Nobela ni Majestique

HunterI couldn’t sleep.And I was exhausted.My body felt like it had been beaten with a hockey stick, and my eyes burned every time I blinked. But apparently none of that mattered to the universe because Travis and half the fucking team had decided that midnight was the perfect time to hold a video game tournament downstairs.“Pass the ball!”“I’m trying!”“You’re shit!”“Shut the fuck up!”A roar of laughter followed.I buried my face in my pillow.Five seconds later, somebody downstairs screamed.I threw the pillow across the room and sat up. “Jesus Christ.”For someone who claimed to value discipline and routine, Travis Moore had absolutely no problem turning the house into a frat house when his friends were around.The irony wasn’t lost on me.Even Michael being in the house didn’t bother me as much as the noise did.Michael Moore made me uneasy. There was something about the man that made me feel like I was constantly being evaluated, even when he wasn’t looking at me. Maybe it

HunterSomething was wrong.I couldn’t put my finger on it at first.I sat at the end of the bench, elbows resting on my knees, watching the scrimmage unfold in front of me. Neal had the puck, skating hard down the right side while Travis cut toward the net.It should have been easy.But then Neal passed and Travis... missed it completely.The puck sailed past his stick and slammed against the boards.“Fuck!” Neal shouted.Travis spun around. “My bad.”Neal stared at him. “Your bad?”Travis didn’t answer.The play reset.I frowned.Maybe it was a fluke.Five minutes later, Neal sent another pass toward Travis. He moved too early and the puck slipped behind him. It was definitely not a fluke I decided as I watched another missed opportunity.Then another. And another.I leaned back against the bench, wondering what the hell was wrong.Travis Moore had been playing hockey long enough that he could probably anticipate a teammate’s movement before the guy even knew he was going to move. E

Hunter"I should take care of that for you." Travis broke the silence.I shot him a look and he motioned at my obvious hard on. I shook my head and lifted myself to my feet, knowing my knees were going to pay later for staying on the hard bathroom floor."Rain check.""Looks like it hurts." He argued.A smile tugged on my mouth. "You sound desperate to get my dick in your mouth, brother."His jaw clenched. "Whatever." And then he turned around and adjusted the temperature of the shower spray until icy droplets rained down on us.Shaking the water out of my face, I stepped back, then chucked my clothes. "Wait a few before coming out."And then I gathered my soaked clothes, grabbed my towel that i had stowed earlier and walked away.I pushed through the locker-room door with my towel slung around my neck, my hair still damp, and forced myself to walk like my heart wasn’t trying to punch its way through my ribs.I needed a minute.Just one minute before Travis followed me.Before I had t

TravisThe locker room was empty by the time I reached it.I should have been relieved. Instead, I felt strangely restless.I tossed my racket into my locker and dragged a hand through my damp hair. The game had left me sweaty and exhausted, but somehow my mind was still running.Mostly because I knew that any second Hunter would walk in.Right on cue, I heard the door click open. I glanced toward the doorway and met his dark gaze on me. A shiver worked it's way through me.Slowly, he leaned against the frame, eyes never leaving mine.Neither of us spoke.The silence stretched until it became almost unbearable, becoming a thrum under my skin, an itch I couldn't scratch. I was the first to tear my gaze away.I grabbed my towel and headed toward the showers.At the entrance, I looked over my shoulder.“You coming?” the words were a croak.Hunter didn’t answer. His mouth parted slightly, but whatever he wanted to say seemed to disappear before it reached his lips.I turned away.A moment

TravisThere were few things more irritating than losing. Losing to Hunter was apparently one of them.“Forty-love!” Mr. Pritchett’s shout was followed by a burst of laughter from across the court.I gripped the racket tighter.“This is getting embarrassing,” Pritchett called. “Aren’t you even going to try to lose to butter me up for that investment?”My father laughed. “You wouldn’t respect me if I did that.”“True enough.”Hunter grinned, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet.I glared at him.He caught my stare. “What?”“You’re enjoying this too much.”His grin widened. “Maybe you’re just bad at tennis.”I scoffed. “I’m not bad.”“You’ve missed three serves.”“Because you keep distracting me.”He raised an eyebrow. “That’s my fault too? Maybe it's a good thing I'm being benched for the rest of the season after all."The game resumed, and he made his way back to his position across the court. My father served and I moved fast, slamming it back over the net. Hunter moved first.

Hunter Travis dumped me as soon as we arrived at the club, disappearing with some guy that had on a $16,000 dollar watch and a haircut that I was sure cost too much. I glanced around, hands in my pocket, trying to appear more confident than I felt. I thought about tailing Travis just to annoy him, but decided against it. If he wanted to act like a petulant teen, he could be my guest. We weren't friends, and the more distance I put between us, the better for me. At least until I could figure out how exactly I planned to get him to spill the passcode. With a sigh, I made my way through the club, taking in the lay of the land. Everywhere I turned, there was yet another preppy looking asshole. The total networth here could buy a small country, I was sure. Conversations fluttered around, and I heard the words boat, yacht and beach house more times than I cared to count. Just as I made up my mind to find a receptionist or something, someone tapped me from behind. I whirled around to

Nina"Where do you think the laptop is?""Nina_""I mean, If it wasn't in the car and wasn't at Miriam webster's house, then maybe she secured it somewhere else cause she knew she wasn't safe." My brain raced with thought after thought. "A storage compartment under a fake name or a bank.""Nina_""There has to be something that points us to the location of the_""Nina, enough." Paul sighed.My head snapped to the side, surprised at his exasperated tone. He shook his head with a small smile."I understand that you want to find that laptop_""I need to find it, there's a difference." I corrected. "It could be the key to everything. If it has a full evidence of all the Intel she's gathered over the years, then we can finally have the smoke syndicate and Santiago in the bag. All of this will be over?""Then what?"I blinked at him. "Excuse me."He shrugged. "Have you ever thought of what will be next? After you take Santiago down and find your sister. What next?"The truth was that I hadn

Raffaele Her taste lingered on my mouth, and it was all I could do not to walk right into that station and reacquaint myself with the taste of her. What the hell had I allowed to happen?Why had I kissed her? I had gone after her to warn her. To threaten her. To make sure she never went near The Sprawl again.Instead, I’d hunted her through the dark and kissed her like a man with nothing left to lose.The moment I had her trapped in my hold, all civility went out the door, replaced by something that was pure animal, pure instinct. Something that made me want to break her down to the bone and rebuild her where she belonged, under my hand.It was... I didn't have a word for it. I had never been the sort of person to lose control. Years of always following a clear plot and that fucking cop had come and blew everything to smithereens. What was so special about her? She wasn't my usual type, she was too abrasive, too sharp, too short. Too everything. "Mr. Santiago." I blinked back

Nina An explosion rocked through me, blowing my senses into dust. The realization that Santiago was kissing me was pushed into a distant part of my brain by the heat of his mouth. I made a sound of protest in my throat, but his fingers only tightened on my jaw, tongue teasing against the seams of my mouth till I had no choice but to open for him. Why was he doing this? Why did it feel so good? Was this some sort of punishment? Instead of trying to fight him off, my traitorous body gave in. A moan rumbled in my chest and his hand around my wrist tightened, sending pain shooting through my shoulders at the angle they were held in. But still, nothing mattered but the feel of his mouth on mine. Santiago's tongue swept into my mouth, dragging over mine and coaxing it into action. My knees had turned to jelly, and the only thing holding me upright was his hold on me. It had been over a year since I had had a man's mouth on me, but every other encounter I had ever had pal

NinaI knew I was toast the moment I ran, but the only other option was staying right there and everything inside of me protested at the thought of obeying Santiago. And so I ran. My breath came out short and fast as I pushed through overgrown grass, muscles pumping as I pushed my body as hard as I could. I didn't have any clear destination, and there was probably nothing for miles, and yet I kept on running. Panic gripped me like a vice, squeezing my chest tight as I heard grasses ruffling a distance away. He was coming for me. "Run, Nina." His dark voice drawled behind me, faint enough that I knew he wasn't close, but still, chills still raced up my spine. He can't harm you, a voice in my head pointed out. I ignored it. This wasn't about Santiago hurting me. It was about power, defiance, that dangerous thing that I'd been dancing around since the moment I ran into him at the warehouse. It was about the glint in his eyes when he looked at me, the way his fingers had curled te

Rafael"And then she fell off the fire escape." Tony concluded his report. By then, my jaw was already clenched so tight that it was a miracle my teeth hadn't cracked and shattered. Trading guns and drugs while trying to keep up the facade of the perfect, philanthropic business man was nothing compared to trying to keep that foolhardy cop out of harm's way. For the millionth time, I asked myself why I even cared. It would be far easier to sit back and watch her dig her own grave. By the look of things, she was already half way done with the digging anyway. So why had I hired someone to babysit her? Tony's skills were costing me a pretty penny and he was probably confused as to why he was being made to watch over an FBI agent. He was a top rated and sought after mercenary, not a bodyguard. "Is that all?" I asked. He shrugged, looking bored. "The police spoke to her, combed through her building and my location on the rooftop across from hers." "Good. Continue trailing her." I sai

Nina "I can't believe Paul let you go there!" My best friend hissed over the phone as I trudged home from work the night after our near death experience at The Sprawl. "Let me?" I scoffed. "I don't need Paul's permission. I'm a full grown_" "Don't you dare say adult, because no self preservating adult in their right senses would go anywhere within a ten mile radius of that place." Katy spat out the last word like calling it a place was an affront on it's own. I cursed myself silently for even letting it slip that I had gone to The Sprawl. In my defense, Katy was as persuasive as they came. She was a living lie detector. I had tried to steer the conversation in a million different directions but she had kept on pressing till the truth had come tumbling out. "Katy_""I don't even want to talk to you right now." She cut me off with a growl."I needed to get answers." I sighed. "You could have died there. And I wouldn't have had any idea where to even recover your body from." She ma

CASSIE "The Tight what?" I asked, looking over my shoulder in confusion. My father pushed me out of the way and stepped closer to Liam, eyes shining with delight, "Liam Copeland in the flesh?" What the hell was going on? "I've been following your career since your college days and I always knew you'd be something. Your last game against the Texas Bears was a thing of beauty and_" my father trailed off, "Wait a damn minute, what are you doing at my front door?" Liam turned his brown, unreadable eyes at me, threw his arm over my shoulder and hurled me into his side, "You're going to have to ask my lovely wife." I narrowed my eyes at him in suspicion, but before I could ask him what he was playing at, my father let out a gasp. "Cassie? Tell me this is a dream and you're not actually married to the best hockey player of the twenty first century." Dad said, looking like he was going to pass out any moment from now. Everything suddenly began to make sense. From the

CASSIE "I can't believe you're doing this," Jeanne said over the phone as I paced at the airport to keep myself warm, "I know I've dragged you into a number of crazy things, but this has to be the craziest." I let out a breath, "Tell me about it. I don't even know anything about him except from his name. What if he doesn't show up?" "Then you'll tell everyone the plane crashed and your husband was lost in the accident." I giggled, "And what will I say when they asked how I survived?" "Surprise surprise, you had a parachute in your bag!" She gasped, causing me to laugh even louder. Just then a voice announcing that the flight to Louisiana was now boarding sounded across the airport. That was supposed to be our flight and there was still no sign of Liam. I didn't have his number or anyway to reach him, I was doomed. "It seems I'm going to have to use the excuse that my husband died in a plane crash after all." I sighed. "Not even married up to five months and yo

CASSIE "What?!" I barked when I finally managed to raise my jaw from the floor, "I'm sorry, but I think I heard you wrong. Did you just say I'm your wife?" The man's brown eyes hardened, and he pulled out a document from the inside pocket of his leather jacket, "Here." I hesitated, "What's that?" "It's a marriage document signed by Cassandra Love and I. If I'm not mistaken, you're Cassandra." There was something vaguely familiar about the man, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Which was weird as hell though. How could I ever forget such a gorgeous man? I racked through my memories and came up empty. Slowly, I reached for the document and unfolded it. My bestfriend hurried forward to read through it with me. "What in the name of craziness is this?" She whispered to me. My gaze jumped down to where my signature was scrawled boldly on a dotted line and then the date. Cold washed all over me and I went statue still as memories of that night suddenly assaulted me.

CASSIE THREE MONTHS LATER "Cas, your mum's calling again," Jeanne called out to me. "Damn it," I hurried into our shared office and grabbed my phone, "Hey mum." "I've been calling you all day," my mother grumbled, "The reason you have a phone is for communication darling. If you aren't going to pick your calls, we may as well start sending you post letters." "Did you need something or is dad not around for you to nag?" I teased. "I don't nag." She snapped, "Anyway, I was calling to ask you what day we are expecting you. Gabriel and Mia have already confirmed that they'll be arriving on the eighteenth." My heart skipped a beat and I swallowed, "Uh, expecting me where?" "Home for Christmas." She emphasized slowly. I licked my lips, while my stomach clenched uncomfortably, "Actually, I'm too cramped with work to celebrate Christmas this year." "I called Jeannie yesterday and she was kind enough to inform me that you're closing for the holidays soon," she hu

ASSIE "If anyone has a reason why these two shouldn't be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace," the priest said. "I do!" The large double doors of the church suddenly burst open, revealing my sister. "Mia?" I asked in confusion, wondering what was going on. My younger sister was supposed to be my chief bridesmaid, but at the last moment, she had informed me about an emergency that would keep her out of town on my wedding day. Her sudden presence at the church made no sense at all. Or maybe it was a surprise for me. My mouth began to curve into a pleased smile. "Gabe, I love you!" She declared, and my smile froze on my face. "W-what?" I stammered, but she ignored me, her blue eyed gaze locked on my groom. As she began to march down the hall, camera flashes started going off. "I love you, Gabe and I know you love me too. I'm tired of keeping this thing between us hidden like a dirty little secret," she began to walk toward the altar, "And