Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 42128 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 211(@200wpm)___ 169(@250wpm)___ 140(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42128 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 211(@200wpm)___ 169(@250wpm)___ 140(@300wpm)
I nudged the door shut behind us, then lowered her carefully onto the bed. As soon as I started pulling away, her brow furrowed, and she held on tightly to my shirt. That tiny fucking movement nearly wrecked me.
“Easy, angel,” I murmured, brushing my knuckles lightly against her cheek. “I’m here.”
The tension suddenly eased from her face again.
I stood there for a moment, just looking at her sprawled across my bed while my mind drifted to places it shouldn’t go right now. Like how easily I could spend all fucking night between her thighs once she trusted me enough. My cock throbbed painfully behind my jeans.
“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath before stripping out of my cut and boots.
I climbed into bed beside her a second later, pulling her carefully against my chest. Delaney made a soft, sleepy sound before plastering her body against me, her leg sliding across mine beneath the blanket while her face tucked under my chin.
My arm tightened protectively around her waist as every violent instinct inside me finally settled. The last thing I remembered before sleep finally took me was the warm softness of Delaney wrapped securely against my chest and the terrifying certainty that I’d kill anyone who tried taking her away from me.
5
DELANEY
Iwoke slowly, floating in that hazy space between sleep and awareness. The bed beneath me felt solid and warm, nothing like the cold stone I remembered from when I roused after being taken. For a few peaceful seconds, I simply lay there, breathing in the unfamiliar scent of something distinctly masculine.
Then I registered the heavy arm wrapped possessively around my waist. A man was spooned behind me, his chest pressing against my back and his body heat keeping me warm. Instead of fear, an unexpected wave of safety washed over me. I felt protected in a way I desperately needed.
Everything that had happened to me flashed through my head, and I gasped as the remembered panic coursed through my veins. I tried to bolt upright, my heart hammering against my ribs.
The arm around my waist tightened, pulling me back against a broad chest.
“Easy,” Rev murmured close to my ear. “You’re safe. I’ve got you. No one’s going to get to you here.”
I froze, breathing fast. A biker had me locked against him in a bed I didn’t recognize. After everything I’d been through, my body should be fighting to get away.
Instead, some instinctive part of me wanted to melt back into his warmth. To trust the quiet certainty in his voice and let him keep me right here. The realization unsettled me. I didn’t understand how I could feel this way toward someone I didn’t even know. After barely escaping one monster, a stranger’s arms shouldn’t feel like the safest place in the world.
I was torn between the urge to pull away and the even stronger desire to stay exactly where I was.
His arm stayed locked around me as he slowly shifted us both upright against the headboard. Rev kept my back pressed to his chest like he wasn’t ready to let even an inch of space come between us, and I found my heart racing for an entirely different reason. He was so close, I could feel the steady heat of his body radiating against me.
“Gotta check you over. Just tell me if anything hurts too much.”
Before I could say anything, one of his large hands gently captured my wrist. His fingers were rough with calluses yet incredibly careful as he turned my arm and removed the gauze to study the raw rope burns. I sucked in a breath at the contact.
Twisting around, I glanced up and finally got a real look at Rev in the soft morning light filtering through the blinds. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with lean muscles. His short, dark-blond hair sat a little messy on top, as if he’d run his hand through it more than once. The combination of a strong jaw covered in short scruff and sharp cheekbones gave his face a severe, almost intimidating edge. The tattoo of a speedometer and a guy on a racing bike in a helmet, looking behind him, that stretched from beneath the left sleeve of his shirt down to his elbow only added to his commanding presence.
But it was his eyes that captured my attention and didn’t let go. Pale gray-blue and deeply observant, his gaze locked onto me with an intensity that made me feel like he could see deep inside me.
He ran his thumb lightly along the edge of the worst burn on my wrist, his touch featherlight despite the strength I could sense in his hands. My skin flushed hot under his attention as I became hyperaware of him. A flustered feeling bloomed low in my stomach, unlike anything I’d ever experienced. And completely inappropriate after everything I’d survived.