Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 46461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
When she looked up at me, her eyes got wide and her lips parted. I couldn’t decide if she was afraid or aroused. Not sure she knew which one she was either. Those hazel eyes of hers seemed to beg me to claim her as my own. To keep her safe. At the same time, she had no real idea what kind of mess she’d landed herself in. I could see the internal struggle she had going on. If she’d been used to this life, how an MC worked, I’d have taken her on. But this girl… She wasn’t a woman a man could leave when he was done with her. Hell, she was a woman a man might never be done with.
“Food’s over here.” I wasn’t nearly as smooth as I wanted to be. Any tenderness I had inside of me got left in Afghanistan along with my leg. My voice was gruff as I ushered her to the table and urged her to sit. She took one look at the food on the plate, and her whole face lit up. Then she glanced at me. I actually had two plates. One with the burgers and dogs, the other with the sides. So she took one burger and set it on the plate with the sides, then proceeded to cut the hot dog in half.
“What the fuck’er you doin’, girl?”
She jumped, her head snapping up so she could look at me. “I -- I was m-making t-two p-plates.” She trembled now, her eyes wide and round with fear.
I sighed. “Sorry, Emmanuell. I didn’t mean to sound so gruff. That’s all for you, honey. Eat as much as you want. I can probably round up some more ’tater salad and beans, but that’s all the burgers and dogs.”
“No! This is more than enough.” She looked back at the plate with longing. “It’s not polite to eat without offering everyone in the room something.”
“You offered. I declined,” I said, my tone clipped when I didn’t want it to be. Seeing her obviously hungry but falling back on manners that were ingrained into her made me want to punch something. I didn’t need her to think my aggression was toward her. “Eat, honey. I want all that gone when I come back. You hear?”
“I don’t know if I can eat it all.”
“Just try. You need to eat. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to neglect your baby. Right?”
Immediately her hand went to her belly. The look on her face was one of wistfulness as well as a soft sweetness I wasn’t even sure she knew was there. She rubbed her tummy absently before sighing. “You’re right. I do need to eat.”
“Good. I’m going to step outside. I’ll be back in fifteen or twenty minutes. Eat as much as you can. If you need more, I’ll make sure you have it.”
“Thank you,” she said. “For everything.”
I nodded. “I’m locking the door. I have a key, so no one should be knocking. I don’t want you havin’ to deal with anyone else, so if someone knocks, ignore it.”
She pursed her lips. “That’s not very polite.”
“Don’t give a fuck about polite. I will not have club girls invading your space and making you uncomfortable.”
Emmanuell ducked her head, giving a little nod. Yeah. Retta had shaken her up more than she wanted to admit. Did this attraction go both ways? I thought it might. Which meant I needed to figure out what the fuck was going on sooner rather than later, because I was already making a claim on Emmanuell. I had no idea if she was even attainable.
When I left Emmanuell’s room, I went in search of Thorn. I also needed to check my searches. My phone was linked to my computers and would alert me of anything noteworthy, but I had a pressing need to check on it myself. Confirming there was nothing new took disappointingly little time. My office was next to Thorn’s, and he was just exiting his office when I locked the door to mine behind me.
“How’s she doin’?”
“Got her eatin’. She’s falling back on etiquette rather than just rolling with it. Tried to share her fuckin’ meal with me instead of just digging in like she obviously wanted to. She’s unfailingly polite and more than a little nervous, but I think she’s weathered everything all right so far.”
“Depending on what we find, this could be a shit show of epic proportions. You realize that, right?”
My gaze snapped to Thorn’s. “You don’t have to tell me. I know how much trouble the club will be in if this isn’t handled carefully. That pissant, Beaner, talking yet?”
“No. But then the interrogation hasn’t started, either.” Thorn shrugged. “He’s not the kind of man to last long under pressure. I don’t think he’ll break before we start workin’ him over, but he won’t last long.”