Total pages in book: 184
Estimated words: 186756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 934(@200wpm)___ 747(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 934(@200wpm)___ 747(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
All I wanted was a harmless kiss from the handsome stranger at my eighteenth birthday party. But when he said — with a cruel twist of his cigarette smoking lips — that he doesn’t kiss ‘annoying little girls,’ I stupidly decided to flirt with a random guy to make him jealous.
I never wanted that random guy to fall in love with me. Or worse, accidentally start a relationship with him. But now I have a new boyfriend while I can’t stop thinking about the guy who doesn’t care that I exist.
So it’s time to move on and focus on my new relationship.
Only the moment I make that decision, he decides to notice me.
He decides to stare at me a little too hard and in a way that makes me blush. Oh and one day when my boyfriend isn’t looking, he decides to corner me in a lonely hallway and put his rough and heated hands on me that feels equal parts forbidden and familiar.
But I’m not stupid.
I’m not going to ruin my new relationship for someone that people call Stellan ‘The Cold’ Thorne. Especially not when the random guy I’m dating isn’t random at all.
No, my new boyfriend happens to be the brother of the guy I’m inappropriately obsessed with.
And I’m not the kind of girl who comes between two brothers.
Twin brothers…
Or am I?
NOTE: This book is a complete STANDALONE set in the world of St. Mary's and Bardstown.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
The Beginning
Chapter 1
One Year Ago
I’m a slut.
Or so my mom calls me.
She also says that one day it’ll get me in trouble. The kind I won’t be able to get myself out of. I don’t think that’s true, though. In fact, I think being a slut is what usually gets me out of trouble.
It at least gets me out of locked rooms.
Like it did tonight.
As always, I made my mother angry. I chose to wear a dress I liked instead of the one she’d picked out for me. In my defense, it’s my birthday—my eighteenth birthday—and I wanted to wear something of my own choosing for a change.
Yes, it’s short and yes, it shows off my cleavage.
So what?
I like it and it’s my birthday tonight.
Don’t I deserve some leeway?
Apparently not.
Because as soon as I came down the stairs in my pretty white dress, my mom lost it. She dragged me upstairs, locked me in my room, and told me I wouldn’t be coming out until I put some decent clothes on. My dad—who loves my mother to death and will do anything for her—posted a bodyguard at my door for good measure too.
Well, they always have bodyguards posted around me.
Because apparently, I’m too out of control and need to be kept an eye on.
Anyway.
My parents thought he was tough, the bodyguard, but he folded and let me go the second I screamed out for fake help and batted my dark curled eyelashes.
And look, here I am.
Sneaking out of the back garden exactly like I’d planned.
I knew this area would be empty and therefore a safe passage for me because people would be busy with the party around the pool. And with any luck, I’ll be back before my parents figure out I’m not where I’m supposed to be.
Although I will say that I’m late.
But it’s okay.
The moon is bright. The early winter air is crisp and fresh. Not to mention, I’m finally seizing my destiny or rather making an attempt to seize it.
So I’m not going to despair.
But the moment I decide that, I stop mid-run.
I have to.
Because suddenly, the blissfully empty back garden is not empty anymore.
There’s someone here.
Someone I can’t see because even though the moon is shining at its brightest, whoever it is, is standing under the pink magnolia tree, shadowed by the branches and the flowers.
All I can tell is that it’s a he.
It’s a darkly dressed he.
With dark pants and a dark shirt.
It’s also a tall he.
In fact, he’s such a tall he that he won’t have to stand on his tiptoes to pluck the flowers from the branches. Actually, he won’t even have to raise his arm fully to get to them. Both of which I have to do and even then, it’s a hardship.
Who is he?
And what is he doing with my flowers?
“Who are you?” My loud voice cracks through the silence.
If he’s another one of my new bodyguards, I’m going to be very pissed. And he could be because my dad did say he’d hired a bunch of new ones from a very famous Bardstown-based security company, The Fortress, after he caught me almost making out with the last one. Spoiler alert: I wasn’t really going to make out with him. That was also a ploy to get myself out of another tricky situation.
Again, anyway.