Dirty Sexy Alphas (Twenty Book Box Set) - Hannah Ford Page 0,126

speeches. Words are just words. They don’t mean shit.”

I laughed. “Ain’t that the truth.”

He turned my hand over in his slowly, then ran his finger over the Band-Aid on my arm. “It stopped bleeding.”

“Yeah.” I pulled my arm away from him, uncomfortable at the closeness between us. “It’s fine.”

I pushed past him., needing to get away from his closeness. But there was nowhere to go except for the bed, and I didn’t really want to be in bed with him in the room.

But he saved me from that awkwardness by turning around and walking toward the door.

At the last moment, he turned and looked at me. “If you’re going to stay here, you have to promise to stop cutting yourself.”

“I’m only going to be here for one night,” I said.

“No, you’re not.”

“Oh, really?” I laughed. “Are you moving me in?”

“Perhaps.”

“I really don’t think my family would approve.”

“Olivia,” he said. “I know you’ve been staying at the Walnut Street shelter. I’ve called and arranged for your things to be brought here.” He said it matter-of-factly, devoid of pity or sympathy.

“What?” I scoffed. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” My voice didn’t shake. It didn’t break. I was a good liar. You have to be when your whole existence depends on it.

“Don’t bullshit a bullshitter,” he said. “I know where you’ve been staying.”

“How did you – ”

He held his hand up. “We’ll get to that. But first, I have a business proposition for you.”

END OF BOOK ONE

Part II

Addicted To Him by Hannah Ford

(Obsessed With Him, Book Two)

A business proposition?” I repeated. “Why would I want to get into business with you?”

Colt grinned. “You seemed like you wanted to get into business with me earlier.”

“Earlier?”

“When you were dancing for me.”

I swallowed, remembering the way it had felt, unbuttoning my shirt for him, the way his hands guided my hips, how heady the lust was that I’d felt, how uncontrollable. How close I came to breaking my promise to Declan.

“That was different,” I said. “That was a job.” We were both still standing up, and I wanted to sit down, but doing that seemed like some kind of admission. An admission that I wanted to be here, that Colt had some kind of power over me.

“And how is a job different than getting into business with me?” he countered. His t-shirt stretched against his broad chest and across his huge shoulders. Even in just a t-shirt and sweatpants, you could tell how built he was, how strong, how chiseled.

The pull I felt toward him was intoxicating, and also frightening. I didn’t know anything about this man -- except that he ran a strip club. Strike one. He apparently didn’t have a problem with beating people up, as evidenced by what he’d done to those two thugs on the street earlier. Strike two. He also broke into a convenience store ice machine, which, let’s face it, wasn’t that big of a deal, but it spoke to something else – he was comfortable taking other people’s property, almost like he’d done it before. Maybe a lot. Strike three.

Then he brought me, a total stranger, back to his house without asking questions, which spoke to a tendency for impulsivity. He somehow knew I was staying at the Walnut Street shelter, which made it likely he was some kind of stalker. And he didn’t seem all that concerned by the fact that he’d caught me in his bathroom cutting myself.

The red flags were blinding.

“A job is totally different,” I said. “It’s a lot different than sleeping with you for money.”

“Sleeping with me for money?” He sounded offended, like he couldn’t believe I would even think such a thing. “Who said anything about sleeping with me for money?”

“You said you wanted to get into business with me.”

“Are you in the business of sleeping with people for money?”

“No!” I said. “Why would you even say something like that?” I wondered what he would do if he knew I was a virgin, that I hadn’t even kissed a boy.

“Well.” Colt shrugged, like it was blindingly obvious why he would jump to the conclusion that I’d had experience with prostitution. “I said I had a business proposition for you, and you immediately assumed I wanted to have sex with you.” His eyes blazed when he said this last part, almost like he was amused by the idea of sleeping with me, even though he’d pretty much just propositioned me a couple of minutes ago.

“Oh, please,” I said, rolling my eyes. “You