Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 38973 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 195(@200wpm)___ 156(@250wpm)___ 130(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38973 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 195(@200wpm)___ 156(@250wpm)___ 130(@300wpm)
I swore, he was treating this shit like a fucking game. I was pretty sure he was creating traps because it was fun—not because he was truly worried someone might find out where I was. Even Gunner wasn’t worried. And if he wasn’t worried, then I wasn’t either.
Shaw laughed, which only made me scowl. Gunner happened to look up at that moment, and he frowned at me. I pointed to my phone. He nodded, showing he understood it was just one of my brothers, then grabbed another log, standing it up so he could murder it into two pieces.
“He’s worried about you,” Shaw told me.
I scoffed. “Like fuck.”
What Shaw didn’t know though was that Jax and I were… kind of close. We’d always been close, but not in the way we were now. He’d been helping me a lot. And now, as long as I was facing him, he could touch me without me freaking out and having a panic attack or spiraling. Blakely didn’t have those privileges yet, but she assured me she was fine with that and just loved being able to witness my progress with Jax.
“Shaw!” Amaliya screeched in the background. I winced, pulling my phone from my ear a little. “Where the fuck is my phone?!” she yelled, sounding much closer.
“You were being a brat this morning,” he told her, his voice eerily calm. I swore Shaw never lost his shit. How he was always this chill kind of freaked me out. “I warned you I’d treat you like a child if you wanted to act like one.”
“You’re a dick,” she snapped. “I’m calling my dad.”
“With what phone?” he taunted her.
She screeched before I heard her literally stomp off. Shaw sighed. “I need to go… deal with her. Call if you need anything.”
I rolled my eyes. “As if you won’t end up calling me before then.”
“Jesus Christ,” Shaw muttered. “Go be a brat to someone else, Ace. I already have one here to deal with.” I snickered. “Love you, kid.”
I hummed. “Love you, too, Shaw.”
I ended the call, then forced myself away from the window. Jax was toeing his boots off by the front door when I spun around, and I grinned. “Just the man I was going to go looking for.”
He arched a brow at me. “Should I be concerned?” Blakely snickered from the recliner, where she was curled up with a book that had two men and a half-naked woman on the cover. No doubt, it was ninety percent smut and ten percent plot.
“No. I just need your help,” I told him.
His other eyebrow came up to meet the first one. “With what, exactly?” he asked, sounding a bit cautious.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out one of Gunner’s rings. I’d checked last night to make sure it fit him still, pretending to just play with his fingers. Wasn’t like it was unusual for me. I was obsessed with constantly touching Gunner. I handed it to Jax. “Can you make a ring this size? You’ve been whittling wood for the past few weeks, and I want a ring for Gunner.”
Jax stared at the ring in his palm for a moment before looking at me. “It’s not going to be pretty, kid. I’m still rough at this shit.”
I shrugged. “I don’t care. I can’t go into a city and buy him one. So, I need you to make it. You can sand down the edges or something. I don’t know. But I need a ring for him.” I drew in a deep breath. “Please,” I tacked on.
Jax snorted. “That sounded painful to say.” I glared at him. He pushed the ring into his pocket, nodding at me. “Yeah, kid. Just give me a few days to get it done.” He patted my shoulder before striding past me, heading for the kitchen.
Blakely smiled at me, her book lowered to her lap. “Going to ask him to marry you?” she asked.
I nodded, a small smile tilting my lips. “I want him bound to me in every way I can make possible.”
“Just buy a chain, a lock, and a key,” Jax called from the kitchen.
I snorted. “Not everybody is into bondage, asshole.”
Blakely’s cheeks burned red. I snickered and headed upstairs, intent on soaking in a hot bath until Gunner was done being a backwoods mountain man.
Gunner slipped out the back door just as Jax was coming inside. He shuddered when the heat inside the cabin washed over him, toeing out of his boots so he didn’t track snow all over the floors Blakely and I had just cleaned. I hated cleaning with a passion, but Blakely had roped me in, insisting if I wasn’t going to do anything outside, I needed to help inside. And Gunner had, of course, backed her up, leaving me no choice but to comply.