Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
(previously published as Undercover Attraction)
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter One
Something’s coming.
Charlie Moreaux, formerly Charlotte Finch, tucked a strand of long white-blond hair behind her ear, narrowing her eyes. This time of night, the party should have been in full swing, everyone a little too drunk, a little too loud. Instead, people kept to their tables and talked in low voices. It created a dull roar within the faded wood-paneled walls of the bar, but nothing close to what it would have been on any other weekend night. She picked her way around the full tables, ignoring the handful of regulars who tried to catch her eye.
Jacques nodded at her. The old man had taken a liking to her from the first time she’d wandered in here, scraping rock bottom and halfway down the road to drinking herself to death. He was the one who’d pulled her back into the land of the living, who’d inadvertently put her on the path to retribution.
Charlie leaned against the bar. “Weird mood tonight.”
“It’s a full moon.”
No one tracked full moons like ER nurses and bartenders.
Jacques poured two healthy shots of whiskey and set one on the faded wood of the bar in front of her. “You’re as edgy as they are.”
“Yeah, I know. No specific reason.” She downed the whiskey, but the warmth curling through her stomach did nothing to battle her nerves. Intuition or superstition, she couldn’t shake the feeling of fate hurtling down the tracks, pointed directly at her.
Her first clue that something had gone wrong was a hush falling in a wave through the room. Charlie didn’t spin around, despite the feeling of eyes on her. Her attention fell to Jacques, as still as a rabbit facing down a wolf. He spoke low, but the words reached her easily in the new quiet of the bar. “You know I love you, girl, but you’re gonna have to take this one outside.”
I was right. Trouble’s come, and it’s here for me.
She turned slowly, still fighting against the instinct to spin, and propped her elbows on the bar as if she hadn’t noticed the change in the room. Trouble stood in the doorway, his broad shoulders filling the frame. The neon lights of the bar signs didn’t quite reach his face, though they highlighted his square jaw. She didn’t have to see his eyes to know he was looking at her.
She could feel it. And the danger was just as intense as it had been a year ago when he’d first come to find her.
Aiden O’Malley.
“I’ll take care of it.” Charlie put enough authority into her voice that Jacques wouldn’t question her. This was her problem, and she wasn’t about to bring the old bartender into it. She shrugged a little, testing the weight of her holster beneath her leather jacket.
She pushed away from the bar, stalking toward Aiden. In her six-inch heels, she was almost his height, but even the fancy suit didn’t hide the fact that he was cut. It wasn’t just the size of his shoulders. It was in the way his thigh muscles pressed against his slacks when he shifted. Utterly cold and contained, he watched her watch him.
Standing across from him made her feel…vulnerable. She didn’t like that. She didn’t like that shit one bit. “Outside,” she snapped.
He took a step back and then another, allowing her to lead him outside and down the street.
Aiden kept his hands at his sides and away from any weapon he had on him. It was designed to make her feel at ease, but it only ramped up her tension. The man had come here for her. Pretending that he wasn’t dangerous just meant he wanted her to underestimate him.
Fat chance of that happening.
Charlie wrapped her arms around herself, sliding her fingers along the butt of her 9mm. The feeling of metal warmed by her body comforted her. She’d defended herself before against worse than Aiden and his bodyguard. She could do it again if she had to. “Why are you here?” Why now? Why wait an entire year to come back around?