Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 132657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
“I fit there,” Niall said quietly. “At least I did. I probably will find my membership revoked, and since most of my business is people from the club and their family recommendations, I’ll likely have to give that up. Or we can try to save this whole thing. We can decide that she’s worth going against the norm.”
“Don’t you think that’s why she doesn’t want this kind of relationship? She had to live with it all her life. She had to put up with people judging her and her parents.” It was one of the things they’d talked about. How hard it was to be a kid when you called two dudes dad and they were twin brothers.
“It wasn’t that hard,” a feminine voice said, and Jensen’s heart threatened to constrict. “I know my dad is a paranoid asshole from time to time, but he does love me, and I have to admit that sometimes we butt heads because we’re a lot alike. I don’t like to reveal that truth.”
She was so fucking gorgeous. He thought he remembered everything about her, but he’d forgotten how that colorful hair contrasted to her sun-kissed skin and how plump her bottom lip was. How her eyes seemed to glow in the low light.
How she could look at him like he was a walking piece of crap. Well, he didn’t entirely not deserve it.
“Can we get you something, princess?” Niall stood, an overly eager Golden Retriever who was not reading the same signs he was.
Or his friend was being optimistic.
“You could get me a ride out of here,” she replied sarcastically.
Sometimes he had to deal with her by using logic. “I’ve got some burner phones. You can call Uber.”
She frowned, the light of battle hitting her eyes. “Oh, you want to be cute?”
“Hey, maybe we shouldn’t piss her off more,” Niall said out of the corner of his mouth. He set his beer down. “Harlow, you know why we had to do this.”
Oh, he was opening himself up to some bitchy comments. “Logic isn’t going to work.”
Harlow ignored him, zeroing in on Niall. “I know why I had to do this. I know why Jensen had to do this. Why are you here, Niall? You are not under some death warrant by mobsters.”
“You know why I’m here,” Niall tried.
This was going to be a long, drawn-out fight. Oh, hey, Niall might know what TV shows she watched and how good her cookies tasted, but had he not met Harlow’s inner bitch? Had he never been flayed alive by her incredibly sexy and sharp tongue? He must not have topped her much. As he watched them bicker…well Harlow bickered and Niall looked mostly confused…he realized he knew parts Niall hadn’t met yet.
Parts he brought out in her.
And he didn’t know all the parts Niall brought out in her.
She might never have talked about wanting the kind of relationship her parents had, but didn’t everyone learn from the people who raised them? Right or wrong, a childhood prepared one for adulthood. Had she learned she could have different parts of her personality and expect to have all her sides fulfilled?
Yes, he was thinking about it. Sharing her. Not in the long term. Maybe in the long term.
He didn’t know. He didn’t have to fucking figure this out tonight. He didn’t have to set the path of his life over the course of one evening. They had all been through trauma and needed to heal, and she was practically begging for one of them to take control.
Harlow struggled to let out her anxiety. It bubbled up and then she shoved it deep, and it shut her down.
“I know I didn’t tell you the whole truth,” Niall was saying. “But I had to talk to Jensen first.”
“I don’t care,” Harlow shot back.
But she did or she wouldn’t be standing here. She would be in her room plotting how to murder them both and where to bury their bodies.
He wanted their first time back together to be tender and loving. He’d envisioned it a thousand times, those dreams of her his only consolation in the last few years.
But it looked like it was going to be hate sex, and he could handle that.
Could Niall?
“Feel free to walk out, baby.” Jensen pulled on his bad-boy persona. She didn’t want to hear him apologize right now. She didn’t want sweet words. She wanted dominance and confrontation. “Town is to the east. All you have to do is follow the road, though I wouldn’t expect to get a ride from strangers. There’s a prison not far from here, and we’re taught not to pick up hitchhikers.”
She turned his way. “Oh, you don’t think I can walk a couple of miles?”
“I think you’ll need to jog because the minute you leave, my vow of silence is over and I’ll call your dad,” he promised with a nasty smirk. He meant every word. If he wasn’t going to be around to watch her, then her dad could do the job.