Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
“Different how?”
“It’s not like you’re trying to control me. It’s like you’re trying to stand between me and the thing that would take my choices away.”
My throat is thick when I say, “We are, Wren.”
Her voice is husky when she says, “You make protection feel like love, not ownership.”
I stand there with a wooden spoon in one hand and Wren’s hand on my arm, and realize Harlan Turner has no idea what he’s threatening.
Before she came here, this cabin was shelter. Now, it holds a woman who’s brave enough to say the thing we haven’t yet.
Love.
I slide my hand under Wren’s and capture her fingers. “You keep talking like that, and dinner’s going to burn.”
Her eyes shine, but there are no tears. “Then stir the onions, Boone.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
After dinner, I get out the cards, and Wren arches a brow.
“Poker?”
“Seems like the night for it.”
Rhett takes the seat at the head of the table, and Cade sits with a sightline to the front window even though the curtains are closed. I sit across from Wren, because I like watching her think.
“What are we playing for?” she asks.
Rhett answers automatically. “Chips.”
“Boo. Boring,” I say.
“Boone.” Cade says my name like a warning.
“What?” I shuffle the cards. “We survived a threat, reinforced the cabin, and ate root vegetables for dinner like responsible adults. I think we’ve earned some better stakes tonight.”
“Define better.” Wren leans back in her chair and crosses her arms beneath her breasts, which only makes my idea about a hundred times more appealing.
“Nothing scandalous.” I start to deal. “Just some strip poker.”
“Only if Wren wants,” Rhett says.
A variety of glances are exchanged around the table. Dubious, challenging, wary, and hot.
“And if I do want?” Wren asks.
“Then we set rules,” Cade says.
I deal the last card. “Always the romantic.”
“Rules keep everybody honest,” he says.
“Rules also make it more fun,” Wren says.
Lord help us.
Rhett sits back, all quiet authority. “No pressure, refuse whatever you want, no pushing past a no.”
“I trust that you won’t ever push past a no,” she says. “Let’s play.”
CHAPTER 27
WREN
Strip poker with the Wilder brothers.
Something tells me it’s going to go far beyond simply taking off clothes … and that I’m going to love every minute, whether I win or lose.
The first several hands of five-card draw are about clothing, as if this is a civilized game. Cade wins twice and asks me to take off my slippers and socks. When I win, I go straight for his shirt.
Rhett wins and orders me to take off the sweatshirt I’m wearing, then he and his brothers lose the next several hands because they’re too preoccupied by me sitting there in a thin green tank top with no bra under it.
“You three are terrible at this,” I tell them.
Boone gives me one of his wicked grins. “Darlin’, we’re excellent at this. Poker’s just not the game we’re focused on anymore.”
I make Rhett and Cade take their boots off, and Rhett and Boone take their shirts off, but unfortunately, Rhett has a t-shirt under his flannel.
When Boone wins, he tells Rhett to take the t-shirt off because he doesn’t want him to be the only brother who isn’t shirtless.
“What a waste of a win,” Rhett grumbles.
Cade catches me bluffing, and when he wins, he scoots his chair back and pats his knee. “Come here.”
I swallow and get to my feet as all three brothers watch my every move.
Rhett and Boone glance at Cade a couple of times, like they’re surprised that he’s the one taking the game to a new level, but mostly their eyes track the way my shirt clings to my breasts as I walk barefoot to their brother. The room is warm, but my nipples start to get hard from anticipation, and the men’s expressions tell me they notice that, too.
When I stand in front of Cade, not sure what he wants, he sets his hands on my hips and steers me to straddle his legs, facing him.
His eyes dip to my chest as I settle myself onto his lap, and my nipples go fully hard. I want to wrap my hands around his neck and devour him, but I wait to find out what he wants as his prize.
“Kiss me,” he says, sounding more like Rhett than he ever has. Cade rarely asks for anything, and when he does, he doesn’t usually sound so demanding.
Of course, he knows I can refuse, but I hope he also knows there’s no way I ever would.
I put one hand on his shoulder and lean in. The kiss starts slow, but it doesn’t stay that way.
Cade’s hand closes at my hip, and his fingers dig into my flesh, giving me a glimpse of what’s behind his usual restraint. His mouth turns hungry and one of his hands slides under the back of my shirt, his fingers rough on my bare skin.