Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
A grin cracked his gorgeous face.
All faked easiness.
I leaned forward. “If you want me to trust you, you need to be honest with me.”
He blew out a sigh, chewed at the inside of his cheek, tapped his fingertips on the table as he studied me. “The gambling and some not so on the up and up investments. When we left LA, we left the rest behind.”
Then he shocked me when he leaned over the table. His palms were planted on the top, and his tone shifted from mild to lethal. “But I have a feeling that is about to change.”
Unease stirred in my chest. “The last thing I want is to cause you trouble, Logan.”
He roughed out a disbelieving sound, though there was something soft about it. “Oh, sweet Aster, you have been a lifetime of trouble, haven’t you?”
Hurt underlined his words, and I fidgeted, took another sip of my wine, and fiddled with a piece of my hair when the server returned.
We ordered our dinners, and when the server walked away, Logan lifted his glass in my direction. “To a new beginning.”
My teeth clamped down on my bottom lip. “And which new beginning is that?”
His smile was too dry. Too casual, though it radiated with an intonation of hate and power. “The one where Jarek Urso never touches you again.”
“I can drink to that.” The words wobbled free on an outpouring of my own determination.
Logan sat forward. There was something furious in his demeanor. “Drink to it? I can promise it.”
My throat thickened. “Logan…”
“I promise you,” he said again, words a growl. “He needs to be reminded of his place. Trust me, Aster.”
It was underlined with implication.
Worry burned through my being as I watched Logan from across the table as the server placed our salads in front of us.
“Is there anything else I can get for you while we await your entrees?”
“We’re fine.” Logan didn’t look away from me as he dismissed him.
Under his stare, I felt the ground tremble.
The whirring of the air.
I took a bite of my salad to distract myself from the magnitude of it.
As if the entire world was focused on me. My skin flushed.
That was right when a tacky, clammy awareness crawled over my skin. I looked up, over Logan’s shoulder, toward the bar on the far side of the restaurant, compelled by the tension that bound the air.
Black eyes stared back at me.
Jarek.
I gulped as fear crashed through my being, and my body heaved forward in shock.
Revulsion.
Loathing.
A sickness I couldn’t escape.
The fact that no matter where I went, Jarek would be right there.
My attention snapped back to Logan who looked as if he were about to go on a rampage. As if he were barely keeping it together.
“Did you know he was here?” It was a rattle of terror.
He gave me a tight nod. Did he have any idea the danger he was putting us in?
“So you brought me here?” The accusation was fueled by fear.
“I told you to trust me, Aster.”
My face pinched. “How can I trust you when you’re parading me around like bait?”
“Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re not already the end-goal, Aster. You are the cup and the crown and every jewel that has ever existed.”
The blood thudded heavily in my veins.
“If you want me to help you, you have to trust me.”
Every line in his face was hard.
Every cell bated.
A tremble of foreboding in the air.
From across the room, I could feel Jarek tremoring, too.
It felt like I was being ripped between the two of them.
Logan pushed back his chair a fraction and patted his leg. “Come, sit on my lap, let me feed you.”
I gripped the edges of the table. “Are you insane? What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m simply reminding him of what he can no longer have.”
“You are trying to start a war.”
“What I’m doing is trying to set you free. And if a war is what it takes, then so be it.” The words were clipped, his expression fierce, the inevitability set deep in the wells of those green eyes. The browns and golds swirled from their depths.
Entrancing.
Enticing.
He patted his leg again. “Come here, Aster. My rules, remember?”
I’d almost forgotten the power I’d left him with.
I guzzled the entire glass of wine in search of courage, and I pushed from the chair.
Jarek never averted his caustic stare, and I could feel the lances of anger blistering through the room. It clashed with the stupid need that suddenly welled up in me as Logan sat there watching me like I was his.
Possession seared through his gaze as I slowly moved his way, but it was different than the way Jarek viewed me.
Logan looked at me like I was the treasure.
The reason.
The destination.
My breaths were jagged as I eased around to his side, and I settled down onto his lap, angled across him so both my legs draped off to one side.