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AVAILABLE: Tuesday, July 8th
~Editor's Pick~
For a long time, Isaac Flynn has had his eye on Lucy Rue. She was a beautiful woman, and he knew it was only a matter of time before someone else saw the gem that she was. But, he had a past, one that meant he needed to stay well clear of her.
From the moment Isaac arrived in town, Lucy had the biggest crush on him, but at the time she was just a teenager. Now, she was a full-grown woman, and having dealt with loss, she knew how short life was. She finally worked up the courage to ask him on a date, and he was the perfect gentleman.
Isaac does not talk about his past. There is no past life. He has no pictures.There is nothing. Nothing will come from his past because it is all dead. He was part of the Rostova Bratva, but when they killed his family, he turned on them. He was one of the most feared men in the whole of the Bratva, and now they’re all gone.
He wants to live a simple life. Find a wife, a woman he loves, and finally have the family his father always wanted for him. But first, he has to tell Lucy the truth. Once she knows, will she accept him, or will she walk away?
Several hours later, Lucy stared at her reflection in her en-suite bathroom. It was strange, because when she was twelve, her parents had gifted her with this very en-suite as a birthday present. She had been complaining about wanting to have her own bathroom, and they gave it to her. She was shocked, but she loved it.
Some of the girls at school had complained that her parents were pathetic for only giving her a bathroom, but Lucy was happy with what she had gotten. She was not greedy. She had felt guilty afterward, and hoped her complaining hadn’t forced their hand. Her parents had told her they had every intention of getting her an en-suite when she was ready.
Her parents were not wealthy, but they were frugal, and knowing she owned this house outright was a relief after her parents’ passing. She embraced the frugal life, never living outside her means.
And now, she was no longer a virgin.
Isaac had made love to her and had taken his time. That first moment he entered her, it had been painful. It had taken her by surprise, but she hadn’t wanted him to stop. She didn’t regret what they had done.
At the sound of his voice, she turned to find the man that had turned her world upside down, standing naked in the doorway of her en-suite.
He stepped inside, moved up behind her, and wrapped his arms around her waist. Throughout it all, he kept asking her to tell him to stop. As if she could. She had loved every second of it. The pain, not quite so much, but being in his arms, his kisses, his touch. She was addicted.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She sunk against him. “Yes, I’m fine.”
They had already taken a shower together, and Isaac had insisted on cleaning her sheets. Although, the electricity was still out, so she didn’t know what he had done with them.
Her virginity was gone.
Her stomach chose that moment to growl.
“Well, that answers what we’re doing next.” Isaac gripped her arm, spun her in a circle, and then made her follow him.
“What are you doing?” she asked, as they made their way downstairs.
“Finishing our sandwiches.”
He walked them into the kitchen, and she knew she shouldn’t be charmed by him, but she was. She loved how he took charge and forced her to sit down at the small table in the kitchen. He placed her plate in front of her, along with the bag of cheese-and-sour-cream chips she was eating. She watched as he opened the bag and poured a generous amount onto her plate. Next, he did the same with his own plate.
She looked at his endless tattoos. None of them made any sense to her. There were a couple of crosses on his back, his arms, a few skulls, what appeared to be a gravestone, along with flowers. All of his ink was in black. There was no color.
She wanted to ask him so many questions. He sat down, and they were both naked, and she couldn’t help but steal glances his way. Who was this man?
“How old are you?” Lucy asked.
He laughed. “Shouldn’t you have asked me before seducing me?”
She gasped. “I did not seduce you.”
He raised a brow, to which she rolled her eyes.
“I’m forty-five. Are you having regrets?”
“No, not at all.” She took a bite of her sandwich and added a chip into her mouth. “Have you ever been married?”
“No.”
“There’s no ex-wife or ex-girlfriend from your past?”
“None.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
She looked at him and noticed his intense stare as he looked at her. What was going through his mind? She had no idea what he was thinking.
“There is no one from my past, Lucy. I did not have a wife or a girlfriend. There was no one.”
She then remembered he had mentioned on their first date that it was also his first. “You didn’t date?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“There was no reason to date.”
This made her curious.
Isaac reached out and took her hand. “I was not a virgin with you, Lucy. I lived my life and in the past, I didn’t need to date, because women were happy to throw themselves at me without invitation.”
“Oh,” Lucy said.
“Yes, oh. There was no dating involved.”
Okay, that just made her even more curious about him.
“Lucy, my past is exactly that and is where it should be. You do not need to worry about anything, because it is all dead.”
She had a feeling he was trying to tell her something without saying the words. She couldn’t look away, so she nodded.
It was time to stop questioning him about his past. That was where it was going to stay.
