Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 34292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
“Bitch,” Vivian hisses behind my brother, who reaches out and holds her back. The thought of my brother’s hands on my Vivian sets my teeth on edge. Every single day, I fight this insatiable attraction to Vivian that I can’t describe.
I stare at my brother’s hands, and he visibly recoils, loosening up his grip, but then Vivian practically pounces, forcing my brother to react. My thoughts go haywire when Vivian’s in the vicinity.
“Calm down, Viv. He’s not interested,” he whispers. She’s going to get his ass beat when I get better, and he can almost feel it with the way he cracks his neck.
Damn right, I’m not interested, and I want this woman out of my family shop before I have her thrown out. “Take her back to her broken-down vehicle and see her on her way, please,” I say.
I turn to the woman and say, “And ma’am, stay out of Steeleville. We don’t need your kind here.”
“What does that mean?” she says with a gasp, as if she’s offended, but I don’t give a damn. I’m already annoyed with the situation with Vivian, and now this woman from Vail is here to cause problems.
“No lying whores,” Vivian answers, pushing against my brother’s back, making me so fucking blind with jealous rage. It’s foolish, but I should be the only one to touch her.
“Trouble,” I snarl, getting more and more pissed that she’s in my brother’s arms. I need to get to her, but then she lets me have it.
“Oh, so this is a fucking repeat. She shows up, and suddenly it’s back to the old fucking Simon.” The vitriol coming from Vivian’s beautiful lips takes me by surprise. This woman must be the reason she is mad at me.
“What are you talking about?” I ask, needing to know what happened. There is no damn way I betrayed my woman. No way in hell.
“She’s just jealous of us.” With everyone around, this girl is doubling down on her bullshit after she made up a fake name. The dumb bitch has no idea how close Vivian is from going insane, and how close I am from letting her loose. I won’t hit a woman, but I’m not afraid to send a Steele Rider bride after one.
“She has nothing to be jealous of. I don’t know you.”
“You still don’t remember me or that night. Me leaving your bedroom, the hotel shower.” Guilt floods me as a dream of me pinning Vivian to the hotel room door in a towel surfaces in my mind. Could I have mistaken the dream for a memory? No. I Googled the resort, and that is their room, but I wouldn’t cross the line with Vivian, and I sure as hell wouldn’t touch a stranger.
“So, you do remember her?” Vivian mistakes my guilt and snaps. “I was right the first fucking time.” Right the first time? She shoves my brother away and rushes upstairs to the office, slamming the door behind her.
“Get her the fuck out of here, now,” I bark. They march that chick from Colorado out of there.
“Damn it, Son. You better fix that shit. You were moving in the right direction.”
“I put protection in there for a reason,” my mom says.
“Dash,” my dad snarls.
“What? Come on—he’s your boy. We’ll be new parents again as well as grandparents months apart,” she huffs.
“At least they’ll grow up close,” I state.
“Not if you don’t fix this.”
I throw open the door to find her packing her bag while she does her best to hide her tear-stained face from me. Damn it, I fucked up. After all this waiting and healing, I forgot to stop being an ass. She’s not a little girl anymore.
“Are you crying, Viv?”
“No, I’m not,” she lies to me, quietly sniffling.
“Bullshit.”
She whips her head in my direction, glaring with a mix of anger and pain. “Look, what the hell do you care? Mr. West, I don’t want to see you anymore. Leave me alone.” A wave of memories hit me at once. A brutal one practically slaps me in the face, shocking me like a cold splash of water.
“Wait. Say that again.”
“Why do you care?”
“Not that part, the other one,” I growl, inches away from her pretty lips. “Say it again.”
“Leave me alone,” she whispers, the vehemence gone, but the memories return. One by one, the entire trip to Vail washes over me. The two days of one bad event after another flood my brain, and then that bitch from the front desk who has just come into my damn garage using my mother’s name because she’s that fucking obtuse.
“You’re mine, Trouble, but there’s some important shit that I need to take care of before anyone is aware that I have my memory of that weekend back.” I bend down and do what I’ve been craving. “After all this time, no more waiting, and no more forgetting. Don’t tell me to forget you again, because that shit isn’t going to happen.” I fist her hair, tipping her head back, and kissing her lips violently. She moans against my mouth, whimpering as she clings to me.