Him asking that crude question shouldn’t make her pussy twinge and her nipples ache. Instead, she should be offended. Proof her brain was not attached to her lady parts. Because if they were, they would not be betraying her with a bossy biker like Stone.
Maybe her unexpected reaction was due to the fact it had been a while since she’d experienced any kind of intimacy. The last time was with Vic. And that was…
Depressing.
She actually couldn’t remember the last time she’d been touched intimately. Or even shared a simple kiss with an adult member of the opposite sex.
Since she’d been busting her ass trying to grow her business—and in turn, increase her income—along with raising her son, that didn’t give her much time to date. Or, hell, even have a random, occasional hookup.
With pursed lips, she twisted her neck to stare back at him.
A dark eyebrow cocked. “What?”
She shook her head. No, Taryn. No! You need to smack yourself on the nose with a rolled up newspaper. Get any thoughts of Stone, his tattoos and that freaking beard out of your head.
His red flags were not waving; they were whipping around in hurricane-force winds.
“Still waitin’ for an answer.”
She shrugged like his words didn’t affect her in any way. “Like most people, I use my mouth for communication and sustenance.”
“Got a son. Had to use it for more than that.”
“It had nothing to do with getting pregnant. If I had used my mouth instead, Wren wouldn’t be here.”
She couldn’t say she wished she didn’t have Wren since he was her world, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t wish he had a different father. Just like Stone wished Sunny had a different mother.
But both of them had to deal with what life had handed them.
Here she was, sitting on the back deck of a house she was temporarily living in with a non-law-abiding biker in her attempt at “dealing.”
Life was crazy and unpredictable.
A year ago, Stone had come to her rescue. Now…
He had once again come to her rescue.
Shit. The man went to prison for her. Maybe not for her, but because of her. Stone lost over thirteen months of his freedom, thirteen months of being away from his daughter, for defending her.