Stay by Dahlia Rose Read Free Book Online Page B

the personification of his demon.”
    “I can’t just jump into bed with you. I already feel something and shutting off my emotions is not a possibility,” Crystal said.
    “Who says you have to?” Hart asked.
    “I do because you’re…” She waved her hands around as if trying to pluck the words from the air. “Impulsive and reckless. You started a bar fight and, hell, destroyed my front office. You get your rocks off on the chase and that motorcycle of yours. My daughter and I are staying with friends because my motel got shot up and it’s a direct cause of you!”
    “Tell me how you really feel.” Hart sat back down.
    “I’m sorry…”
    He held up his hand. “No need to apologize. I’m the reckless fuck who got your motel shot up. Let’s not blame the sheriff who actually lets the assholes take over your town.”
    “You know what I mean,” Crystal said.
    “I do, actually. You got accustomed to living in fear and here I come to wrinkle the plan,” Hart said. “You know us reckless types don’t know how to care for anyone.”
    “You’re being an ass now,” Crystal pointed out.
    “One more notch on the con side when it comes to me. What’s new?” Hart muttered. “Thanks for the breakfast. Now I’ll get back to my book and you can get back to being pious.”
    He leaned back on the sofa in the same position she’d found him. He reached for a book on the floor and saw that it was a book of short stories by one of her favorite authors.
    “You read Edgar Allan Poe?” Crystal asked incredulously.
    Hart threw her a bored look. “As a matter of fact, I ready many things, including this and a few other classics by Arthur Conan Doyle. Big dumb soldier knows how to read and tie his own shoes. I can even balance my checkbook.”
    “Bite me, Hart. You are just set on misdirecting everything I say,” Crystal snapped.
    “It seems we all have the wrong ideas about each other then,” he replied and opened the book.
    Crystal felt dismissed and stepped out of the room, making sure to slam the door. A childish move, she knew, but he made her mad. Back in the kitchen she poured herself another cup of coffee and sat at the counter. Crystal flipped through a magazine aimlessly and tried to keep occupied. Unable to go to the motel to even clean up because of the impending danger meant she was stuck where she was with nothing to do. She was losing her livelihood, but it was out of her hands. She had never felt as helpless as she did now. Her thoughts went back to Hart and she felt like a complete bitch for putting everything on his shoulders. He was trying to help, to protect, and he was right, everything in Honeywell had been broken long before he got there.
    “Screw this,” she muttered and left the coffee and magazine where it was and went back the way she came.
    Crystal burst into the room without even knocking and Hart looked up in surprise. Maybe he saw the look in her eyes or could feel her intent rolling off her. But he dropped the book as she moved toward him and pulled her against his chest as she fell to her knees by the sofa. She closed her eyes as their lips met and succumbed to his bruising kiss. Hart wasn’t about play it gentle and sweet and Crystal didn’t want him to. She wasn’t about to try to restrain the man he was. She’d spent too many years trying to do that with Liam and change the leopard’s spots. Maybe it was time to accept a person for who they were and let the dice fall where they may.
    It would be imprinted in her soul forever—the sweet taste of his kiss and the smell of his aftershave as he pulled her close. She needed him and all the denying she had done did no good. Crystal never felt so complete as she did when being touched by Hart. He was rough around the edges and that made him even sexier. There was no taming him and she didn’t want to.
    “You smell so good,” she said and gave a husky laugh as she sprawled across his body. “Here I am trying to woo you with