Bared: A King's Hart Novel Book 3 (BWWM)

I. Dragon Huddle

I.

Nathaniel.

Nuri Hart lay peacefully asleep in my arms. The steady rise and fall of her chest  soothed me like nothing I've ever known. There have been times when I’ve felt assured or safe, but watching her sleep does something far more unsettling. It brings me to my goddamned knees.

I haven't known her long. She barely knows me, but she lays with me like she could care less. There are those times when she pulls away from me, convinced that I didn’t really want something more than sex with her, and it frustrated me.

I am keeping secrets from her, too afraid that she might launch herself as far away from me as she could possibly get. My secrets will most likely cause me to lose her, and I’ll be damned if anyone or anything tried to get in the way of what we had.

Even my dead wife.

My fingers skimmed the smooth dark skin of her broad shoulders down to her slender arms and back up again. Burying my face into her soft curls, I waited for the goosebumps to appear. This simple reaction did so much for me, it let me know that  even in sleep she was aware  of me and responded in kind. No matter what her body was for every under my direction.

We had just come for our date night and things were going perfect. The Bayou was a lucrative business venture, and even though she warned me off, I saw much potential in that sort of swamp like venue.

She opened up about her past, revealing that she had once been a victim of domestic violence. It was hard to imagine her beautiful skin masked with bruises and cuts. No wonder she closed herself off to the world. Cassius- - as she called him needed to be dealt with.

I wanted to share my past with her as well,  she needed to know about Emma.

That was before Armand Ambrose, my old friend and trusted right hand sent me a text with video footage of Emma very much alive and well. It gutted me.

I don't want it to be true, but with every passing hour I think back and go over the night she died, and the possibility shatters any hope I'd had.

The rest of our date together was strained. I couldn't focus and wanted to leave. Nuri, being the intuitive angel that she is, agreed and here we are.

On my back, in her bed, in her studio apartment Nuri lay tucked away in my arms.

Nothing worth having comes easy. I have Nuri and now I had work to do to keep her. Men often make the mistake of falling by the wayside when the woman they've had their eyes set on falls in whatever net they placed out for them.

My father taught me better than that.

When something is yours, and I perceive Nuri belongs to me, you defend it, protect it and chop down anything threatening to take it away from you. If Emma is alive, she had better have a damn good reason or, just like my boy Cassius, she too would be dealt with.

My phone vibrated on the nightstand. Careful not wake Nuri, I reached over and swiped over the screen. It was Ambrose.

               "Here."
              12:45am

                                                   "On my way now."
                                                           12:45am

I sent a quick text back to him.

With a soft kiss to Nuri's forehead, I eased my way out from under her and quietly padded my way out of her studio to the lobby where Ambrose sat in the lounge area facing the clear building windows.