Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22991 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 115(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22991 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 115(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
The sound of Avery’s voice crying out again stabs me in the heart. I shout in response and skid to a halt just a few feet from the chopper. But as I hop off, the barrel of a gun emerges from the door. I don’t even have a second to react before a bullet tears through my shoulder.
The force of the impact whips me around. I drop face first into the snow, pain burning through me.
“She’s mine now, Rourke!” a voice calls out. Damon.
Coughing, I stagger to my feet and look up to see Avery’s face staring back at me. The bag’s gone from her head, and her eyes are bloodshot. Tears stream down her face as she calls my name again.
“Rourke, please!”
The edges of my vision start to darken. The man behind her takes aim. In a moment, I’m going to be dead. But I don’t want my love to see what’s about to happen.
“Close your eyes, baby!” I call out. And like the good girl she is, she does.
The man fires.
I drop to one knee just as the bullet whizzes past my ear, nearly taking my head off. Raising my pistol, I fire back, dropping him. Things start spinning as I race toward the chopper. My head’s spinning as I leap through the door, only to find myself face to face with the barrel of a pistol.
“You just don’t know when you’ve lost, do you?” Damon Vale asks, his voice dripping with arrogance, acidic like a poison.
“You’re…not taking her,” I manage to groan as my vision continues to darken.
Damon laughs. “She’s already mine. Bought and paid for.” His eyes darken as he thumbs back the hammer on his gun. “Time to die.”
Avery cries out from behind me. “No!”
I squeeze the trigger.
The last thing I see before I pass out is her leaping forward at him. The last thing I hear is the explosion of his gun.
13
ROURKE
I wake up to the sensation of warm water against my chest…
My left shoulder is numb, but I can feel a slight pressure, like tiny little mosquito bites or something. And then there’s the humming. Someone, a girl, is humming. And she’s close by. It’s angelic.
“Where am I?” I manage to groan, my throat feeling like a piece of sandpaper.
“Don’t move,” a female voice responds. “I’m almost finished.”
Almost finished? I wrack my brain, but it’s blank. Nothing but blackness. All I know is there’s no energy left in my body, and try as I might, all I want to do is go back to sleep.
Think…think…
My agency training floods back to me, and I force myself into the mode. The robotic, precise, almost robotic method of thinking that has saved my life so many times before.
What happened? Where were you?
Flashes of images flood my mind. A snowmobile, a helicopter, a gun. Avery!
My eyes snap open, and there she is, more beautiful than ever, leaning over me in nothing but one of my old T-shirts. It all comes crashing back. My ride to the store, coming back to find her gone, and the shootout at the helicopter.
“You’re alive,” I mutter.
“Thanks to you.”
She smiles and nods, but her eyes are on something else. She’s doing something. I look to my left and realize she’s stitching my shoulder up. That’s right. I took a bullet.
“You’re a nurse?”
She giggles, shaking her head. “Before she passed away, Mom and I used to sew little outfits for my dolls.”
Warmth rushes through my chest. I manage to find her thigh with my hand and squeeze, her smooth skin feeling like home.
“You’re my doll, angel.”
Tears pool in her eyes as she threads the last stitch and ties it off. I keep my eyes on her as she snips the thread and sets everything aside.
“That’s twice now,” she says, bandaging the wound.
“Twice? What do you mean?”
“Twice that you’ve saved my life.” She smiles, leaning down beside me. I inhale deeply. Her scent is like a drug, filling me with energy, dragging me back to the now.
“How’d we get back here?” I ask. “What the hell happened?”
“Oh, that?” she replies, waving her hand casually. “No big deal. You shot Damon, I knocked him away before he could shoot you, and then I drove you back here on the snowmobile.”
I pull her closer so she’s straddling my waist.
“You’re joking.” Smiling wider, her eyes gleaming like the stars, she shakes her head. “And where’d you learn how to do that?”
Feigning ignorance, she looks up, biting her bottom lip.
“Oh, I dunno. Maybe this big, rugged, handsome mountain man who saved me from a storm on his snowmobile?”
“Ahhh.” I smile, running my hands over her hips. She’s not wearing any panties. “That makes sense.”
My cock swells as I trace her delicious curves. I came this close to losing her—this close to dying—and I still can’t help myself.
“Never leave me,” I growl. “Stay with me here, up on this mountain, and together, nothing can stop us. Be my wife, Avery.”