Total pages in book: 156
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
North glanced over at her toys.
“Wallina?” Jared asked.
“My toy,” she said. “Keira bought her for me when I moved into my new place.”
“The one where you lived alone,” Jared said.
“Yes. I haven’t even been there long and now when I go back I’ll probably never be allowed to live there again. I’ll be lucky if Zander doesn’t put a tracker on me again.”
“Again?” Jared asked quietly.
“Yeah, when I first moved in with him, I had one for, uh, reasons.” She glanced away, looking slightly odd.
Why had Zander needed to track her? And why had he stopped?
“He should have never stopped,” North said.
“I don’t need to be tracked,” she huffed.
“Obviously, you do,” North told her dryly. “But it wouldn’t have mattered in this case because I’d have found it.”
“Careful, that arrogance will inflate your already oversized head,” she warned.
“It already has.”
“Huh?” she asked, obviously not understanding what “head” North was talking about.
Jared sighed, shaking his head in exasperation.
“Where is my handbag?” she asked. “And my phone?”
“Safe,” North replied.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
North raised his eyebrows. “Don’t you trust me?”
She made a scoffing noise. “Do I look like an idiot?”
“You do not,” Jared said firmly. “And I won’t hear you say that you do.”
“I wasn’t saying that,” she told him. “I also know that I’m not the smartest tool in the shed.”
“That sounds very much like you putting yourself down again,” Jared warned.
“It’s not putting yourself down if it’s the truth. It’s self-awareness.”
“It’s naughty. When you’re under my roof, you obey my rules and there are always consequences for breaking them. Understand?”
“But I don’t want to be under your roof.”
Fuck. He didn’t like hearing that. Even if he knew why she was saying it. And couldn’t blame her for it.
“Doesn’t matter. My house. My rules. My consequences.”
22
Jared couldn’t be serious.
He wanted to lay down some rules and consequences because she was under his roof when she wasn’t there voluntarily?
The guy was nuts.
They both were.
Remember, you should play along. Lull them into a false sense of security.
Make them think you want to be here and then run!
How to do that without making them suspicious of her, though?
Hmm.
That was a good question. One she didn’t have a ready answer to. She guessed she’d have to take it slowly.
“Well, I’m not agreeing to that. And there aren’t going to be any consequences.”
Good job on being more agreeable and doing what they want.
Urgh, she was such an idiot most of the time.
Most or all?
She knew she wasn’t the smartest cookie. But what she lacked in book smarts she’d really thought she made up for in street smarts.
However, she was beginning to have her doubts about that too.
“I don’t believe I asked for your agreement,” Jared said as North left. “So you have a whale called Wallina? At least the name will be easy to remember.”
“I named her in memory of Wally,” she said. “I didn’t realize that he’d survived.”
“I’ve been looking after him for you,” he said quietly. “No one was going to harm him on my watch.”
Okay, that shouldn’t make her soften toward him.
He might not have been the one to kidnap her, but he was still keeping her here.
So yeah, she shouldn’t be nicer to him just because he said some kind words.
But this might be an opportunity for her to pretend to give in.
“Thank you,” she told him quietly.
She tried to tell herself that her gratitude was a pretense.
Unfortunately, it seemed that she was lying to herself now.
“You’re welcome,” he replied huskily as he stared down at her with those intense dark-brown eyes.
God, he was gorgeous. He had classically good looks; he could almost be too pretty if it wasn’t for his beard that had a healthy sprinkling of gray and the tattoos that peeked out just above his collar.
“What would you like to wear after your shower? North brought everything over from the other room.”
Everything? All of the Little stuff too?
Jared walked over to the closet, opening it.
They knew she was a Little.
“Um, I don’t know. Just clothes.”
He drew out a pair of pajamas. They were pale blue with a thin yellow stripe. “You won’t be getting out of bed, today. So these will do.”
“Is North really your assistant?” she asked.
“He assists me,” Jared told her.
“Is this . . . is this your house?”
“Yes, it is. I didn’t want to live in Fergus’s house.”
She shuddered. “No one did.”
Picking her up, he carried her into the bathroom.
“I can walk,” she protested. “You’ll get a sore back.”
“I’m unsure if you’re insulting me or yourself when you say that,” Jared told her.
She opened her mouth but he kept talking.
“And you’re not allowed to do either so I suggest you tread very carefully.”
“Well, rat-bums,” she muttered. “How fit are you?”
“Fit enough to carry you for as long as I need to.”
And there went her stomach again, swooping and spinning.