Page 19 of The Billionaire Who Saved My Cat From The Mafia

This isn’t like me.I hate hanging out in my house doing nothing.Andfuck, I despise TV.But here I am.Alone.My thoughts racing.Staring at moving shadows on a cutting-edge OLED screen.

With my thoughts on Boots.

Why can’t I get her out of my head?

I wasn’t even sure that part of me still worked.Sure, I’ve had women since my ex-girlfriend Harper, but they meant nothing to me, and I meant even less to them.Those women were short interludes.Physical releases.And every empty encounter was over before it got started.

But Boots?

She’s got my attention.I’m intrigued.I’m fuckingfascinated.

She matters to me, which makes absolutely no sense.I can’t put my finger on why.One thing I do know is this—her eyes are deep wells of distrust and distress.And I can’t turn away.I can’t pretend I don’t see it and I can’t just walk away when she needs—if not me inparticular—she needs somebody.

I won’t turn my back on her.

Grit and grief.Delicate strength.Boots is a woman who’s seen some shit and come out the other side.I need to know more about her.I need her to talk to me.Reveal herself to me.

I don’t even know her fucking name.

Holy shit.I nearly kissed her.I was about to grab her upper arms and yank her against me so that I could take her with my mouth.

Dammit.I toss the remote control onto the coffee table and stand.I’m done with relationships with women.No matter how hot they are.I can take them to bed, but I’ve promised myself I’ll never take anyone into my life—my heart—again.

Harper Dunn-Spence was the end of that road.

If a beautiful captain in US Naval Intelligence isn’t the right woman for me, then who the fuck is?Our minds worked the same.The sex was great.Harper’s ambition was as intense as mine.

Moreso, as I learned.

Harper did me dirty in the most spectacular way possible.She turned her back on me when I became a liability to her career.The hell of it is, I understand her logic.I really do.I understand why she felt she had to do it.

Overnight, I went from poster-boy hero to less-than-zero.What I did in the zone of combat was inexcusable.And the shitshow I found myself in afterward was more than Harper wanted to take on.

My career was already destroyed, and if she stayed with me, it would’ve destroyed her career as well.

Was she wrong?Hell yes, she was.If she meant it when she told me she loved me, then it was all kinds of wrong to leave me when I needed her most.I’d never do that to her.

If the woman I loved suddenly found herself facing the wrath of both the Pentagon and one of the most powerful political dynasties in the country, I’d stay by her side.I’d do everything possible to help her, my military career be damned.

I guess that’s the difference between us.I’m a MacLaine.Harper’s not.

Though there was a time I wanted nothing more than for her to share my family name, for her to be a MacLaine.That feeling is long gone.Dead and buried.

I had plenty of time on my hands these last few years, and I thought plenty about Harper.More than plenty.But nowadays, the memories of our life together enter and exit my mind without meaning, evaporating like smoke, leaving no mark on my heart.

Harper is old news.I moved on.

And now, suddenly, my brain is locked on Boots, the woman on the ridge.I can’t stop thinking of her.She may have the face of an angel, but that body isgyott damnsizzling.

She’s the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen in my fucking life.

The smeared mascara and wild hair are enough to put this into my brain: what she’d look like rolling out of my bed after a night of hot, intense, non-stop sex.

After I’ve shown her exactly what it feels like to be thoroughly fucked.

All right—that’s enough.

I’m up off the couch and headed for a cold shower.I reach the bathroom, turn on the overhead rainfall fixture, and wait for the flow to get icy-cold, enough to beat some sense into me.I strip and step in.There’s an initial shock to the system.