Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 144908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
She looked at him speculatively. “You said that you thought I should have at least one choice. Did you mean that? Really mean it?”
Master nodded his head. “Yeah, princess, I meant it. You want that man killed, I’ll do it for you.”
Ambrie walked right up to him until she was so close she could feel his body heat. He was tall and solid. All muscle. Intimidating this close up. That didn’t matter to her. She tilted her head so she could look him in the eye. Those cold, midnight-blue eyes. So dark they were almost black. He didn’t blink or look away. He let her see he was a killer. That didn’t bother him. He didn’t try to hide who or what he was from her, and she liked that about him. She needed that from him. She took a deep breath, making up her mind.
“Marry me. Your name is on the license. If it really is and you say you’re willing to give me a choice, that’s my choice. Marry me and make me the promise to hunt him down with me. Not just him. Those Russians as well.”
“Babe, you don’t have to marry me to get my promise to do that for you,” Master said.
He didn’t blink. He didn’t react at all to her outrageous proposal. The chapel had suddenly gone quiet. There was no snickering. No laughter. His friends knew she was serious, even if he wasn’t taking her that way.
“I don’t want you to do it for me. That’s not what I said. We do it together.” She looked at him steadily so he could see she meant every word. “I do have a huge trust fund. I’ll sign it over to you the moment it’s done. If you have a lawyer, we can write it up so you know the money is yours.”
Master shook his head. “I’m not interested in your trust fund. Money isn’t an issue. You sure you’re not fucked-up on the drugs they pumped into you? Because I don’t want you to wake up tomorrow morning and say you didn’t know what you were doing.”
“I’m positive. Thompson will lose his mind if I get married. You know he will. He’ll keep coming out into the open instead of sliding into the dark like the slug he is. Tell me what you want. Negotiate.”
He shook his head. “You don’t know the first thing about me. I’ve been in prison most of my life. I’m not a nice guy. You’d be tied to someone you wouldn’t want to introduce to your friends.”
“I don’t give a damn if you spent most of your life in prison. I’m not looking for a nice guy. I’m looking for someone to be my partner. Negotiate with me. Tell me what it would take for you to marry me.”
He reached out and traced her cheekbone and then her lips. Just that light touch sent a shiver of awareness down her spine. Her body responded with that same improper dampness. With a clenching that was so wrong in the middle of a war zone.
“You. I want you. You marry me, there’s no divorce. There’s no walking away. We make it work. That’s the deal. You give yourself to me and you promise to stay, and it’s done. Otherwise, I just go after the fuckers myself and kill them. Either way, they’re going to die. You have to know that, princess, they’ll die either way. That I can give you my word on.”
Ambrielle studied his face. It was impossible to read his expression. But his eyes. That was something else. “Kiss me.”
Master stared down at her with his dark blue eyes, those killer eyes. They didn’t soften, but they did change. They darkened even more. He caught her around the nape of her neck and pulled her close to him. Just the palm curling around her nape, so large, strong, his thumb sliding up the side of her cheek, set her heart pounding. But it was his eyes, staring down into her eyes, mesmerizing her as he bent his head to her.
Slow. Giving her time to change her mind, except her mind had melted, every brain cell gone somewhere else. She was no longer thinking, only feeling. Hot blood rushed through her veins. Flames licked at her skin. She couldn’t look away from his eyes. The world dropped away so there was only the two of them.
Then his mouth was on hers. She didn’t think of self-preservation. There was no more Ambrielle without this man. She would never be the same. Flames licked up her spine and danced over her skin. Colors burst behind her eyes. Her nipples felt like twin flames, and between her legs a firestorm had started. Her skin had never felt so sensitive, as if her nerve endings were alive and aware of only him—Master.