In Justice, Colorado, the Kennards run everything, including the only big business in the area. Their sawmill employs most of the town, and the Kennard brothers live up to a long family history of keeping their neighbors and coworkers safe—until a motorcycle club comes to town and starts causing trouble. Big trouble. The kind that ends in funerals.
He carries the burden of protecting an entire town
Being the oldest Kennard brother, I’ve got a centuries-old promise to uphold—run the family business to give the townspeople jobs and the sort of security they can only find in Justice. When a motorcycle club blows that plan apart, I’ll do anything to make them aware that they picked the wrong town to target. As a former Green Beret, I know just how to sabotage an enemy. The only weakness in my armor is my obsession with a five-foot-nothing blonde who unknowingly holds my heart in her hands. My attraction to her could cost me my life, but I’d sacrifice it all to save hers.
She owes a debt that could cost her life
I’ve spent three years hiding out in Justice and paying off a debt to the Soul Suckers, one they’ve decided to collect whether I’m ready to pay or not. When danger lands on my doorstep, one man jumps in to help. Alder Kennard—former Special Forces soldier and current object of all my fantasies. But the Soul Suckers won’t let a debt go unpaid, and with the price on my head rising every day, it’s only a matter of time until they come back for me. Alder would put his life on the line to save mine, which is something I simply can’t afford.
Everyone has a debt to pay, and the only currency I have left is my body. So when the time comes, I’ll trade my life for his.
The first sign that I was about to learn what happened came in the form of a rumble. A truck driving on the road, moving closer, and finally turning into the driveway. Then footsteps on the porch as Finn moved in front of the door. I kept my seat, too afraid to hope that Alder had pulled up. Telling myself that it would be Bishop or Gage instead, coming to tell Finn and me that something had happened and Alder wouldn’t be coming home. Fearing it.
Seconds dragged, every sound heightened and making my head throb. Voices, more footsteps, and then nothing. Silence for several long minutes. I finally stood, still staring at that blasted slab of wood keeping me away from the outdoors. Still waiting.
But then Alder opened the door and walked inside, and the world righted itself. I had a brief moment of relaxation before I took a good, hard look at him. Relaxation gone. I’d never seen him look so…mean.
I couldn’t move, standing still even though I wanted to run to him. Fearing how he would react. He looked bigger and rougher than usual, more military than I’d ever seen him. I’d always known he’d been in the Army, and he’d definitely acted like a soldier at times, but this was different. The man before me was all business, completely focused and ready to destroy anything in his path to complete his mission. From his heavy brown boots over his jeans to the neckline of his black T-shirt, he looked every bit like a man who would sooner take your life than listen to you mouth off. And he couldn’t’ take his eyes off me.
“All done?” I finally asked when the silence grew too heavy.
He nodded, still staring. His body tense and his eyes devouring me with a fierceness that made goose bumps appear on my arms. I didn’t know whether to be aroused or scared—maybe neither. Maybe both. I fidgeted with the coffee mug, bouncing slightly on the balls of my feet but not moving. The prey to his predator, too afraid to make a mistake and end up in his jaws. Too afraid not to.
But even prey had to take a chance at some point.
“Alder,” I whispered, my entire body trembling with the warring desires of safety and lust. One said to run away, the other to run toward. I couldn’t decide which instinct to follow, so I needed him to tell me. To give me some sign of what he needed. What he wanted. I set down the mug.
Alder cocked his head, probably at the plea in my voice. Watching me. Waiting for something. An animal finally off his leash. My dragon at the gates set free and hungry for me. I whimpered at the thought, and he finally broke.
“You going to get over here and love me, honey? Or am I going to have to bend you over that counter and eat your pussy nice and slow to remind you that you’re mine?”
Kristin Harte started off as a chemistry major in college but somehow ended up writing romances featuring ex-military heroes and the women who knock them to their knees…literally and figuratively. She likes drinking in the shade, snuggling under a warm blanket on a cold evening, and researching how to blow things up. Her children know nothing of what she writes, and her husband just hopes he’s not at their Chicago-ish home the day the government shows up to confront Kristin about her Google search history.
When not writing good men doing bad things, Kristin can be found writing paranormal romance as Ellis Leigh or co-writing naughty novellas as London Hale.
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