Total pages in book: 150
Estimated words: 136791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
He chuckles and carries the box over to the bed. Once he puts it down, he comes back for me and sweeps me up in his arms.
"I can walk," I breathe.
He grunts wordlessly and then gives me those dimples. "Yeah, but you feel better in my arms, little monster."
I shut up and let him carry me.
What's not to love about feeling all those muscles working together just for me?
He deposits me on the bed beside the box before crawling up beside me and tugging me into his arms. I cuddle up next to him and breathe him in. He smells so good. I love being completely surrounded by him like this. It's perfection.
"What's in the box?" he says like Brad Pitt in S7ven, making me laugh.
"Open it up, Brad Pitt," I tease him, hooking my foot around the edge of the box to drag it closer to us.
He eyes it for a moment before shrugging and pulling it open. His expression morphs from curiosity to surprise and then to some emotion I can't name.
"Baby girl," he rasps, dumping out the contents.
All the little gifts he gave me over the years fall into his lap. Everything he ever gave me, I kept.
"I couldn't get rid of it," I whisper to him as he runs reverent hands over one item after another, not speaking. "Mariah tried to convince me to burn it all to forget you, but I didn't want to forget. I put it all in here because I wanted to be brave enough one day to look back and remember how happy we were together."
"January," he whispers, his voice choked with emotion. He holds up the ring he gave me, his hand shaking. "You kept it?"
"In my heart, I always belonged to you, Cade."
"Fuck," he breathes, staring down at the ring like it might disappear if he takes his eyes off it. "When I put a ring on your finger next time, it's forever, baby girl. I hope you know that." He says this like it's a warning, but it sounds more like heaven to me.
"It better be forever," I say with a little laugh, snuggling deeper into him. "You're not ever getting rid of me, Michael Ian Kincaid. If you try to leave me again, I'll just follow you."
He closes his hand around the Claddagh ring and then tilts my chin up so I'm staring into his eyes. The intensity burning there leaves me breathless. "I'm not ever fucking leaving you again, January. If they charge me with the murders, I'll empty my trust fund fighting to stay with you." He grabs my hand and slides the ring back onto my finger where it belongs. Satisfaction flares in his eyes, turning them my favorite dark gray color as he examines the ring on my finger. It still fits as perfectly as it did when he first slipped it on my hand. "I'm going to put a bigger ring on your finger soon. I'm not going to ask you to marry me, though. I didn't back then, and I won't now. Not giving you a chance to say no. You're mine, and I'm keeping you."
"I'm keeping you, too," I tell him, smiling through watery eyes. "And I would never say no to you. You're my Grover."
His lips curve into a half-smile. He shakes his head at me.
"I'm serious. You think you're scary, but you're not. Not to me." I pluck the last item out of his lap before holding it out to him.
He glances from my face to the item in my hand and then that grin widens until he's smiling so big those dimples appear. "I can't believe you still have this," he says, opening The Monster at the End of This Book and flipping through the dog-eared pages. "It's almost as old as you are. You had me read it to you so often before you learned to read. I'm surprised it didn't fall apart."
"I have a confession to make," I whisper as his eyes scan across each page. "I'd memorized the book before I ever even met you, but I loved it when you'd hold my hand and promise not to let the monster get me, so I pretended not to know the words just so you would keep reading it to me."
He laughs softly before pressing his lips to my ear. "I have a confession to make, too," he says into my skin. "I fucking hated when you learned how to read. I was so goddamn jealous of your books because I didn't get to read them to you anymore. I'd make Ma Lucia take me to the library so I could get a copy of whatever you were reading, just so I could talk to you about the book."
"Are you serious?" I ask, pulling back to look at his face.