Chapter One: Bit’s Bliss

BIT'S BLISS

He’s spent a year hiding from his demons, but her innocent trust awakens his need to keep her safe.
When her father vanishes and her world crumbles, she finds safety in the arms of the one man who can protect her.
Together, they’ll uncover a web of criminal conspiracy, family secrets, and a love worth fighting for.

BIT
I’ve spent the past year recovering from an attack that nearly killed me, monitoring security feeds, and avoiding human connection. But when Eberly Warwick bids on a date with me at a charity auction, I can’t resist the pull of the innocent event planner who’s been working at Los Caballeros. Her wide-eyed trust awakens my protective instincts—and darker desires. As her father’s disappearance becomes entangled with my violent past, I must risk everything to keep her safe, even as I struggle to resist claiming her completely.

EBERLY
My perfectly planned life implodes when my wedding is called off and my father vanishes, leaving behind a mountain of debt and suspicious business dealings. The only bright spot is Trevino Avila, my silent, watchful boss, who makes me feel safer than I’ve ever been. But as I uncover layers of deception involving my ex-fiancé and criminal organizations, I must decide if I can trust Bit with not just my safety, but my heart. Between the threat of losing my family home and discovering my father’s secrets, I find myself drawn into a world of danger—and the commanding embrace of a man who demands my complete surrender.

CHAPTER ONE: BIT

My sister told me to imagine everyone in the room was naked when I stepped out onto the stage as the last man being auctioned for a date as part of the Wicked Winemakers’ Ball’s bachelor auction.

While Alex was trying to be helpful, I wasn’t as nervous as she assumed. In fact, part of me hoped no one would bid on my date. If that happened, it would be the last time she’d pressure me to do this.

As far as picturing anyone naked, there was one person in the room I wanted to imagine that way, Eberly Warwick. It would take more than two hands to count the number of reasons I shouldn’t—couldn’t—pursue anything beyond a professional relationship with her. The woman’s wide-eyed innocence meant she was hands-off due to the dark desires someone like me not only preferred but needed.

Restraining myself around her was most difficult when we worked side by side at the parties we hosted in the original winery building on my family’s property.

On her first day on her job as an event planner, I’d followed her as she looked around the space inside and out and jotted notes on a pad of paper.

“What did you write?” I asked when she stuck her pencil behind her ear and smiled.

“We’ll call it the Los Caballeros Stonehouse and Gardens.”

“We will?” I asked, taking in the sparse and mostly dead grass on every side of the building. “That might be misleading. Are you sure you don’t want to call it the old winery building?”

“Close your eyes,” she’d said.

Since, at that particular moment, I wanted her enough to willingly do whatever she asked of me, even bark like a dog, I squeezed them shut.

“Imagine the most beautiful gardens you’ve ever seen in your life.”

“Okay.”

“Where are they?”

“At the inn in Cambria.”

“Right! That’s perfect!”

I peeked through one eye, saw her writing something else on the pad, then shut it before she caught me.

“What are your favorite flowers?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Roses, I guess.”

“Also perfect. We’ll use them on the wall in the front. Then, behind the building, we’ll plant a kitchen garden, and on the side leading into the woods, we could build an enclosure and call it the secret garden. And here—”

“Eberly, can I open my eyes?”

Her simple touch on my arm sent white-hot desire coursing through my body, making me flinch.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

My eyes scrunched as I studied her. Had I imagined the way her breath caught or the flush evident on her skin? What would the sweet Eberly do if I grabbed her wrists with one hand, pushed her up against the side of the building, spread her legs, eased my other hand beneath the short dress she wore, then under the panties I’d never let her wear if she were mine, and gave her pleasure like none she’d ever known?

As if sensing my plan, Eberly walked to the opposite side of the low wall encompassing the courtyard that led to the building’s entrance. “Can you imagine this space with Eden climbers and ivy covering the stone?” she asked in a trembling voice. “Roses,” she added when I didn’t react.

“I can’t,” I responded.

“Can’t what?”

“Imagine it.” I was too unwilling to let go of the image of her clinging to me as I toyed with her drenched sex.

“Of course you can!”

I shook my head.

She’d led me inside that day, and when she told me to picture a couple dancing in this room, I repeated that I couldn’t. Not unless it was her and me, of course.

“Maybe this will help.” She stood in front of me, then put one of my arms around her waist and her hand in my other. “Twirl me around the room,” she said.

I stood in place, staring at her. Was she truly unaware of the way my aching cock yearned to be inside her?

“Okay, I’ll do it,” she said.

I was powerless to do anything but follow her lead as she spun us around and around until I felt dizzy. Halfway across the room, I took control like I always would with her. Easing the hand she’d put on her waist down slowly, I imagined how Eberly might respond if I let her see the side of me no one imagined existed.

I didn’t doubt that most, including my own family, thought the attack that almost killed me had left me permanently concussed.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, I lived in a state of high alert, seeing and hearing the slightest nuances of another person’s words, their breathing patterns, and even their subtlest movements.

When my sister asked me to come up with an idea for a date to auction, an innocent day like that one I spent with Eberly, dancing under the twinkling lights, was all I could come up with.

“Ladies, you are in for a real treat tonight. For the very first time, you can bid on a date with my brother Trevino!”

I scanned the crowd until my eyes met Eberly’s, stunned when, instead of looking away, she raised her chin and kept her gaze riveted on mine.

“Go ahead,” Alex whispered with her hand over the mic.

I stepped forward and stopped at the stage’s midpoint.

“Trevino has promised the winning bidder one of the most romantic dates we’ve ever had at the Wicked Winemakers’ Ball. First, a walk on Moonstone Beach, followed by a motorcycle ride—which, by the way, I didn’t know he had—on See Canyon Road. When you arrive at Los Caballeros, you’ll be swept away on horseback to the winery’s Stonehouse and Gardens, where you’ll enjoy a private dinner, followed by dancing under the twinkling lights.”

Eberly smiled and let her gaze drop as if she knew my intent was to recreate the day I held her in my arms and we danced.

“Okay, ladies, who wants to start us off with an opening bid of a thousand dollars?”

Eberly raised her paddle. “I’ll bid five.”

“Five?” Alex asked.

“Thousand.”

“Excellent! Let’s start bidding at five thousand. Six thousand, anyone?”

I was disappointed that while other bidders raised their paddles, Eberly didn’t, especially since she’d started it off.

“Going twice,” I heard my sister say at the same time Eberly stood.

A hush came over the room as everyone waited for her to speak. “Twenty-five thousand.”

“Sold!” Alex proclaimed without the customary countdown. “Well done, Bit,” she said, slipping her arm through mine.

She was wrong. Nothing good would come from Eberly Warwick spending that amount of time alone with me. Of having her body pressed against mine as we sped through the hills of Paso Robles on my bike, or when my cock rested between the cheeks of her ass as we rode bareback from the Los Caballeros stables to the stonehouse, where, if I allowed my fantasies to come to life, I’d feast on her body instead of the promised meal.

I shook my head, knowing I had no business going through with this. Instead, I’d cover Eberly’s bid myself, then disappear for a while, like I always did when I felt the walls that hid my true thoughts and desires lowering enough that I might permit someone, like the woman I couldn’t stop staring at, to see.

“Alex, I—” My voice froze, and every muscle in my body tensed when someone walking into the event center through a side door ripped my attention away from my bidder. He wore a tuxedo like the rest of the male guests in attendance, but I knew damned well he didn’t belong here. When he scanned the room and stopped in the direction of Eberly’s seat, my blood boiled.

“Trevino? What’s wrong?” Alex asked as I removed my arm from hers, stepped forward, and jumped from the stage. As soon as our eyes met, he hurried outside.

“Trev, what the hell’s going on?” hollered Brix, following when I rushed out the same door.

“Where the fuck did he go?” I shouted, spinning in a circle when I didn’t see him or anyone else in the parking lot.

“Where did who go?” Brix asked, gripping my shoulder.

I jerked out of his grasp. “It was him. I know it was.”

“Who?” he repeated.

It had been nearly a year to the day, but his was a face I’d never forget. “The sonuvabitch who tried to kill me.”

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