Dark Sexy Knight (A Modern Fairytale) Read Online Free Page B

forward, watching out the passenger window as her big lug of a brother loped over to the car, his shirt stained under the arms and around the neck with big, wet patches of sweat. He hesitated at the rear door.
    “Get in, Ry. It’s okay.”
    “He’s a stranger, Ver’ty.”
    “He got us jobs. He’s a friend.”
    “Oh. He’s a friend? I didn’t know that. That’s nice.”
    “It’s real nice. You get in the back and buckle up, okay?”
    “Yeah,” he said, opening the door and hefting his body into the car. “We can take a ride from a friend, Ver’ty. That’s okay. That’s the rule.”
    “Sure is,” she said, as the light changed back to red and the driver behind them laid on the horn.
    “Fuck you!” yelled Colt, rolling down his window just enough to give the guy the finger as Verity slipped into the passenger seat and slammed her door shut.
    She pulled the seatbelt over her chest and buckled it before flashing him a ridiculously adorable smile, both dimples denting her cheeks.
    “Ready whenever you are,” she said, folding her hands on her lap like they were going for a Sunday drive, which, technically, he supposed, they were.
    “Fuck,” hissed Colt, shaking his head as the light turned green and he stepped on the gas.
    ***
    “Our friend cusses a lot,” observed Ryan from the backseat. “Lots of cussin’, lots of cussin’, lots of cussin’.”
    Verity jerked her neck around the seat to look at her brother. “That’s not nice. He’s giving us a ride so we don’t have to stand in the heat and change buses three times. You just look out the window and hush up.”
    She loved her brother. Truly, she did. But Verity had a well-documented case of lifelong bad luck. She barely had a day when one thing went right—she couldn’t bear for Ryan to spoil it when two things, a job and a ride, had actually gone her way.
    “Okay, Ver’ty,” he said glumly, his lips turning down. He lifted his eyes to the back of Colt’s head. “I’m sorry, friend. Didn’t mean no harm.”
    “That’s, uh, it’s fine,” said Colton, his eyes fixed on the road ahead.
    Ryan sighed. “Maybe I should take a little nap.”
    “That’s a real good idea. Close your eyes and rest.” Verity softened her voice and her expression. “We got those jobs, Ryan. I’m real proud of you.”
    “I’m real . . . proud of . . . you . . . Ver’ty . . .”
    He closed his eyes, and his voice drifted off as he leaned his head against the window. Watching him for a second, Verity felt a pang of guilt. She shouldn’t have snapped at him to hush up. He was right. Their new friend did cuss a lot.
    And smiled . . . well, now that she thought about it, never .
    But Verity was a good judge of character, and for all his gruff words and dark scowls, she had seen his kindness in action, and she couldn’t believe that someone as kind as Colton Lane could mean them any harm, cussing or not.
    Straightening in her seat, she faced forward again, looking at their new friend askance, and checking out his profile while he drove in silence. As she had observed when they first met, his face wasn’t conventionally handsome. His features were too blunt to be beautiful. His nose had likely been broken a time or two—it wasn’t straight, and it was slightly thicker on the right side. Square and strong, his chin jutted out a little like it dared another man to take a swing at it, and there were several scars on his face: a diagonal slash across his chin and another one, more pronounced and crescent-shaped, on his forehead over his left eye. His hair was dirty blond and shoulder-length, and there was a scruff of blond growth on his jaw. As for his eyes, they were deeply set and hooded, which made them look suspicious, though she’d seen them soften once or twice, which had made her belly tighten with an unexplained yearning.
    Her eyes slipped down to the thick muscle of his neck, then lower, to his chest, which was hidden behind a tight gray T-shirt