Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22950 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 115(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22950 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 115(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
Read Online Books/Novels: | Pretty Daring (Rags to Riches #5) |
|---|---|
Author/Writer of Book/Novel: | Jessa Kane |
| Language: | English |
| Book Information: | |
Ophelia is tired of being treated like a spoiled, little rich girl. She wants to be seen as a woman. But she never expects to collide with her housekeeper’s son on the day he’s released from prison. After seven years behind bars, Ezra can’t control himself around such a sweet, young thing like Ophelia. She’s claiming to be his mother’s neighbor and he senses she’s lying…but he’ll have to worry about the details later. After she’s been claimed. | |
| Books in Series: | Rags to Riches Series by Jessa Kane |
| Books by Author: | Jessa Kane Books |
CHAPTER ONE
Ophelia
I pull my Bugatti into a parking space outside the old apartment building and blow out a breath. This neighborhood is a far cry from mine, but I’m definitely no stranger here, considering my housekeeper, Leeza, forgets her heart medication at least once a week. With my mother living in Prague indefinitely and my father practically sleeping at the office, I’m the only one home on a consistent basis, so I’m required to fetch it for her.
Well, not required exactly.
There might be a slight chance the kooky maid has grown on me.
Not that I’ll ever admit it out loud.
I was on my way to the beach when Leeza called me, bemoaning her forgetfulness, and I made a quick turn, speeding to Queens, where Leeza has lived for decades in her small two-bedroom. I’m going to grab the medication, drop it off at my family’s townhouse on the Upper West Side and attempt to reach the beach by sundown. Honestly, I graduated high school a week ago and haven’t gotten a single ray of sunshine on my pale behind. It’s time.
Adjusting the strap of my bikini top, I climb out of the car and lock it behind me with a beep. I use the set of keys Leeza gave me long ago to enter the rusted metal door of the building and climb the filthy staircase to the second floor. We pay Leeza a small fortune to clean the house and feed us, enough to live in much nicer digs, but she refuses, claiming she doesn’t need anything fancy to be happy.
I can’t help but think she’s on to something, since my parents have a billion dollars and I’ve never met two more miserable people.
As for me…I don’t exactly know if I’m happy.
I know I should be. Right? I have everything an eighteen-year-old girl could want. I’m going to Princeton in the fall. Just like my father, mother and various grandparents. I’m driving a car that isn’t even for sale yet in the United States. My future is secure.
I’m sure this impulse to run screaming in the opposite direction will pass.
There is also the teeny tiny issue of me being blackmailed by my father’s business partner. Yeah. We can’t forget about that.
As if I could. Part of the reason I’m escaping to the beach today is so I won’t stare at my cell phone terrified, waiting for it to ring. Terrified to hear that snide voice that has been haunting my nightmares for a month, ever since Wagner started calling.
Making demands.
Determined to forget about the fact that my family’s future might be in jeopardy—unless I comply with Wagner’s demands—I shake out the correct key to Leeza’s apartment door, insert it into the lock and turn. I’m so accustomed to entering Leeza’s place and going straight for the row of pill bottles on her kitchen windowsill, I almost don’t notice the man sitting in the leather easy chair by the window.
When I do notice him, my heart careens into my lungs and I stumble sideways into the wall, gasping for breath. “Oh my God,” I wheeze. “Who are you?”
His face is shrouded in shadows until he leans his huge—and I mean freaking huge—body forward and his silver-gray eyes cut through the mid-afternoon haze. Jesus, is that…Thor? God of Thunder? They could actually be twins. Although this guy is definitely the bad twin. The tattoos adorning his musclebound arms are a collection of skulls, death and mayhem.
“You first,” he rasps, his long, inked-up fingers flexing where they rest on his knees.
I eyeball the door, judging I can escape in two, three seconds tops. “Um…I-I forgot the question,” I stammer.
Did I imagine the corner of his mouth jumping? “Who are you?” he says, slowly. “And why are you in my mother’s apartment?”
Mother?
Everything clicks at once.
This is Leeza’s son, Ezra. Although she’s talked about him hundreds of times, I’ve never met the man face to face.
I simply haven’t had a chance since he’s been imprisoned in Rikers Island for seven years. She mentioned him coming home soon but didn’t give a specific date.
When did he get out?
My heart starts to race even faster when I notice the packed duffel bag across the room. Did he get out of Rikers today? The evidence certainly suggests so. But before I can try to talk or act my way out of this suddenly hairy situation, Ezra rises to his feet and I’m knocked back another step. My God, his dirty-blond head almost reaches the ceiling. If I try to run from this man and he catches me, I’ll have no chance of escape, plus he’ll be pissed off.
This is not a man one pisses off.
I definitely shouldn’t be…attracted to the danger surrounding him. Definitely not.
He takes a step forward into the light, highlighting the planes of muscles beneath his worn white T-shirt, the thickness of his thighs…and I feel a weird clench in my tummy. One I’ve never experienced before. It’s part fear, part excitement and I’m not sure if I like it. I do know I want to feel it again so I can make an accurate judgment. That’s only fair.