Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Damn this man.
I glowered at him. “I’m not going anywhere.” Facing my cousin. “Outside. Now.”
Jared yanked his astonished gaze from Theo and turned on his heel with a huff. I followed him, stopping to shove my bare feet into boots.
“Coat,” Theo bit out.
I hid my smile as I shrugged on my winter coat over my robe and hurried outside after my cousin. As soon as the front door shut, Jared whirled on me.
“You’re out of your mind.”
Done with his attitude, I raised a palm. “Just stop. Stop it right now.”
His head jerked.
“I’m not out of my mind with grief. I am a thirty-one-year-old woman with her own mind and her own needs. While I appreciate the intention, you do not have the right to come into my home and treat me like I’m a child.”
“Sarah …” He sighed heavily. “I’m just worried about you. This guy? This fucking guy, really?”
“You don’t know him. You don’t know anything about him.”
“Do you?”
I shrugged, amazed by the truth in my next words. “I think maybe I know him better than anyone does.”
Jared scrubbed a hand over his face. “I don’t want him to hurt you. Especially not now.”
“You have to trust me, Jared.”
“I do trust you. It’s him I don’t trust. And I’m not blind.” He gestured toward the house. “Surprisingly, I can see he cares about you. But I can also see that he is terrified that he cares for you, Sarah. Terrified.” His shoulders slumped. “So please be careful.”
My cousin’s words hit home. Because that’s what I saw too. I didn’t see a man telling me to go because he was apathetic. I saw a man telling me to go because I scared the shit out of him. I knew Theo could hurt me. Yet, what I felt when I was with him … it emboldened me. It felt so good, I’d risk anything for it.
I hugged my cousin tight and hard, and he buried his head in my neck. After a few long seconds, he squeezed and then nudged me toward the door. “Get inside out of this cold.”
As soon as I stepped into the bungalow, I experienced a sharp throb near my heart.
Theo hadn’t moved.
He stood still as a statue, hands still clenched at his sides. Like a little boy who was afraid something he wanted was about to be taken from him.
“Jared is heading home now,” I said, moving to his side, using both hands to unclench one of his fists and thread my fingers through his.
Theo looked down at our joined hands, a frown marring his brow. Suddenly, his fingers tightened in mine, and his breathing grew shallow. This man. I ached for him and all his emotional wounds.
“If you hurt her,” Jared’s menacing tone brought our heads up, “I will fucking eviscerate you.”
I blinked rapidly because there was no denying Jared sounded sincere.
“I have farming equipment that can dice you into small pieces, and a lot of land in which to scatter those pieces. No one would find you.”
Well, that was grim. I bugged my eyes out at my cousin. “Okay, we get the point.”
“Do you?” Jared asked Theo.
Theo clenched his jaw but nodded.
A few minutes later, I hugged my cousin goodbye again and watched him get in his truck and drive away. Normally, I’d ask him to stay, but there was too much tension between me and Theo. We hadn’t discussed what we were to each other, but it was becoming increasingly clear this was more than just a casual thing.
I’d barely toed off my boots and shrugged out of my coat when I found myself spun around and hauled into Theo’s arms. His face was hard with determination as he carried me through the house and into the bedroom. He threw me on the bed, and I bounced with a startled yelp.
Suddenly he was over me, kissing me with a desperate fierceness that made me breathless and hot. Rationale broke through my arousal, though, and I pushed on his chest.
Theo broke the kiss, his eyes searching mine.
“I … I think I understand you,” I told him quietly.
A vulnerable light filled his gaze.
“That’s why I stayed despite you telling me to go. But next time you tell me to go like I don’t matter … I will go,” I warned him. “I’m not like your mother, Theo. There’s no way I’ll return to a life of feeling not worthy of someone, of feeling like I don’t matter to someone who matters to me.”
Remorse tightened Theo’s expression, and he nodded in understanding. His lips were soft, gentle, apologetic on mine.
“My period.” I broke the kiss again to remind him.
“I don’t care,” he whispered harshly. “And the sheets are already marked.”
“I need to … I need to take care of … you know.” My tampon.
“I’ll do it.” He kissed me again and I flushed head to toe at the idea of sex while I had my period. But Theo didn’t care at all. Moreover, he took his time kissing apologies all over my body. And later as he moved inside me with slow, easy, savoring glides, he held my gaze captive in his.