A Single Glance

by W Winters

  A Single Glance

  W Winters

  Contents

  Also by W Winters

  Synopsis

  Dedication

  Prologue

  1. Jase

  2. Bethany

  3. Bethany

  4. Jase

  5. Bethany

  6. Bethany

  7. Jase

  8. Bethany

  9. Jase

  10. Bethany

  11. Jase

  12. Bethany

  13. Jase

  14. Bethany

  15. Jase

  16. Jase

  17. Bethany

  18. Jase

  19. Bethany

  20. Jase

  21. Jase

  22. Bethany

  Sneak Peek at Merciless

  Chapter 1

  About W Winters

  Also by W Winters

  Also by W Winters

  Sinful Obsessions Series:

  It’s Our Secret

  Possessive

  A Kiss to Tell

  Start Carter & Aria’s saga with Merciless, today for 99c!

  Merciless

  Heartless

  Breathless

  Endless

  Jase’s story is coming February

  A Single Glance

  Standalone Novels:

  Broken

  Forget Me Not

  Sins and Secrets Duets:

  Imperfect (Imperfect Duet book 1)

  Unforgiven (Imperfect Duet book 2)

  Damaged (Damaged Duet book 1)

  Scarred (Damaged Duet book 2)

  Willow Winters

  Standalone Novels:

  Cards of Love: Three of Swords

  Second Chance

  Knocking Boots

  Promise Me

  Burned Promises

  Forsaken, cowritten with B. B. Hamel

  Valetti Crime Family Series:

  Dirty Dom

  His Hostage

  Rough Touch

  Cuffed Kiss

  Bad Boy

  Highest Bidder Series,

  cowritten with Lauren Landish:

  Bought

  Sold

  Owned

  Given

  Bad Boy Standalones,

  cowritten with Lauren Landish:

  Inked

  Tempted

  Mr. CEO

  Happy reading and best wishes,

  W Winters xx

  Synopsis

  I saw her from across the bar.

  My bar. My city. Everything in that world belonged to me.

  She stood out from the crowd, looking like she was searching for someone to blame for her pain.

  That night, I felt the depths of my mistakes and the scars they left behind. With a single glance, I knew her touch would take it all away and I craved that more than anything.

  I knew she would be a tempting, beautiful mistake.

  One I would make again and again... even if it cost me everything.

  Dedication

  Dedicated to both TJ and Gem. In no particular order.

  Your love for my books and these characters knows no bounds. You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear you guys fighting over who licked Jase first. I love you both… and I’m staying out of this one!

  MUAH!

  Prologue

  Bethany

  I’ve learned to love the cold. To love the heat that comes after. To love his touch. Whatever bit of it he’ll give me.

  Only when we’re in this room though. Outside of it, he’s still my enemy. And I’ll never forget that. But when I’m tied down and waiting for him to use me as he wishes… I live for these moments.

  The edge of the knife drags down my body, the blade running along my bare skin and taking the peach fuzz from every inch of me. It doesn’t cause pain, but it leaves a sensitive trail that awakens every nerve ending it passes. Making me feel alive, so desperate and so conscious of how good it feels to long for something.

  The knife travels down my collarbone carefully, meticulously, leaving a chill in the air that dares me to shiver as the sharp knife glides lower, down to the small mounds of my breasts. It’s so cold when he’s not hovering over me. The icy bite of the air alone has never brought pleasure, but knowing what’s to come, the draft is nearly an aphrodisiac.

  All the heat I need is buried between my legs, waiting for him to move the knife lower, bringing with it his hands, his breath… his lips.

  The desire stirs deep in my belly, then lower still. With my legs spread just slightly, my thighs remain touching at the very top, closest to my most bared asset. The temperature in the room is low, low enough to turn my nipples to hardened peaks. Sometimes he drags the tip of his knife up to the top of my nipples, teasing me, and when he does this time, I let my head fall back, feeling the pleasure build inside of me. The smallest touches bring the largest thrills.

  He tortures me just like this; he has for weeks. At one point, it did feel like suffering, but I crave it now. Every piece of it. I only feel lust when I think about being at his mercy.

  “I love you naked on this bench.” Jase’s deep voice is so low, I barely hear him. But I feel his warm breath along my belly as he moves his tongue to run right where the blade has just been.

  He does this first every time, teasing me with the knife, shaving any trace of hair before moving on. He always takes his time, and part of me thinks it’s because he doesn’t want this to end either. Once the flames have all flickered out and darkness sets in, and the loud click of the locks in the barren room signal it’s over, that’s when reality comes rushing back.

  The war. The drugs. All of the lies that leave a tangled web for me to get lost in.

  I don’t want any of it.

  I want to swallow, the need is there, but I know to wait until the blade is lifted, leaving me cold and begging for it back on my skin. Teasing me. It’s only once he pulls it back that I dare to swallow the lump in my throat and turn my head on the thick wooden bench to look at him.

  Jase Cross.

  My enemy. And yet, the only person I trust.

  Fear used to consume me in these moments, but as the rough rope digs into my wrists, not an ounce of it exists. His dark eyes flicker, mirroring the flames of the fireplace lining the back wall of the room.

  My gaze lingers as he swallows too, highlighting the stubble that travels from his throat up to his sharp jawline. That dip in his neck begs me to kiss him. Right there, right in that dip, as if he’s vulnerable there.

  With broad shoulders and a smoldering look in his dark eyes, Jase is a man born to be powerful. His muscles rippling in the fire’s light as he looks down at me force my heart to flicker as well.

  The gold flecks in his irises spark, and I’m lost in a trance. So much so that I freely admit what I never have before as I say, “I love it too.”

  I swear I see the hint of a smile tugging the corners of his lips up, but it’s gone before I’m certain.

  I shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t have given him more power than he already has.

  Jase Cross will be my downfall.

  Jase

  One month earlier

  It’s a sloppy mistake. I never make a mistake like this. Never. Yet, staring at the bit of blood still drying on my oxfords, I know I’ve made a mistake that could have cost me everything.

  And it’s all because of her. She’s a distraction. A distraction I can’t afford.

  The thick laces run along my fingertips as I untie them, and as I do, a bit of blood stains my fingers. Pausing, I contemplate everything that could have happened if I hadn’t seen it just now. I rub the blood between my fingers, then wipe it off with a napkin from my desk. Car
efully, I slip off my shoes, shoving the napkin inside of one before grabbing a new pair from behind my desk and putting them on.

  The pair with evidence of my latest venture will meet the incinerator before I leave my bar, The Red Room, tonight. Where all evidence is meant to be left.

  “What do you think?” Seth asks me, and I turn my attention back to him. Back to the monitors.

  She’s gorgeous. That’s what I think. With deep hazel eyes filled with a wild fire and full lips I’d silence easily with my own, even if she’s screaming on the security footage, she’s nothing but stunning.

  Her anger is beautiful.

  The bar and crowd would normally take my attention away from her, but I was there that night and I only saw her. The patrons from last week get in the way of seeing her clearly on the security footage though. I can barely make out her curves… but I do. Even if I can’t fully see them here, I remember them. I remember everything about her.

  If I hadn’t been with my brother at the time and in a situation I couldn’t leave, I would have been the one to go to her. Instead, I had Seth throw her out. No one was to harm her, which isn’t the best example to set, but I wanted to tempt her to come back. I needed to see her again. If for nothing more than to serve as a beautiful distraction.

  Running my thumb over the fleshy pads of my fingertips, I lean back in the chair, crossing my ankles under my desk and letting my gaze roam over every bit of her as he leads her out.

  My voice is low, but calm as I comment, “She’s different here than she is in the file.”

  “Anger will do that. She lost her fucking mind coming into your bar talking about calling the cops.”

  Although my lips kick up into an asymmetric smile, a heaviness weighs down on me. There’s too much shit going on right now for us to handle any more trouble.

  She’s a mistake waiting to happen. A delicate disaster in the making.

  “How many days ago was this?” I ask, not remembering since the days have melded together in the hell that this past week was.

  “Eight days; she hasn’t come back.”

  “What do you want me to do?” Seth asks when I don’t respond.

  “Show me the footage again.”

  He’s my head of security at The Red Room, and over the years I’ve come to trust him. Although, not enough to tell him what I really want from her. How seeing her defy the unspoken rules of this world, seeing her slander my name, curse it and dare me to do anything to stop her… I’m harder than I’ve been in a long fucking time.

  “She’s irate about her sister,” Seth murmurs as the screen rewinds, then plays the footage of her parking her car, storming into the place, and demanding answers from a barkeep who doesn’t know shit.

  None of them could have given her the answer she wants.

  I recognize every movement. The sharpness of her stride, the way her throat tenses before she even says a damn thing. I bet she can feel each of her words sitting on the tip of her tongue, threatening to silence her before she’s even begun.

  Even still, I find her beautiful. There is beauty in everything about what she did and how she feels.

  “She lost her fucking mind,” he mutters, watching along with me.

  Seth is missing something though, because he doesn’t know what I know. He doesn’t see it like I do.

  She’s not just angry; she’s lonely. And more than that, she’s scared.

  I know all about that.

  The days go by so slowly when you’re lonely. They drag on and bring you with them, exaggerating each second, each tick of the clock and making you wonder what it’s all worth.

  I can’t deny the ambition, the desire for more. There’s always more. More money, more power, more to conquer. And with it more enemies and more distrust.

  It’s a predictable life, even amidst the chaos.

  “I can understand why she’s looking for someone to blame.” I pause to move my gaze from the screen to Seth, and wait for him to look back at me. “But why us?” I ask him, emphasizing each word.

  He shakes his head as he skims through the file he’s holding, an autopsy report and photographs of a body catching my eye in particular, although you can barely tell that’s what she was after washing up on shore. Dental records were needed to identify her, the poor woman.

  “She thinks you and your brothers are responsible.”

  “No shit,” I answer him, waiting for his attention before adding, “but why would she think that?”

  Again he shakes his head. “There’s nothing here that would lead her to that conclusion. We didn’t touch the girl. Her sister wasn’t a threat to anything that we know of.”

  My fingers rap on the desk as I think about Jennifer, the girl who died so tragically. I met her once, and I can imagine she got into far more trouble than she could handle.

  “I’ll figure it out, Boss,” Seth tells me and I immediately answer, “Don’t go to her.”

  His brow raises, but he’s quick to fix the display of shock. “Of course,” he replies.

  “I’m arranging to see her shortly. Dig up everything you can on her and on her sister’s death.”

  “Will do,” Seth says as he slips the papers back into the folder and then glances at the monitors once again. The paused image of Beth shows her leaning across the bar midscream, demanding answers. Answers I don’t have for her. Answers she may never get.

  “The other reason I wanted to see you… I have those papers you wanted,” Seth says, interrupting my thoughts.

  “What papers?”

  “The ones about your brother.”

  My brother.

  There’s always someone to fight. Someone to blame.

  It never stops.

  Bethany

  Bethany

  People mourn differently. My mother would turn in her grave if she knew I went to work last night instead of going to my sister’s funeral. My sister, Jennifer, was the only family I had left.

  And instead of watching Jenny be put in the ground, beside my mother who’s been there for a decade, I worked.

  Yes, my mother would turn in her grave if she knew.

  But that’s because my mother had never been able to stand on her own two feet whenever there was a loss, or any day of the week, really. Let alone take on a sixteen-hour shift to avoid the burial of a loved one. The last loved one I had.

  As I let out a flat sigh, remembering how she used to handle things, I watch my warm breath turn to fog. It’s not even late, but the sun has set and the dark winter night feels appropriate if nothing else.

  The laughter coming from inside my house doesn’t though.

  My heart twists with a pain I loathe. Laughter. On a night like tonight.

  Gripping the door handle a little harder than I need to, I prepare myself for what’s on the other side.

  Distant relatives chattering in the corner, and the smell of every casserole known to man invade my senses.

  The warmth is welcoming as I close the door behind me without looking, only staring straight ahead.

  Even as I lean my back against the cold door, no one sees me. No one stops their unremarkable conversations to spare me a glance. Bottles clink to my right and I turn just in time to see a group of my sister’s friends toasting as they throw back whatever clear liquor is in their glasses. My glasses.

  With a deep breath, I push off the door. Focusing on the sound of my coat rustling as I pull it off, I barely make eye contact with an aunt I haven’t seen in years.

  “My poor dear,” she says, and I notice how her lips purse even while she’s speaking. With a wine glass held away from her, she gives me a one-armed hug. “I’m so sorry,” she whispers.

  Everyone is so, so sorry.

  Offering her a weak smile, and somehow not voicing every angry thought that threatens to strangle me, I answer back, “Thank you.”

  Her gaze drifts down to my boots, still covered with a light dusting of snow and then travels back up to my eyes. “Did you just get
done with work?”

  I lie. “Yes. Did the scrubs give it away?” The small joke eases the tension as she grips my shoulder. This isn’t the first time I’ve ventured to the bar before coming home. Although, this is the first time the house isn’t empty. And it’s the first time I’ve felt I truly needed a drink. I need something to numb… all of this.

  “Would you like a drink?” she offers me and then tells a group of people I’ve never met goodbye as they make their way out of my house.

  “How about some red wine. A nightcap, since it’s almost over?”

  It’s. Is she referring to the evening? Or the wake?

  The tight smile on my face widens and I tell her, “I’d like that.” My gaze wanders to the living room and I spitefully think that I’d like the four-year-old rummaging through the drawer of my coffee table to get out. They can all get out.

  That thin smile still lingers on my lips when she brings me a glass and I nod a thanks, although I don’t drink it. Not because I don’t need one, but purely out of spite.

  “Did the caterers bring everything?” I ask her politely, nodding a hello at a few family members who offer a pathetic wave in return. My mother was the black sheep of the family. Because of that, I couldn’t name half of the people in here even though I recognize their faces. She got a divorce when my dad skipped out on us, and the family essentially divorced her for not “trying harder” in her marriage.