Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“Hello?”
“I told you to call me when you got settled.”
She had, but I’d been too caught up in coming up with ways to piss off my captors—or hosts or whatever the hell they were—to remember.
“I’m sorry, Aunt Van. I forgot.” There was no point in lying to her. She was scary good at knowing when anyone tried to deceive her. I’d told her plenty of times she should be doing the family’s interrogations, but of course, my father would never allow that. He was old school. As far as he believed, women didn’t get involved in the business. He was cheating himself out of a damn fine resource. Van was almost as good a shot as I was, and I was better than most special-ops snipers.
She snorted. “You would forget. Tell me they’re treating you well.”
My mind flashed to Rhys holding me at gunpoint. “They are. The house here is beautiful. You’d love it. Very luxurious.”
“Hmpf. They better be spending some of the money your father is paying on security, not just high thread count sheets.”
I’d slipped out to the barn easily enough, but I’d also seen the perimeter guards they had, and while Grant might be uptight as hell, he knew what he was doing. He’d earned X’s respect. That was good enough for me.
“They’ll take good care of me. Remember X is funding the operation, so there’s no reason to spare an expense.”
“That’s true enough. Too bad he’s got a man now. He’s loaded and so damn fun.”
“Aunt Van!”
“What? I mean, he’s not that much younger than me.”
I grinned. X had to be at least fifteen years younger than her—probably twenty—but I loved her spirit. She had always known how to make things fun and how to make me laugh, even when no one else cared to.
“X is really missing out. If only he’d met you first.”
“Too true, but then I hear he’s bossy, and you know how I feel about a man trying to tell me what to do.”
“I sure do.”
“How do you like being on a ranch?”
I huffed. “It’s hot as the lowest rung of hell down here.”
“I bet. It’s hot as balls here. I don’t want to imagine what it’s like there, though you do have all those gorgeous cowboys around you.”
I laughed. “That’s for damn sure. Grant and his brothers are something else, and I haven’t even met the whole crew yet.”
“Almost makes me want to come down and stay with you.”
“You’d have a lot more fun. All I’m allowed to do is sit around the damn house.”
“You never were any good at relaxing.”
“I can relax.”
“Your idea of relaxing is seeing how many hookups you can have in one night.”
“Aunt Van…”
“Am I wrong?”
“No.”
“Enjoy the quiet. Read a damn book. It would probably be good for you. Or meet someone, like really meet someone. What about Grant and his brothers? Any prospects there?”
I wanted to put her off, but I was sure she’d keep probing until she got the full answer out of me. She always did. “Well, there is one, one of the twins I mean.”
“Twins? Ooh. I’d forgotten there were twins there. They’re identical, aren’t they?”
“They are, but I can tell them apart, or at least I could after I met Rhys.”
“Tell me more.”
“Obviously, they’re both hot since they look alike, but Rhys, well, he’s kind of an ass.”
“And he’s the prospect, right?”
Rather than giving a direct response, I said, “He be a hell of a challenge, and he made it very clear he’s not interested.”
“Really not interested or the-lady-doth-protest-too-much not interested?”
“I think it’s answer number two, but the jury is still out.”
“Go with your instincts. You need a challenge.”
I knew she was right, but I wanted to argue anyway. “I don’t need to start anything while I’m here, especially not anything that could be more than just a hookup.” And Rhys would definitely be more than just a hook up. “I’d probably be safer going for the other twin.”
“Since when do you care about safe?”
“Since I’m thousands of miles from home and planning to make my stay here as short as possible.”
“Are you really that eager to come back?”
It wasn’t like I was homesick exactly, but like it or not, I was part of the family business. It was all I’d ever known. “I don’t intend to sit around here for the rest of my life.”
“Sounds like if you play your cards right, there won’t be a lot of sitting involved.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Don’t get any ideas. I’m not giving you details.”
“I don’t need them. Now whether I need a cowboy of my own is another story?”
“Didn’t you just say you don’t want a man to tell you what to do?”
“That doesn’t mean I couldn’t have a little fun if I came to visit.”
“Dad would never let you do that.”
She huffed. “Your father is not the boss of me.”