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)
“Grr. You’re not in charge of me.”
“She talked badly about herself,” North said.
“Someone needs to gag you.” She pointed at him.
“Even gagged he has a way of getting his point across,” Jared told her. “And no more talking badly about yourself. I’ve already told you that. If you keep doing it, I might need to gag you.”
Her face shut down.
A trigger.
His fucking father had a lot to answer for.
“We’ll put that on the No list,” he told her.
“No list?” she asked.
“Something you absolutely won’t allow us to do to you,” Jared explained.
“You might as well add spankings to that list. And anything else you come up with.”
“Spankings scare you?” he asked.
Her eyes shot to the side. “Yes.”
Oh, she was so naughty. That was definitely a lie.
“She’s lying,” North said.
“Thank you,” he said dryly. “I couldn’t tell. Lying isn’t allowed, Angie.”
“But kidnapping is?” she cried.
“Under the right circumstances.” Also, North had already been punished.
“What about these circumstances make it right?” she asked.
“I thought you were in danger,” North pointed out.
“I wasn’t!”
“You were living alone, walking around the streets of that town without protection, of course you were in danger,” Jared said, getting upset all over again. “You weren’t being taken care of properly. North was right to take you.”
“You . . . you can’t just steal people who you think might and I stress the word, ‘might’, be in danger.”
“Not people,” Jared said. “Just you.”
“Lucky me,” she replied sarcastically.
God. This was the most alive he’d felt in years.
Could he keep her? The more time he spent with her, the more he didn’t want to let her go.
“You guys can’t keep me. No matter what you think.”
He begged to differ, but he wasn’t going to argue.
“What if you wanted to stay?” he asked.
“What? Why would I want to do that?” she asked as she leaned against the doorway.
Shit.
She needed that IV.
“Because I can keep you safe.”
“Um, that’s rather arrogant to assume, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Have we met before?” he retorted.
She snorted. “Good point. Arrogance is something you wear like a cloak. That doesn’t mean that your supposition is true. I can keep myself safe just fine.”
“Sure you can,” North said. “That’s why you managed to fight your way free when I kidnapped you. Oh, wait . . .”
She frowned at him.
But Jared could see that she didn’t know how to reply.
“What do you have to go home to?” North asked. “What was really there for you?”
She glanced away from them both, swallowing heavily. “Freedom.”
Fuck.
“Freedom is something not everyone in this life gets,” Jared told her gently.
He thought he’d had it, but he’d always been a puppet on the end of a string for his father to manipulate. Sure, you could say he was free from his father now, but the truth was that he was loaded down with responsibilities.
“No one is truly ever free from their responsibilities,” Jared told her. “And what if you could trade your so-called freedom for happiness?”
She rubbed her temple tiredly. Shit.
“We can discuss this later. Once you’re feeling better,” he stated, picking her up and placing her on the bed.
He took it as a sign of how bad she was feeling that she didn’t argue.
“This isn’t necessary,” she said.
“You’re dehydrated,” North stated.
“You’ll feel better once you have the IV,” Jared told her.
“No, I won’t.” She attempted to move away from North, across the bed.
“What’s wrong?” North asked. “There’s nothing in here that will harm you.”
“Says the man who loves to drug me.”
“That was only once. Twice,” he amended.
“Twice?” Jared questioned.
“He gave me sedatives to make me sleep once I was here.”
North shrugged. “You needed to sleep. I did what was necessary.”
24
Lord help her.
If she killed this man would she end up in hell?
She really didn’t think so. How was he so . . . so . . . exasperating?
What was necessary? Really? The two of them seemed to think that she’d been in some sort of imminent danger. She’d been fine. North hadn’t rescued her from a precarious situation.
He’d stolen her. And he needed to take her back.
Right.
Back to your lonely existence. Where all you could do was dream about having someone care about you like Zander does Keira.
Well, yeah, but she’d never wanted a Zander, had she? The life he led was too dangerous.
She’d always wanted a . . . a John or Bob or Terry.
Those guys didn’t lead dangerous, scary lives. They wouldn’t threaten to spank their woman if she put herself down. They’d never kidnap someone because they thought she was at risk. They wouldn’t keep telling her that they were in charge and she had to do what they said.
God, they sounded boring.
Angie! Get your act together.
Not boring. Normal. Normal is good. It’s what you should want.
“Angie, come here and let North hook you up,” Jared ordered firmly.
Her body started to obey before her mind took over, making her freeze. “No.”