Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Mount Henri Blackrock crushed me to him. “I know. He’s your boy. You wouldn’t be the person I know you are if you would.” Henri tucked my head under his chin, clutching me so tight I wish I could’ve stayed there forever. “I’ve already thought about it.”
I hoped that was a good thing.
He didn’t wait to tell me what conclusion he’d reached, fortunately. “This land is always going to be mine. I’d never give it to anyone else; all this shit with Dom has settled that. But that doesn’t mean I couldn’t leave. Doesn’t mean we couldn’t come back some day if it came down to it.”
He’d said we.
“What the hell are you saying right now?” I muttered into his shirt, overwhelmed and in awe and equal amounts disbelief.
“They can survive without me. They have before,” he answered steadily, without a hint of hesitation or grief over the idea he’d just voiced. “As much as I love this land, I don’t think I could let it keep me from you.”
I pressed my face even deeper into his shirt, inhaling that rain and cedar scent that was all him.
“I’d resent it if you left. If I felt stuck here. It’s been frustrating enough wanting to do what I want to do and having that interrupted by things that don’t need to be my responsibility anymore.”
I didn’t want to do it, but I slowly lifted my head and peered into his eyes. “You would leave here? For me and Duncan?”
There was nothing but a fierce kind of determination in his eyes and features. “For you two, yeah.” He paused. “But we’d have to invite Agnes.” His throat bobbed. “I don’t know if you know, but Dom might be gone. Nobody’s seen him in a week, not even his uncle.”
I had questions about this supposed uncle, but I saved them for later.
“Really?” I asked, feeling so bad.
He lifted his hand. “It’s not your fault. It’s a good thing for everyone if he doesn’t come back.” He blinked. “I would’ve probably ended up having to hurt him if he stayed and ever talked to you the way he did again.”
My gazed moved from one of his eyes to the other, love bursting inside of me, and I could barely say, “I can’t believe you almost let me go on dates with other people, you ass.” I cupped his face in my hands. “I felt sick to my stomach thinking about it.”
“You smelled upset every time anyone brought it up, you included,” he confirmed.
“And you knew?”
The fondest smile I’d ever seen came over his face. “I told you, you’re easy to read. I don’t open up my senses for just anybody.” He held me just a little tighter. “You project emotions easier than anyone I’ve ever met, and you make a lot of faces, Cricket.”
I smacked him on the arm. “You were going to risk me mating someone else?”
“It wasn’t a risk if I wasn’t going to let it get anywhere near there.” He leaned forward again, bringing his forehead to mine, his lips almost skimming mine as he said fiercely, “I would mate you even if the one-year period wasn’t a thing, Nina.”
“You’re sure?” I asked, hope singing in my soul. “I might have more dream visits from my DNA donor, and Franklin would be your uncle-in-law,” I warned him.
“Franklin and I will be fine.”
“I would want you to be a dad to Duncan.”
“I’ve got no problem with that.”
“And again, if we had a child, they might be like me,” I reminded him.
“A forest prince or princess would be a gift,” he said with a straight face that anchored my entire existence to this moment. “There’s a chance they could be like me too.”
“Strong and wonderful? What a freaking burden.”
He smiled. “They’d inherit this land if that’s what they wanted. Any child of ours could. Would you be fine with that?”
“What do you think?” I had to groan as I squeezed his hands right back and said, looking him right in the eyes, “All right then.” I pressed my mouth to his before pulling away just enough to say, “You’re going to be stuck with me, Fluff, because there’s nobody else on this planet I would rather be with than you.”
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
“I’m sorry, but what?” Sienna practically screeched into our video call.
At her side, Matti stared blankly at the screen. That was his stunned face. It took a lot to get to him, but with this, that would be twice in the last few months I’d rendered him speechless.
Who would have known that a magical puppy and me mating his relative would have that effect on him?
I cleared my throat and let my eyes stray to the empty spot on my bed where Duncan usually slept. Instead, tonight, he was passed out in Agnes’s room. I’d had to take a picture of him curled up in a ball, snoring away, with Agnes tucked under her comforter, and her newest sleeping nanny, a very nice woman who was Pascal’s aunt, reading a book on the twin-sized bed along the wall. She’d waved Henri and me off when we’d snuck inside to see what they’d been up to after finding Franklin passed out in the media room with a kids movie playing in the background, abandoned.