Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
“I saw.” He scowls. Obviously aware of what happened next. How Gaston slapped her to the ground.
“So you know that she put herself in physical danger for me. She doesn’t deserve your wrath, Beast.”
Thinking, he rubs his jaw and I see just how red-raw his knuckles are. “She should know better.”
“We made a mistake. We’re human.”
He lifts my chin. “Promise me you won’t keep anything like this from me in the future.”
“I promise.”
A smile tugs at his lips. “Good, now I can kiss you.”
“Then stop talking about it and do it.”
He claims my mouth and kisses me deeply, making my toes curl and my heart pound. This man knows how to kiss. Hell, this man knows how to set me on fire.
Speaking of which…
I break off the kiss and reach for his hands so I can inspect his bruised and bleeding knuckles. “What did you do?”
“I killed him.”
I lift my gaze so quick I almost give my eyes whiplash. “You killed Gaston?”
“Yes,” he says.
I find it hard to keep the disappointment out of my voice. “How?”
“I broke his face a few times then set the bar on fire and left him inside it.”
“Did he suffer?”
He holds up his hands. “These don’t tickle.”
I nod, wishing I’d seen Gaston broken and bloody after Beast had finished with him.
“How do you feel?” he asks.
I let out a shaky breath. “Disappointed.”
His brow furrows. “In me?”
“No.” I take a step back and sit on the edge of the bed. “Because I wanted to be the one to do it.”
Beast kneels before me. “I did it for you.”
I run my hand through his hair. “I know.”
“He needed to pay for what he did. It was a lesson long coming.”
I sigh. “I can’t believe it’s over.”
He runs his palms up my thighs. And I’m not going to lie. It’s a turn on to know they’re the very hands that broke Gaston’s face not more than an hour ago.
“Are you okay?” I ask. “He was your brother.”
“He stopped being my brother the day he attacked you.” His fingers find the edge of my panties. “Now can we stop talking about him? I’m hungry for my wife. I want to put tonight behind me by getting behind you.”
I laugh at his cheesiness.
But the laughing fades and the moaning starts when he rips off my panties and buries his face between my legs.
CHAPTER 53
BEAST
The next morning, Gambit alerts me to a pair of black Escalades parked at the security gates.
I know who they are.
They’re the mayor’s investigators.
On my instruction, Gambit lets them in, and I meet them out the front. Two men dressed in black suits climb out. They’re young and have no idea who they are facing.
“The mayor wants to see you,” one of them says.
“Tell the mayor if he wants to speak to me then he can come to me. Not send two little boys to summon me.”
I turn to walk away, but the baby-faced one who doesn’t look old enough to shave holds up his cell. “You might want to hear what Mayor Boney has to say. I’m sure you heard about the fire in town last night.”
I should tell them to go to hell. But my gut tells me to take the call.
Reluctantly, I take the phone from him and hold it up to my ear. But I say nothing. I don’t need to. Boney is already screaming at me. “If you don’t want every law enforcement officer turning up on our doorstep for what you did in Devil’s Kitchen last night, then I suggest you do as I fucking tell you.”
Without saying a word, I hang up on him and throw the phone back to Babyface. “Tell your boss he really needs to learn some manners.”
The phone rings again. Babyface answers it. “He says you either come to his office now or he’ll send the sheriff around to escort you.”
“Hang up,” I say, crossing my arms.
Babyface looks unsure. “What?”
“I said hang up the goddamn phone.” When he goes to speak into the phone, I snap, “No, don’t say anything, just hang up the fucking phone.”
Surprisingly, he does.
I calmly remove my phone from my cut and bring up the mayor’s number.
He answers on the first ring.
“Ask nicely,” I say.
The words make me think of Belle, and I smile when I think about her in the garden, making me ask her on a date.
“What the fuck?” Boney explodes on the other end of the phone.
I sigh. My grin obvious in my tone. “We’re not off to a very good start, Boney.”
“You listen to me, you criminal biker fuck. People might be too scared to come forward and say what they saw last night but—”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
By the screaming that follows, Mayor Boney is about to give himself a heart attack.
“You get your ass down here now. It’s time we talk face to face about this town and its future.”