Chapter 289 Chapter 289: “June,” Cole rasped, his voice thick with a dangerous mixture of pain and hope. “I p> Snap. The sharp, metallic click of the medical kit locking shut cut his words off instantly. June stood up. She did not look at his face. She turned her back
Chapter 288 Chapter 288: “Take the shirt off,” June commanded. The bitterness of a wronged wife had vanished from her voice entirely, replaced by the freezing, absolute authority of a doctor. Cole froze and turned his head to stare at her in shock. “I said take it off,” June snapped,
Chapter 287 Chapter 287: June stepped back, her eyes blazing with cold, absolute fury. A wave of clarifying rage swept through her, burning away the fear in an instant. She looked at Cole’s rabid, possessive face, then at Crawford’s cold, calculating expression, and saw them both with sudden, brutal clarity
Chapter 286 Chapter 286: The men scrambled over one another and bolted through the door as if fleeing a burning building. The heavy mahogany door clicked shut behind them. The room was completely empty now, except for Cole, Crawford, and June. The air hung thick with the nauseating smell of
Chapter 285 Chapter 285: Cole looked down at the sobbing, bleeding mass on the floor. “You think my wife provides good service, Gallagher?” Cole whispered, his voice echoing through the silent room. He snapped his fingers. The heavy mahogany door swung open, and two of Cole’s massive, heavily armed private
Chapter 284 Chapter 284: Before the fat man could even blink, Crawford’s large hand shot out and seized him by the knot of his silk tie. He yanked Gallagher violently from his chair, and with a sickening pivot of his hips, drove a devastating right hook directly into the man’s
Chapter 283 Chapter 283: His dark eyes swept the room and found Cole immediately — standing near the head of the table, his hand still locked around June’s wrist, the back of his coat steaming and destroyed. Crawford crossed the room without hurrying, pulled out a chair directly across from
Chapter 282 Chapter 282: The sheer, impossible contradiction of the moment crashed into her all at once. The man she despised to the marrow of her bones had just used his own body as a shield between her and the scalding heat. The image was so wrong and so undeniable
Chapter 281 Chapter 281: A young busboy was pushing through the kitchen doors at that same moment, carrying a massive silver tray balanced precariously on his shoulder. At the center of the tray sat a large porcelain tureen filled to the brim with the restaurant’s signature dish: boiling lobster bisque.
Chapter 280 Chapter 280: “Crawford. I need you to send me the invoice for the clothes. All of it. I’ll wire the money to your personal account tonight p> She needed to draw the line. She could not allow him to wrap her in his generosity without consequence. Crawford picked
Chapter 279 Chapter 279: His voice came through the speaker, and it sounded completely wrong. The sharp, confident tone was gone, replaced by something ragged and heavy and thick with exhaustion. “June. My grandfather had a massive heart attack three hours ago. He’s in the ICU in Los Angeles. They
Chapter 278 Chapter 278: She was immovable on the point. The clothes sitting on her skin felt weighted with an invisible debt she needed to clear. A barely perceptible tension tightened the muscles around Crawford’s eyes, but it never reached his expression. “Of course,” he said, gesturing toward the hallway
Chapter 277 Chapter 277: Crawford’s throat moved. He pulled his eyes from her and let his expression settle back into polite indifference. “Excellent,” he said, his voice a low rumble. June moved toward the front door. “The service at this hotel is remarkable. I need to stop by the desk
Chapter 276 Chapter 276: June studied the bags on the rack, her dark eyes narrowing slightly. It was difficult to believe any hotel offered this level of service at five in the morning. Then she saw the logos on the thick paper bags. Loro Piana. La Perla. Her exact preferred
Chapter 275 Chapter 275: As his fingers brushed the delicate fabric, an unbidden image surfaced without warning — June standing in his doorway in her bathrobe, the pale curve of her neck exposed in the dim light. A heavy, sudden heat moved through him. His throat went dry. He swallowed
Chapter 274 Chapter 274: A shadow detached itself from the hallway. Crawford’s personal assistant moved in with the silence of a ghost and leaned close to his ear. “Sir,” the assistant murmured. “Our personnel embedded in the hotel’s internal network just flagged an activity pattern. Ms. Erickson placed an emergency
Chapter 273 Chapter 273: “Book my jet,” she screamed into the receiver, her face a mask of ugly, naked desperation. “The earliest possible flight to Boston. Right now p> Back in the quiet hotel corridor, Cole and Crawford stood locked in a freezing silence. Crawford looked at Cole’s furious face
Chapter 272 Chapter 272: He had changed into a clean dark button-down shirt, but the aura of violence clinging to him was impossible to wash away. A faint metallic scent drifted off his skin and mixed with the cold hotel air. His eyes were entirely black, locked onto Cole with
Chapter 271 Chapter 271: A FaceTime call. Cole’s backup phone, sitting face-up on the glass coffee table, lit with an incoming call. The flash of Alycia Beasley’s perfectly contoured face on the screen hit the moment like a bucket of ice water. The jarring collision of his carefully constructed other
Chapter 270 Chapter 270: The private elevator opened directly into the Presidential Suite. Cole carried her into the massive living room, crossed to the plush velvet sofa, and lowered her down with agonizing care. He didn’t stand. He dropped to one knee, positioning his massive frame directly in front of