Putting the visor back up, she felt silly. But it was too late to change, and besides, the one thing she could guarantee about Danny Maguire was that he’d like her in whatever she was wearing. Well, actually, he preferred her naked—but considering they were in public, he would take whatever clothes she’d slapped on as they came.
She opened her door a crack, and then waited for two cars to go by before standing up on the high heels she’d bought at lunch along with the dress she had on.
Across the street, in the glow of the venerable establishment they had agreed to meet at for their date night, Danny turned and saw her.
His smile, open and easy, faded.
And his eyes widened so much, the whites became the size of dinner plates.
Clearing her throat, Anne shut her door and locked her car—and then with each stupid-ass step she took, she made herself promise she would never, ever try to be a girl again. Obviously, her mother’s advice, well intended though it had been, had missed the mark.
Stepping up onto the sidewalk, she shook her head. “Sorry. This was a dumb idea.”
Danny’s eyes went down to the stilettos, up the stockings, over the knees to the fairly short skirt and then the cape that she had swung around herself like she was Lauren frickin’ Bacall.
“Holy Mary, Mother of God . . .” he stuttered.
“I can go change—”
“No! No, don’t change! You’re . . . the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
Anne blinked. Once. Twice.
Stop being a girl, she told herself. Be a woman.
Even though it was cold, she separated the cape’s halves and flashed the dress that had been in the window of that shop at the strip mall. The thing was red, and it hugged her waist, and even dipped in between her breasts.
Danny lost the ability to talk again.
As she closed the cape back up, she started to smile. Well, looked like she was going to have to seriously thank her mother. Nancy Janice, it turned out, had skills. Mad skills.
“Your hair,” he breathed. “Can I touch it?”
“Sure.”
Danny’s hand reached up and brushed the blonded streaks. “It’s amazing. Not that it wasn’t amazing before . . .”
“Should we go inside?” she said.
“Oh, yeah, sorry, sure, please. Thank you. What was the question?”
Danny tripped over his feet as he opened the door, and Timeout’s raucous noise spilled out onto the street along with the warmth of its interior. As they entered, heads turned briefly—and then snapped right back.
The conversational din in the bar lowered.
And that was when Danny’s chest puffed out and he put his arm around her, all proud caveman. Then he escorted her through the tables like he had won the lottery, the presidential election, a Nobel Peace Prize, and the Super Bowl at the same time. Especially as they went by the 617’s booth and he nodded at Vic Rizzo.
As they came up to the 499’s table, all the men started to stand up. Duff even took off his baseball hat—and dropped it on his foot.
“Come on, it’s just a little makeup,” Anne said with a smile. “You guys need to get over yourselves.”
Danny helped her take off the cape and pulled out her chair. Then he leaned across the table and grabbed Duff’s lapels. “Your eyes stay at head level. All you guys. I see one dip below the throat, and I’m going to use you as a cue stick.”
Then he kissed her on the mouth and sat next to her, cracking his knuckles.
“Must you,” she drawled.
“Yup. Absolutely.”
And then it was drinks and it was wings, it was stories and it was jokes. It was the family she had worked with and the friends she had grown to love . . . and most of all, it was the big beautiful Irish man sitting beside her, his blue eyes shining.
Overcome with happiness, Anne stared at hm. And when he turned to her as if he wanted to know if she needed something, she put both her hands, the one that was flesh and blood and the one that was a tool, up to his face.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“For what?”
Anne tilted in and kissed him. “I haven’t been to Timeout in a very long time . . .”
Acknowledgments
* * *
There are so many people to thank in connection with this book. Over the last year, I have had the privilege of getting to observe many firemen and police officers in the course of their work. They have been unfailingly generous with their time, patient with my questions and inexperience, and incredible models of selfless heroism. In particular, I’d like to thank Captain Brian O’Neill, of the Louisville Fire Department, all of the officers of Louisville SWAT, and Sherriff’s Deputy (ret.) Theodore Mitchell.
I’d also like to thank Meg Ruley, Rebecca Scherer ,and everyone at JRA, and Lauren McKenna, Jennifer Bergstrom, and the entire family at Gallery Books and Simon & Schuster.
To Liz and Steve Berry, I can’t thank you all enough for what you have done for me, and also our Jillian Stein (and BStein for the car advice!), who is the FB guru of all FB gurus.
Team Waud, I love you all. Truly. And as always, everything I do is with love and adoration to both my family of origin and of adoption.
And to Naamah, my Writer Dog II, who works as hard as I do on my books!
About the Author
* * *
Author photograph by Jan Cobb Photography
J.R. WARD is the author of more than thirty novels, including those in her #1 New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood series. There are more than fifteen million copies of her novels in print worldwide, and they have been published in twenty-six different countries around the world. She lives in the South with her family. Visit her at Jrward.com, and on Facebook at Facebook.com/JRWardBooks.
FOR MORE ON THIS AUTHOR:
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/J-R-Ward
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SimonandSchuster.com
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Books by J.R. Ward
The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series
Dark Lover
Lover Eternal
Lover Awakened
Lover Revealed
Lover Unbound
Lover Enshrined
The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider’s Guide
Lover Avenged
Lover Mine
Lover Unleashed
Lover Reborn
Lover at Last
The King
The Shadows
The Beast
The Chosen
The Thief
The Black Dagger Legacy Series
Blood Kiss
Blood Vow
Blood Fury
The Fallen Angels Series
Covet
Crave
Envy
Rapture
Possession
Immortal
The Bourbon Kings Series
The Bourbon Kings
The Angels’ Share
Devil’s Cut
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to histor
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Copyright © 2018 by J.R. Ward
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Interior design by Davina Mock-Maniscalco
The Library of Congress has cataloged the trade paperback edition as follows:
Names: Ward, J. R., 1969- author.
Title: Consumed / J.R. Ward.
Description: First Gallery Books trade paperback edition. | New York : Gallery Books, 2018.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018013670 (print) | LCCN 2018014340 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501194924 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501194900 (paperback)
Subjects: | BISAC: FICTION / Romance / Contemporary. | FICTION / Contemporary Women. | FICTION / Romance / Suspense. | GSAFD: Romantic suspense fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3623.A73227 (ebook) | LCC PS3623.A73227 C66 2018 (print) | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018014340
ISBN 978-1-5011-9490-0
ISBN 978-1-5011-9492-4 (ebook)
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Ten Months Later
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright