Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
“Oh my God, shut up,” Jules growled.
“I’m not sure I can,” I drawled. “There are so many details about earlier—”
“Fine,” Jules snapped. “If you need to hear the sound of your own voice, finish telling me about Frank, his wife, and Titan.”
“I think it’s the other way around… I like hearing the sound of your voice,” I said truthfully. “What made you run away?”
“I didn’t. Brooks and I went—”
“Not today,” I clarified. “The day you burned your arm. You wanted me to tell you something no one else knew about me and you said—”
“That I ran away from home,” Jules said on a soft sigh.
“Yeah,” I responded softly. I hadn’t considered that the question would take Jules to someplace he didn’t want to be. My intent in talking to him had been to keep him relaxed, but the second I’d mentioned him running away from home, he’d tensed in my hold. Even now, he was stiff as a board against me.
“You said you were an ex-banker,” Jules began.
It took me a moment to remember when I’d told him that. It’d been in the motel room after he’d been treated for his burn. I’d exposed my chest to Jules so he could feel the heavy line of scar tissue running down the center of it.
“Investment banker,” I responded.
“In Manhattan?”
I wasn’t sure where Jules was headed, but it was easy enough to answer. “Yeah. I lived at Fifty-ninth and Sixth.”
“How long were you there? In the city.”
“Five, maybe six years in all.”
Jules let out a quiet laugh. “Nice building. Access to the park, thirty-seven floors, which means a nice view if you were near the top. Doorman, valet. Just off a complete renovation about the time you moved in, right?”
“Okay,” I said. “I guess that would make you FBI? Or IRS.”
I heard Jules let out a light chuckle. It felt like a ray of determined sunlight breaking through a blanket of dark clouds.
“I know the guy who owns that building. You know him too… intimately.”
I was so startled that BJ reacted to my touch on the reins by coming to an abrupt halt. “You own that building?” I asked loudly.
Too loudly.
Jules began shushing me but since BJ had stopped, we were far away enough from the others that they hadn’t heard me. I got BJ moving again.
“Yes and no. I mean, I’d have to look it up to see if that is legally one of mine or my father’s.”
“Your father?” I asked in confusion.
“Either way, the deed has the name Julian Graves somewhere on it.”
“Graves? As in the Graves real estate empire?” I responded, unable to keep the shock from my voice.
“Well, I guess it’s safe to say your city-boy speak is up to par. I think Dad’s ultimate goal is to be a multiverse or something, but I think you have to be worth more than a couple billion dollars to join that club.”
“Okay, sweetheart, you’re going to need to talk me through this one,” I said. “I guess I shouldn’t be calling you that, huh? You probably have a certain title like Your Majesty or Your Highness that I need to start calling you by,” I joked.
To my surprise, Jules’s fingers covered the hand I had at his waist.
“Sweetheart’s good” was all he said. The way he said it answered most of the questions bouncing around my head.
“Sweetheart it is,” I said softly before dropping a kiss to the top of his head.
“Brooks doesn’t know. He only knows me by my mother’s maiden name. I learned the hard way what it meant when it came to having friends and endless amounts of cash at your disposal.”
“No one will hear it from my lips,” I assured him. I paused for a moment before saying, “Speaking of lips—”
“Your turn,” Jules interrupted. “Frank and Titan,” he reminded me.
I chuckled. “Right. So I guess you could say Frank and his wife sort of adopted me in spirit. Once Frank realized he couldn’t get rid of me, he started teaching me stuff about horses. In the beginning, I was only sleeping a few hours a night because I had to get up early in the morning to get to Frank’s. I’d get a couple hours of training in before I had to get home to do my real job. When I was done for the day, I’d wait until the house was quiet before I’d sneak back to Frank’s and work with his horses some more. My brother was the only one who figured out what I was up to.”
“Your twin? West?”
“Yeah. He covered for me as long as he could, but I didn’t know how much he paid for protecting my secret. All us kids got knocked around now and then, but West was the one who stood up for our younger brothers and sisters. While I was playing horse whisperer, West was getting his ass kicked left, right, and everywhere in between. I was too selfish to even notice.”