Page 27 of Taking Denver

The memory shatters the heat. I shove him back and zip my shorts, my heart racing as I cross to the far side of the room. Distance. I need distance from the fucking devil. “No, I can’t.”

I don’t need to look his way to know his rage has bubbled over.

“No more fucking games. Pack your things. We’re leaving.” He gets his belongings and heads for the door.

I want to throw things, hit him, fight him, tell him I’m not his to command. But that isn’t how you work Ranger Luxe.

“Wait.” I rush to him. “Just give me these ten days. Please. Then I promise I’ll come home.”

“No.”

“Ranger,please,” I say, gripping his shirt. “Ten days. I won’t change my flight. I won’t run. I won’t hide. Ten days, and I’ll come home.” I know what I have to say next, words that will please and weaken him. Words that a small, stupid part of me wants to say. “Ten days, and I’ll come back to you.”

Through the fog of rage, I see a flicker I’d seen the day I’d walked into his house, alone, twenty-one, and desperate for someone to hold onto. I’d lost everything, and he’d given mestructure. He’d molded me, built me, and that flicker had always been there—the need for me to love him as he loved me.

If only he knew.

“Ten days, then you come home,” he says. “And you’re mine.” I nod, and he takes my chin in his hand. “Say it.”

“Ten days, and I’m yours.”

His gaze drops to my lips, but he doesn’t kiss me again. Instead, a thud sounds as he drops his bag.

“Then I hope that bed is big enough for me.”

I almost choke as he heads back into the room. “What? You’re staying?”

“For tonight, yes. I wouldn’t leave the island until the hotel was checked anyway.” He loosens his tie, and after he tosses it aside, he opens the top button of his shirt.

“What are you doing?” I press my back into the door, the giddy throb returning to my core. I watch his fingers, thick and strong, as they deftly flick open each button, revealing golden skin beneath.

“Showering.”

He disappears into the bedroom, and I finally breathe.

Chapter 10

Ethan

“IknewI recognized her!” Ace whispers across the table as I watch Denver walk away. She climbs into the back of a sleek, black limo car, and the man Ace had called Ranger follows.

The rest of the restaurant slowly returns to their conversations, whispered confusion and excitement rising around us.

I run a hand down my face, terror mounting inside of me. “I shouldn’t have let her leave.”

“You think you could stop her?” Ace asks. “Do you know who that guy is?”

No, I have no idea, and I don’t fucking care. He’s clearly dangerous and has some kind of hold over Denver, and I don’t like it.

“How doyouknow who he is?” Sebastian asks.

“I listen to true crime,” Ace says, shrugging.

Zeke swats his arm. “Fucking tell us, then.”

“Ranger Luxe is a gangster,” Ace says, glancing around as the words leave his mouth. “Drugs, guns, everything. He isn’t someone you mess with.”

My throat is dry, but I’m not sure I can stomach drinking to quench it. All I can picture is how Denver had looked at Ranger, a mixture of fear and frustration in her expression. “How is Denver involved with him?”

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