Free Bare Your Soul by Rochelle Paige Page A

anyway.”
    “Because you’re mine, Angel, and I’ll damn well do whatever it takes to keep you safe.”
    “I don’t understand what you need to protect me from,” I cried. “My father hasn’t been a part of my life in years. What could he have possibly done that would pull me into something from which I’d need rescuing.”
    He scrubbed his face with his palms before scooting further onto the mattress and turning to fully face me. “He apparently has a gambling problem. A big one,” he emphasized. “And along with his problem comes a debt to a gang of men who won’t think twice about kidnapping you and selling you to the highest bidder if it means getting the money he owes them.”
    “Holy crap,” I moaned, flopping backwards onto the mattress and tossing my arm over my face. It felt like I’d been punched in the gut or hit by a car or something. I was barely able to breathe and tears were leaking down my cheeks. When the mattress dipped next to me, I rolled towards Morgan’s body, desperate for the warmth he could provide.
    “I didn’t think it was possible to hate him any more than I already did when he abandoned my mom and me,” I mumbled into his chest. “But now I do, I really do. And it kills me to know that if she was still alive today, my mom would hate him too.”
    “With the amount of debt he managed to rack up and the people he owes, it’s pretty damn clear he has a serious problem, Angel.”
    I knew Morgan was trying to make me feel better, but it wasn’t going to work. The man I’d adored as a child was gone. It didn’t really matter why. Too much water was under that bridge already after going through my mom’s illness and death on my own. “How much does he owe?”
    “Brecken’s working to find out. Hopefully he’ll have more details for me when he gets into town in the morning. In the meantime, I’m going to need you to stick close to the house for the next few days while we figure this out.”
    “We should call the police. You can’t take care of this for me,” I cried, thinking about the danger he’d be placing himself in on my behalf.
    “I won’t be taking care of this on my own, Angel. I’ll have Brecken at my back. He was a damn fine soldier and probably the only man in the world I’d trust with your safety,” he reassured me. “If he tells me our best play is to call in the cops, then that’s what I’ll do. But if he says I should pay these guys off to get them out of your hair, I’m gonna do it and you can’t stop me.”
    I hadn’t even thought about how much this might cost him to fix if these guys wanted a human being in lieu of payment. “It’s too much, Morgan. You would have been better off if you’d never met me in the first place.”
    Morgan grasped my chin and tilted it up until I was looking directly into his eyes. “The day you walked off my stage and crawled into my lap you became mine,” he growled, pulling me more tightly against his body. “You might not have known it then, but when you opened your legs and I made you come that first time I warned you. But you opened them again and again, deepening my hold over you. Tonight, you let me take your cherry, and you did so with your eyes wide open.”
    Shaking my head, I tried to deny what we both knew to be true. It only seemed to make him more determined to get me to take back what I’d said. He rolled onto his back, taking me with him and settling me down on top of him with my legs straddling his hips.
    “You’re mine and I’ll defy anyone who tries to tell me otherwise. You included,” he growled, surging upwards and impaling me on his cock. It took a moment for me to adjust to his size as he entered me. Even though he’d just been deep inside me, it still felt like the first time.
    He lay underneath me, holding completely still. His hands clenched my hips tightly, hard enough I was certain I’d have bruises tomorrow morning. My breathing was fast as I stared down at him, trying to