JARED (Lane Brothers Book 4) Read Free

tripping on the tip of her little tongue, I turn on my heel and walk away, hoping that some distance and fresh air will calm me down.
    How is it possible to still want her after what I just learned? But I do, and by God I will have her for myself if I have to rip this world apart to get her.
    She’s mine. I think I knew it the moment I first laid eyes on her, no matter how many times I told myself no.
    My cupcake is perfection, pure womanly perfection from the top of her deep brown tresses and golden brown eyes all the way down to her willowy curves and that full mouth.
    I’ve wanted her from that first moment and the need has only gotten that much stronger the more I got to know her. I find it adorable that she has ten stray cats that she feeds and sneaks into her bedroom, and even more adorable that she wears her underwear back to front when she’s nervous because she read somewhere that it’s good luck and she believes it.
    Everything about my helpless little cupcake is perfect for the big, strong, conqueror in me, and I fucking want her, everything else be damned. So she lied a little and got mixed up with the wrong crowd. What impressionable young woman hasn’t fallen into that trap before?
    It’s not the end of the world, not after seeing her broken little body in that alley and learning that I could very well lose her. She’s only here with me now because Pop flew in one of his surgeon buddies and the man managed to repair the bleed in one of her kidneys.
    I doubt she even knows how extensive her injuries are thanks to all the pain meds they’ve been pumping into her at my insistence, but that’s for the best right now.
    I don’t want her thinking about how close she came to death. Shit, I can’t think about it without breaking into a cold sweat and seeing spots.
    Hell, I can’t allow myself to think of any of it right now without my chest threatening to explode and free the bleeding heart thumping in its recesses.
    I’ll remember every second of racing towards her with dread and pure terror for the rest of my life.
    The car ride into the city was unbearable and I almost didn’t make it without accident, but the rest…
    To run into that alley and see a little lump of barely breathing, bloody, bruised flesh…to finally get my hands on her, only to feel her weak pulse and listen to her rattling breaths…
    That almost destroyed me to the point that I knew I could never let her go, no matter how hurt and pissed I am at her.
    She almost died.
    That thought keeps replaying in my head on an endless loop that threatens to drive me insane if I allow myself to even think it. And now here we are, almost a full twenty-four hours later. She’s not only alive, but she woke up to give me shit.
    That thought makes my lips twitch and I rub at my chest as the affectionate ache sets in. My cupcake, my precious little jewel, is with me and she’s coming up swinging just as I’ve been coaching her to do for months.
    Don’t get me wrong, I still see my girl in there with all her fear and heartache and that shyness that makes my cock so hard. Sometimes I’d have to end our calls early just to jerk off before I went nuts with need.
    But the woman I know lurks beneath the surface is the one who opened her eye and glared at me despite the danger she must have felt coming off me in waves, and I fucking love it.
    She’s not afraid. Well, not terrified, at least, of showing me some of those claws she’s been honing and it’s such a turn-on that I know I’ll have to stay away from her for a while or risk harming her if I can’t control myself.
    “Hey, man, you’re leaving Paulie alone?”
    I whip around to see Wyatt and Ellie coming my way as I step out of the hospital and breathe in the muggy air of late afternoon.
    “She’s eating and the nurse is gonna give her a sponge bath,” I say, leaning down to peck Ellie on the cheek as Wyatt lets out a low growl and frowns darkly.
    Christ, the man is a possessive ape when