Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 99967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
He often comes home on his lunch breaks. I used to think it was because he wanted to hang out with me, but now I know it’s because he’s checking in on me. He doesn’t trust me. Not because I’ve ever done anything to betray his trust—aside from planning my escape—but because Nathan himself isn’t trustworthy. So he comes home every day on his lunch break to make sure I’m where I say I am.
I refuse to share my location on my phone.
He doesn’t say a word as he makes himself a sandwich, and I continue staring at my computer.
“We need to talk,” he says, startling me.
I don’t immediately look his way. My heart is thumping. Shit. He couldn’t have continued his tantrum for three more freaking days?
“Did you fucking hear me, dumbass?”
I scowl and look his way. “So talk.”
His blue eyes narrow on me in malice. “You’re such a piece of shit. You know that, right? You’re a mediocre nurse at best. No one besides me can even stand to be around you.”
His eyes move over my body in disgust.
“Christ, do you ever get off that couch?”
Fuck you.
Fuck you up the ass with no lube.
It’s amazing how kind and sweet and tender he is with me when we’re around other people, but when it’s just the two of us, the monster comes out to play.
And I can already see where this is going. He’s decided to move on to the lecture, torment, make-me-feel-smaller-than-a-snail part of his agenda. He does this often. Several times, he’s locked me in a bedroom and screamed at me for hours on end.
But not today.
Not ever again.
Slowly, I close the laptop and stand, pushing my feet into my shoes. Over the past week, I’ve packed most of my clothes and the few sentimental items I own, which isn’t much at all, and shipped them to Ava in our hometown of Silver Springs, Montana.
She’ll forward them to me when I need them.
There’s nothing here in this house that I can’t replace.
Including Nathan.
“What the fuck are you doing? I told you we need to talk, so sit your lazy ass down.”
Without a word, I walk to the front door and loop my handbag over my head and across my body. I still have my car because I’m not selling it to the buyer I found until Friday, so I grab my keys and open the front door.
“WHERE THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING, HARPER?”
I stop and look back at him. Once upon a time, I thought he was so handsome. He’s tall with all that thick blond hair and bright blue eyes, and he has a body that most of us drool over.
But he’s fucking rotten on the inside.
“You don’t get to speak to me ever again.”
I push out of the house and walk to my car, get inside, and start the engine.
He doesn’t follow me.
He’s probably still standing there with his mouth hanging open.
And finally, for the first time in three years, I’m free of him.
It feels amazing.
With shaky hands, I drive to a nice hotel closer to the airport, and when I approach the desk, the receptionist smiles.
“Good morning. How can I help you?”
I clear my throat. “I just left my piece-of-shit fiancé, and I need a room for two nights, please.”
The woman—Monica, according to her name tag—tilts her head to the side, her smile gone, looking at me with sharp eyes. “Are you okay, honey?”
“I’m way better than I was thirty minutes ago.”
She nods, types on her keyboard, then offers me a half smile. “One presidential suite for the basic room rate coming up. I’ll send up some champagne in thirty.”
I blink at her, and for the first time in a long time, I feel like crying.
The kindness of this stranger is what finally breaks me?
Pressing my lips together, I take my credit card and driver’s license back from her and nod.
“Thank you.”
“It’s my pleasure. Congratulations, Miss Newman.”
Chapter One
BLAKE
“It’s wild to me that Bitterroot Valley is so socked in with fog and snow that we can’t land there, but it’s not bad at all here in Missoula.”
With her hand still clutched in mine, the gorgeous woman next to me stares out the airport windows to watch the snow drift down softly as we wait for our luggage.
She’s not my girlfriend.
She’s definitely not my wife.
This intriguing woman is a complete stranger to me, but I absolutely do not want to let go of her hand.
The minute she stepped foot on that plane, I felt it. An immediate attraction. A connection. And not simply because she’s gorgeous.
I met her less than two hours ago on a flight from Denver to Montana, thanks to a medical emergency mid-flight with another passenger.
I was asked to help because I’m a doctor, and she was sitting next to the patient. She couldn’t have been better with him. She knew exactly how to calm him down, how to keep him engaged and his mind off being scared.