Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 41664 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 208(@200wpm)___ 167(@250wpm)___ 139(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41664 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 208(@200wpm)___ 167(@250wpm)___ 139(@300wpm)
His eyes softened the tiniest bit, just enough that I noticed. And to make me feel like I’d passed some kind of test I hadn’t realized I was taking.
The silence that followed was different from before. Charged, like saying his name had connected us somehow.
I stood there clutching the bottle, unsettled and undeniably affected, wondering if I’d just agreed to more than I understood.
I didn’t realize I’d leaned forward until Jaxton shifted.
One step. That was all it took for the air to crackle between us.
I froze, my heart hammering, as he braced one hand on the counter near my hip. The other hovered for a beat, fingers twitching like he wasn’t sure if he should touch me.
“Fucking hell.” His palm circled the back of my neck to pull me close as his head lowered.
The first brush of his mouth was rougher than I expected. Hungry. Like he’d been holding back for far too long and finally gave in, even though we’d just met today.
Heat roared through my veins. My free hand shot out to steady myself, my palm flattening against the solid wall of his chest. The contact jolted me as much as the kiss did, sparks racing through my body as I leaned into him.
I let myself sink into the taste of him, the way his lips moved against mine, and the dizzying weight of his presence that swallowed me whole.
And then he tore his mouth from mine.
I blinked up at him, dazed, my lips tingling from the intensity of his kiss. He didn’t explain or offer an apology. Just stepped back, yanked the brim of his hat low again, and turned away like he hadn’t just unraveled me.
Moving away, he paused at the door with one hand on the knob. His voice came out low and gravelly, like he was forcing it through clenched teeth. “You shouldn’t trust people so easily.”
The words sliced straight through me. I swallowed, trying to find my balance in their wake. My laugh was too thin, too sharp. “I don’t. Normally.”
Some tension eased from his shoulders, but he didn’t look back. Didn’t even say another word.
The door clicked shut behind him, leaving me clutching my water bottle like a lifeline. My chest heaved, my lips still tingled, and the room felt smaller than ever. I was shaken and breathless, unsure what scared me more.
Jaxton himself.
Or how much I already wanted him.
5
JAX
Morning bled slowly into my office, but I’d barely noticed the change until now. The world outside my screens barely existed. Only she did.
My glasses dug into the bridge of my nose, and my cap was still backward from when I’d flipped it hours ago. I hadn’t slept. Not really. The Redline Kings weren’t a nine-to-five and neither was I. We ran best in motion, and my motion ran through wires.
I’d showered somewhere around four, changed my clothes, drank enough coffee to make my hands buzz, and then gone right back to the one thing my brain refused to let go of.
Lark.
The ache in my spine told me I’d stayed hunched too long, bent over the glow of screens, coaxing secrets out of systems that were never meant to give them up.
I dragged the heel of my hand across my eyes and settled deeper into the chair. The leather grip on the armrest had molded to my palm over the years; this seat knew every bad night I’d ever had. Lines of text flowed across three monitors—one scraping financials for patterns human eyes never caught, one parked on DMV and county clerk portals, and the third running a slow crawl through records that weren’t supposed to be accessible to anyone who didn’t have a badge. And clearance for these files in particular.
When I came back to my office, I started peeling past the WITSEC layer I’d already cracked yesterday. That should’ve been enough. Confirmation was all we needed, all I’d normally hand over before walking away. But I couldn’t. My gut wouldn’t let me. I wanted more than their file gave me.
I wanted to know everything. Not the alias—the real woman who existed under it. The one who’d bumped into me and flushed pink when my silence landed like a punch. The one who’d looked me in the eyes and made something in my chest go live like a circuit I didn’t remember wiring. Whose lips had been softer and sweeter than I’d imagined.
I wanted her real life. Her real story.
I craved every damn detail, every footprint, every shadow she left behind before the feds boxed her up in a neat alias and shoved her into Crossbend. Didn’t know what the fucking marshals were thinking putting Lark in a place like this. We were tightlipped around here, but we still lived in the spotlight. This wasn’t the place for her. Not with that history. Not with enemies still breathing.