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Chapter 34: Epilogue
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The Darkest Hour Chapter 1
Long Island, The Gold CoastMacKenzie Martin rubbed her eyes, which were blurred from staring too long at her computer screen. The antique clock hanging behind her desk ticked away, and she could see the numbers reflected on the monitor. Ten minutes before eleven. It had been a really long day and she just wanted to be done with her work.Rain tapped softly against the window. Kenzie couldn't see any of Hampstead University's campus through the darkened pane. It was unusually warm for the middle of December, warm enough that she'd trudged through icy rain rather than snow to get to the campus offices. Usually the campus would be buried in snowdrifts which was typical for Long Island this time of year. All she wanted to do now was get home, take a hot bath, listen to some music, and fall into bed. But she had to finish what she'd come to do.She focused on the screen and entered the final grades into the university's online grading software. As a graduate student and teaching assis
The Darkest Hour Chapter 2
Kenzie raced for her gray Mazda in the student lot around the corner. She scrambled to dig her keys out of her pocket as she reached the car. She expected Monte or Gary to stop her at any moment, but less than a minute later she was speeding out of the lot. Glancing in the rearview mirror, she sagged in relief at the empty road behind her. No one was following her.Her hand reached for her cell phone to call the police. It took her two tries before she got 911 dialed."Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?" a cool feminine voice asked."My name is Kenzie Martin and" She froze, remembering what one of the men had said about their man in the local police department. "There's been a disturbance at the university. Someone broke into the campus offices."She hung up the phone, cursing. Then she called Royce again. This time he answered, and his gruff voice made her want to cry with relief."Kenzie, you know my policy on Saturdays. This had better be an emergency.""It is," she gasped,
The Darkest Hour Chapter 3
The scents and sounds of sex surrounded Kenzie like a dark erotic haze. She clenched Royce's hand tightly as they wove through the maze of brocaded couches and past the imposing yet elegant drink bar. Kenzie stumbled as she noticed a woman clad only in expensive-looking lingerie who lay stretched lengthwise down the bar on her back. The bartender placed a row of shot glasses on the woman's torso, then retrieved a bottle of whiskey from the back of the bar and began to pour into the glasses. Men in expensive suits watched the alcohol drip over the tops of the glasses and trickle down the woman's skin.Oh God Kenzie pictured herself as that woman, every man's gaze on her bare body as she lay there exposed, whiskey dripping down her body. Would one of the men lick it off? Taste the alcohol on her skin and lose himself in her body? A shiver rolled through Kenzie, but it wasn't one of disgust. It intrigued her in ways she didn't have words to express. She wanted to experience that. Wanted
The Darkest Hour Chapter 4
They left the club. Royce nodded at Mistress Aria and the serious-looking bouncer beside her before they walked out to the parking lot."My car," she said as they passed by the Mazda."Leave it. I'll send someone to collect it. Tonight we're taking mine." He nodded to the red-and-black Lamborghini Aventador parked in a reserved spot. Royce opened her door, and it lifted up rather than out. Wow. He'd never driven this to campus before. He noticed her eyeing him and then the car before he shut her door. The man looked far too smug at her open appreciation.Royce walked around and got into his seat to start the car. The engine had a throaty purr, like a big jungle cat."Where's your motorcycle?" she asked as she buckled herself in.Royce chuckled. "Sometimes I don't go home alone, and the women here are dressed for straddling me, not a motorcycle."The thought of straddling him made her insides quiver. Stop it. Don't think about him or sex. She'd managed to be his TA for a whole yea
The Darkest Hour Chapter 5
Royce slipped into the hall and leaned against the banister by the stairs as he struggled to get control. Tonight was going to be a huge test of his strength. Letting his sweet, innocent and incredibly smart teaching assistant sleep under his roof was going to damn near kill him, because he wanted her.There were reasons he preferred visiting the Gilded Cuff. The safety and security of a place where everyone understood the rules, and everyone was a temporary player. MacKenzie Martin was not that type of girl. She was the kind a man fell in love with and married, and he wasn't the marrying kind.Having her under his roof was like waving an expensive glass of scotch in front of an alcoholic. Just the scent of her, the feel of her hair beneath his fingers, and seeing those wide brown eyes begging for his help She was a temptation he would do almost anything to possess.He hadn't hired her based on her looks, even though she was sexy as hell. He'd chosen to hire her after a stellar phon
The Darkest Hour Chapter 6
Kenzie took a minute to enjoy this moment, even though she felt some guilt that she did. She was in Royce Devereaux's mansion in a bedroom just down the hall from him. She was staying the night in an American castle with a man who starred almost nightly in her fantasies.Keep calm, girl! She tried to remind herself not to get carried away. She was here because he wanted to protect her, not because he wanted to sleep with her.She set the pajamas down on the bed and was starting to undress when she heard the strains of an old song drift down the hallway. It was a song she recognizedDinah Washington's "This Bitter Earth." A beautiful, crooning song that was half a century old. Typical Royce. The man could wear a leather jacket, a Van Halen concert shirt, and ride a motorcycle to work yet listen to Dinah Washington. He was a complete mystery to her sometimes. It was as though he was trapped in the past and yet streaking toward the future. It confused and intrigued her, knowing that she'
The Darkest Hour Chapter 7
Kenzie had fucking fainted.Royce cursed as he caught Little Mac in his arms and lifted her up. He should have known that would have been too much for her. Hell, it had been scary as hell for him too, and he'd had training for moments like this for almost a decade. Glass crunched beneath his boots as he carried her out of the kitchen. It had been a thankfully short battle, but violent. The three men had been in the room across the hall, waiting for them to come out. He and Hans had taken positions behind the walls and managed to put one man down. Another had shot his way through the large window and escaped. The third they'd captured, but not before he had riddled the pantry with bullets.And almost killed Kenzie.Royce would never forget the moment he'd run in after that man had started spraying metal death along his kitchen wall. Knowing he'd been the one to tell Kenzie to hide there. It would be his fault if she was hurt. His fault if she was killed.But the door swung open and
The Darkest Hour Chapter 8
Kenzie kept her eyes shut tight, but she couldn't keep out the violent flashes of memory of everything that had happened tonight. The gun barrel aimed at her head back at the office, which already felt like a lifetime ago. The escape through dark and wet streets to the Gilded Cuff, uncertain if anywhere would be safe. And then the shots, the shattering glass and wood of the pantry door exploding above her.I could have died. The panic filled her with an unexpected rage, and she shook all the harder beneath the hot water."Kenzie, honey" Royce's rough voice drew her slowly out of the depths of her thoughts. She didn't look up, not at first. She was too ashamed, too mortified he was seeing her like this."Honey, please." The shower door opened, and Royce stepped in, still in his clothes, but without his boots. He knelt beside her, then eased onto the tile floor, his arm touching her bare shoulder. He reached his arm around her shoulders, holding her close to him.Kenzie watched his o
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