Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 144908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
He’d slept all day, all night and most of the next two days while she looked after him, doing everything Steele had told her to do.
“Probably had a good woman like you looking after him,” he said gruffly. “Probably meant the world to him and she walked out when she realized he wasn’t all that easy to live with.”
She turned her head, her eyes deepening to an almost indigo blue. “I heard what you said yesterday, Master. All of it. You laid out the rules for me and I understand them. I’m willing to follow them in order to be with you. I don’t think you’re asking too much.”
“You understand you can’t fuck up tonight. Torpedo Ink is all over this one. You’re in a training program, princess, and you have to be able to follow orders. Czar runs a crew and Steele runs another one. Steele usually runs my crew. If you want to be a part of it, he has to know you’re solid and he can count on you—that every single member can count on you to be where you’re supposed to be. You can’t be a wild card, Ambrielle.”
She looked him straight in the eye. “I absolutely understand. I asked you to teach me and you gave me your word. I know you don’t like it but you’re still doing it. I swore to you I wouldn’t throw my body between yours and bullets again, and I meant it. I also meant it when I said I’d listen and learn. I don’t make the same mistake over and over.”
He nodded, those knots in his gut tightening even more. She had married him for a reason. She was learning the ropes, and he knew Code was getting closer to tracking down Walker Thompson. The man couldn’t hide forever. As soon as they knew where he was hiding, they would devise a plan to rid the world of him.
Master didn’t want Ambrielle to go with them when they killed Thompson because it might not be as clean a kill as he would want it to be in front of her. They needed information to find the others hiring the Ghost assassins to murder innocents. He’d promised her, and he was a man who kept his promises.
He’d never had anyone looking after him before. She’d stuck it out all day. Both days. Insisting he drink Hannah’s soother. Changing the dressing on his wound the way Steele had shown her. Sitting on the edge of his bed, talking softly to him and pushing back his hair as if he meant something to her when he woke up restless. She hadn’t flinched when he had a nightmare and he’d awakened, tangled in the sweat-soaked sheets, half-crazed, fighting, thankful he didn’t have a weapon when he realized he had her hair bunched in his fist and she lay passive under him, looking up at him and murmuring soothingly.
Ambrielle had simply changed the sheets again while he took a shower. Then she changed the dressing on his wound a second time before getting him the soother and soup Alena had sent over. She fed it to him a spoonful at a time, then told him to go back to sleep. A man could get used to that kind of care.
When he woke this evening, the house didn’t smell stale and airless. Ambrielle had managed to bring the fragrance of the outdoors inside. His house smelled of fresh pine and juniper. Cedar. The woods. More, it smelled of her. Ambrielle Vasiliev, his beautiful princess of a wife. She had transformed his sanctuary into a home almost overnight. He wasn’t ever going to go back to living without her.
“You’re frowning, Master.” Very gently, with the pads of her fingers, she smoothed over his lower lip. “What’s wrong?”
Her touch shook him, but he kept that to himself. “He had a wife once. Why did she leave him? Is he corrupt? Did he make a deal with the devil and get in over his head?”
“If he did, he sure isn’t spending the money at home. Maybe he has another woman and that’s why his wife left.” She tipped her head up to look at him. “I wouldn’t just leave. I’d make sure the other woman knew you were mine and she shouldn’t have poached. You’d go to sleep and wake up minus one ball.”
He choked. His cock twitched. His balls drew up, tried to hide. He was a big man, and it wasn’t like he could put that junk just anywhere. She wasn’t kidding, as sweet as she sounded. She raised an eyebrow and reached down to stroke between his legs.
“Don’t worry, honey, I’d be humane about it.” This time she gave him her sassy little grin. He could swear he saw her teeth gleaming.
“You mean that shit.” He made it a statement. Looking down into her eyes was a mistake. Even knowing she’d cut off his balls, he wanted her.