Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 132791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
He was not only calling my bluff, but suffocating my soul, touching me without permission, and pushing me to my limits like no man had ever done before. My rage, my fear, all gathered in the pit of my stomach, like a storm building momentum and speed, an anger that sat dormant for years…
I pulled the trigger.
The force of the blow tilted the gun upward. The recoil made me stagger back, and I hit the wall, falling to the floor.
The bullet grazed his shoulder. Crimson spread across his pristine white shirt.
I shot my husband.
The most vicious, bloodthirsty man in America.
Terror gripped me, and I crawled on my hands and knees toward the door.
Tiernan unbuttoned his dress shirt unhurriedly. His face gave away nothing.
He let his shirt slide down his arms, using the tip of his shoe to press the door shut to stop me from fleeing. I forced my gaze to travel up to him.
“You know, if you were a real Callaghan, I’d have taken you to the shooting range to work on your aim. We have a reputation to uphold.”
He had a sculpted body with a prominent six-pack, defined pectoral muscles, and a tattoo running from the side of his ear along his right shoulder.
Oderint Dum Metuant.
Let them hate as long as they fear.
He leaned down and reached for me. I forced myself not to flinch. I thought he’d hit me, but all he did was pry the gun from between my fingers. “Open your mouth.”
Even though he looked calm, something in his eye told me that if I wouldn’t, he’d put a bullet in my head. And unlike me, he wouldn’t miss.
Slowly, I let my jaw slack. He pushed the pistol’s muzzle between my lips. Slowly, almost sensually. It was still hot, the gunpowder sour against my tongue.
“Wrap those pretty lips around it,” he instructed coolly.
My eyes stung with tears, and I followed the instructions I wasn’t supposed to understand. I acted on pure instinct. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to live, either. But I didn’t want to leave this earth before I killed my rapist and at least plucked this bastard’s other eye out.
My husband looked bored out of his mind. Like shoving guns down people’s throats was a daily occurrence for him.
“Next time you try to shoot me, you better not fucking miss, because this’ll be my cock. It’s thicker than the gun. I’ll watch you choke on my cum as punishment. Understood?”
I didn’t answer. Screw him.
I stared up at him, shaking with rage, and spat the gun out of my mouth.
He shook his head in response. “Get your ass in the bathroom and get ready for bed while I clean myself up.”
I staggered to the bathroom, locking the door behind me. I clutched the edges of the sink, stared into the mirror, and swallowed air to draw in some oxygen. I wished I had a phone. Mama wouldn’t let me have one. She said phones created zombies, and everything I needed from life could be found in our library.
My eyes drifted to a condom in a foil packet on the vanity. I recognized it from an anatomy encyclopedia I read a few years ago.
So he was planning to rape me after all.
Not as long as I have breath in me, stronzo.
Searching my surroundings frantically, I found a glass vase next to the clawed bathtub. I tossed the fresh roses in the trash—couldn’t look at them, anyway—and drained the water down the sink. I rolled the vase inside the skirts of my wedding dress and crouched down to the floor.
The door rattled behind my back. He didn’t trust me. Or maybe he just got tired of waiting to claim what was now his. Either way, I had no time.
I smashed the vase against the floor, hoping the layers of fabric silenced the thud, and picked the sharpest shard of glass from it. I scurried up to my feet, ripping the door open. Tiernan stood on the other side of it.
He arched a brow. “Done with your hissy fit, fetus?”
I launched the shard at him, stabbing him just above the elbow. I was going for his veins, but he was tall, and my vision was blurred by adrenaline. He dodged me quickly, moving like a striking serpent. I tried again, blindly lashing at him, but before I knew what was happening, he wrapped himself around me from behind, yanking the shard from my hand.
“Note to self.” He dragged me to the bed, shoved me against one of its posts, and efficiently tied me to it using his own belt. “She’s not very good with taking orders.”
Not from assholes who cheat on me five minutes into the marriage, I wanted to bite back.
He disposed of all of the broken glass in the bathroom and hid all of the weapons in the room.