Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 122550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
“I don’t . . . it’s too early for a baby.”
Sheesh. They hadn’t even had sex, and he was talking about a baby?
“Are you mine?” he asked.
His dark, deadly tone warned her to give him the correct answer.
“Yes.”
Satisfaction filled his face. “Then you will do what I want.”
“Within reason.” Shit. Her throat was getting scratchy again. “When it comes to safety, yes. But when it comes to my body, I have the right to say no.”
His gaze narrowed. “I don’t like that.”
Yeah, well, tough titties.
Hmm, she wisely hadn’t said that aloud.
“I’m not ready to be a mom. Not yet. And I want you to myself for a while. I don’t want to share.”
To her shock, he nodded. “I don’t wish to share you yet either. That doesn’t mean I might not . . . fantasize.”
“Hey, fantasies are fine. I’m all about fantasies . . . I might even like those ones too,” she babbled.
“You’ll need to go on birth control, then.”
“Um, well, yes. I do have some pills. I just forget to take them.”
“You won’t forget now. I will remind you.”
Yikes. He’d probably set up an alarm on his phone.
“And we’re still taking this stuff.” He dumped all the toys into her bag.
Dear. Lord.
He wasn’t really expecting to use those on her, was he?
“Don’t!” She attempted to jump off the bed, but he gave her a stern look.
“Do not even think about it.”
Jilly swallowed heavily. That look. It made her remember who she was dealing with.
He wasn’t a man who you crossed.
And here you are, keeping things from him . . . and he clearly knows something.
Yeah, she might be in over her head here. But that didn’t mean she had the sense to turn back.
She’d never experienced anyone using those sorts of toys on her before. Lowell had found her old vibrator one day and decided it was an affront to his manhood or some such thing.
He’d made her throw it away. Well, she’d agreed to do that, but she’d actually just put it somewhere he wouldn’t think to look.
In the laundry cabinet, hidden behind the detergent.
Lowell had never done any laundry.
Asshole.
After he’d finished packing, Regent sent her a look. “Stay here. I’ll take these out, then come back for you.”
Once he’d left, she got off the bed and searched around for anything else she needed to take.
Crap. Her throat was burning again, so she took some more pain killers.
“Jilly.” The warning came from the doorway and she spun. Her head started thumping.
Ouch.
Suddenly, she was picked up and cradled against a firm chest. A light slap to her ass made her tense.
“When will you learn to behave yourself?” he grumbled.
“Um, probably never,” she said honestly.
“We’ll see about that.”
“What . . . what are you doing?” she asked, holding on tight as he carried her out of the bedroom and started down the stairs.
“Carrying you out to the car.”
“You can’t do that! Someone might see.”
“So?”
“So, they’ll tell Mama, and then I’ll get a phone call and have to tell her why Regent Malone is carrying me around like a baby.”
“And you can tell her that you’re ill with no one to take care of you.”
There was a strange note in his voice. He didn’t sound happy at all. Was he upset with her mother?
“Are you angry at Mama?”
“Not angry exactly. However, she should be here to take care of you.”
“I’m a grown woman. I take care of myself.”
“Not anymore.”
Suddenly, they were outside and walking toward his car. She pressed her face into his chest. The harshness of the sun was hurting her eyes.
“Nearly there, sweet girl,” he murmured quietly. “Just hold on.”
Then he was sliding into the car with her on his lap. But he put her in her own seat as the door shut. The divider was up between the front and back so she couldn’t see who was driving.
Regent reached across and grabbed her seatbelt, buckling her in.
“I could’ve done that.”
“Why should you when I can do it for you? Besides, I like knowing that it’s done up properly.”
It would be kind of hard to not buckle a seatbelt properly. Not to mention that she’d been buckling her own seatbelt since she was five.
But she didn’t say any of that. She was starting to see that Regent was a man who liked to be hands-on.
She couldn’t really complain about that.
He grabbed something from the floor and pulled it over her. A soft blanket.
Wow. He’d thought of everything.
As they pulled away from the house she felt a weird sense of loss. Would this be the last time she was here?
Surely not.
It had been her home for so long. Sure, she’d been away for several years. But coming back had felt so right.
Change was good. Change was necessary.
She was moving on to something new. Something she’d wanted for years and years.