Page 37 of King Of Order

The house was quiet, too hushed—until I tagged a noise.

The unmistakable sound of coffee beans being ground in the kitchen.

My heart seized.

I lived alone.

No one else had a key.

I shot up in bed, a cold sweat breaking out along my spine.

For a few panicked seconds, my mind spun in a thousand directions.

Reaching for my robe, I grabbed the first defense weapon I found.

A walking cane I’d once used to steady my legs post-rehab when my body had been too emaciated to remain standing without drugs.

Clutching it tight, I crept downstairs, my nightgown brushing against my legs.

Despite my creeping, each step landed heavy, my heart pounding louder with every creak of the floor beneath me.

By the time I reached the kitchen, I’d psyched myself up, prepared for anything—or at least, I thought I was.

Bursting through the doorway, I raised the walking stick in front of me, brandishing it, ready to fight off my intruder, enraged at the balls of someone to dare break into my home.

The sight that met my eyes stopped me cold.

At my marble Carrerra countertop was a man.

Without thinking, I rushed him, raising the cane.

I brought it down, aiming for his head.

That’s when he swiveled so fast I gasped.

A muscled, sinewed hand shot out, taking hold of the accidental weapon and jerking me close.

One hand banded behind me, the other, scorching, brutal, gripping over both my hands as they clutched the cane high above my head.

Plastering me in my night shorts and tee-wearing self to his muscled front.

My tits pressed against a ripped chest. My waist pushed pressed into lean hips and a burgeoning, unmistakably hard, male length, my legs kicking against a pair of thick thighs.

I glanced up with a sharp toss of my hair, heart wild.

To lock eyes with pale ice-blue babies.

Framed by the fuckin’ longest lashes I’d ever seen on a man.

My soul lurched, and my limbs trembled, adrenaline pumping through me.

‘Tu!’

His lips curled at my indignant cry.

‘Chiara.’

His timbred lazy drawl sent shards of traitorous delight through even as his cerulean eyes gleamed.

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