Page 9 of Shattered

The words tumbled from my lips before my brain had a chance to overthink, yet they felt right.Shefelt right. Everything about Jade Trumble called to me on a higher plane. So when she scrambled off of my lap, whirling around with a scowl on her gorgeous face, my fingers itched to drag her back where she belonged.

“What in the hell is wrong with you?” Her voice pitched an octave higher than usual.

“According to my ma, I’m perfect, though she may be a bit biased.”

“This isn’t the time to joke?—”

Shooting to my feet, the action stilled her rant mid-sentence. “Oh, I’m dead serious. About Ma and the proposal.”

She moved then, stomping toward an elaborate built-in bookcase I hadn’t noticed before, muttering under her breath about insufferable males. Transfixed by the way her heart-shaped ass filled out her jeans and swayed from side to side with every step, I startled when she whipped around a second time. From her exacerbated expression, along with the raised brow, I knew I’d been caught. Cocking my head to the side, there was no shame to be found when I unleashed a mile-wide grin.

“I can’t marry you, Koen.” The slump of her shoulders matched the misery in her tone.

“Why the hell not?” I shrugged, raising my hands to the side. “Wait. Don’t answer that. In fact, don’t say anything at all, just hear me out. Your parents wiped their hands of any and all responsibility years ago.”

“But don’t judges tend to favor family reunification?”

“Then let’s give Jett a family no one will want to tear apart.”

“What’s in it for you? From where I’m standing, I’m the sole beneficiary of this arrangement.”

Her question hung heavy in the air. No way was she ready to hear the truth, especially when I didn’t know how to verbalize the incessant need rolling through me to protect her and Jett without sounding like a crazed lunatic. Hell, maybe I was.

“Trust me when I say, I’ll be getting more than you canimagine.” The corners of her lips slid into a frown. “It’ll give me peace of mind?”

“Was that a question or a statement?”

“Both. Neither. Jesus, I’m fucking it all up.”

“Koen,” she sighed, dropping her head to her chest. “I didn’t have the greatest example of what a marriage should look like growing up, so excuse me if I’m not all gung-ho to jump into one based on convenience.”

“I’ll teach you. My parents…they were incredible together. They loved each other—and us—to distraction.”

“We don’t love each other though.”

Striding across the space, I came to a stop mere inches from her. “You feel this, Angel? The pull…the heat between us? I know you do. You’re as affected as I am. Know how I can tell?”

She shook her head.

“This right here.” I placed my palm over her heart, my cock swelling in my pants at the contact. “Your heart is practically beating out of your chest, same as mine.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” she whispered.

“Bullshit. It means everything.”

Jade

“It means everything.”

Twelve hours later, those three words continued to echo in my mind. Sleep, once again, had been fleeting, though it wasn’t nightmares which had me tossing and turning. It was a six-foot-four FBI agent with emerald-green eyes and sun-kissed blond hair who plagued my night.

Damn him!

Like my life wasn’t complicated enough between raising my teenage brother and figuring out which bills I couldpay each month. No, this fool had to throw my heart into the mix.

And the pull he spoke of? Yeah, I felt it too. It was like the strongest magnet known to man was tugging at my chest.

From the moment Agent Koen Banks strolled through the doors of the diner, he’d put me under some sort of spell. Avoiding him wasn’t possible, so I hid my feelings; locked them down behind an impenetrable brick wall. Problem was, Koen knew how to blast through my defenses with terrifying ease. It was unnerving.

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