Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 155775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
“She is not,” Dotty said with a huff as she sat back up and straightened her clothes. “And please do not make an inane comment about paying to see that.”
Ralen just grinned as Butch scowled at Dotty.
Seriously, did he have a problem with Dotty or what?
“I was just trying to get Monroe to stop calling herself stupid,” Dotty said.
“Why would she be doing that?” Ralen said, stepping further into the room.
“What’s going on? Why are you all in Addie’s room?” Cash asked.
Great. Now everyone was here. Fantastic.
Was there no privacy? Well, it seemed there wasn’t any for her no matter which room of the house she was in.
Cash stepped into the room, his short hair still damp and, oh my God, was it him that smelled so delicious?
She felt herself leaning forward, trying to catch more of his scent.
“Monroe!” Ralen snapped, making Addie jump. “Why were you calling yourself stupid?”
“Don’t snap like that in front of Addie!” Cash told him.
Ralen raised his eyebrows. “Why not?”
“Because you’re scaring her.”
“You told her she’d be in trouble for talking. You don’t think that scared her?” Ralen said.
Shoot. Her cheeks were so red again that she thought she could fry eggs on them.
Did everyone have to talk about her getting into trouble?
Urgh.
“Everyone out,” Cash said firmly.
“No.” Butch glared at him.
“Yes. This is Addie’s room, she wants you out.”
Butch leaned into Cash’s face. “Maybe she wants you out after the way you spoke to her.”
Guilt flashed through Cash’s face as he turned to look at her. Addie didn’t like that. She didn’t want him to feel that way. Especially since it seemed like he hadn’t meant to embarrass her.
The more she thought about it, the more she realized that Cash wouldn’t do something like that.
It just wasn’t who he was.
She typed into the tablet. “Everyone out, please. Except Cash.”
“Come on, let’s go.” Ralen ushered them all from the room as Butch glared at Dotty.
Men. They were so moody and emotional.
She didn’t understand them. Probably because she never spent any time with men. At least real ones.
She was guessing that fictional ones didn’t count.
Addie stared up at Cash as he paced back and forth in front of the bed. Was he going to say anything?
Was he waiting for her to say something?
Biting her lip, she typed into the tablet.
“Wanna talk about that kiss?”
31
Wait. What? That wasn’t what she’d meant to say.
What the hell!
“What kiss?” he asked. “Did you kiss someone?”
No, no, no, no, no.
That wasn’t what she’d meant to put in at all. How did that happen? Stupid autocorrect!
“Addie,” he said firmly. “Eyes on me.”
Drat. She raised her gaze to his.
“Now, what kiss?”
Why did he look so grouchy? She hadn’t meant to say kiss.
“I meant to say, want to talk about this?” she typed out.
“This? As in, what just happened before?”
She nodded and typed. “Yeah. That’s what I meant.” Not kiss. Eek.
Cash nodded and sat down on the bed, facing her. “Sorry if I embarrassed you. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
She twisted her fingers together. How did she explain this when her emotions were all messed up, and she didn’t want him to know how she felt about him?
“I know I’m not your Daddy,” he told her. “But I also feel responsible for you. Like I said earlier today, you crawled into my truck, and I feel a sense of ownership over you.”
Right. She was the canary and he was the sexy, tattooed, biker guy.
“I shouldn’t have said anything in front of everyone. Do your sisters know you’re a Little?”
She nodded.
“Was it because Butch was there? It’s always because of that bastard.”
Huh? What? She shook her head. “It wasn’t Butch.”
She hated feeling like she was being made fun of. Not that she thought Cash would do that . . . at least she didn’t after thinking it through. In the moment, she’d just reacted.
If they’d had something real, she knew that she wouldn’t have felt this way.
“There’s something more, isn’t there?” he asked.
“It isn’t real.”
“What do you mean, it isn’t real?”
“I know you feel responsible for me, but you aren’t really,” she wrote. “You aren’t my Daddy Dom. I’m not your . . . your problem. You’re a good person and you seem to truly care, but you don’t have to pretend to be anything because you think I need it. I want someone who takes care of me, who is my Daddy, because it’s what he needs and wants as well. Does that make sense?”
Cash was silent for a long moment, and she wondered if she’d said the wrong thing. The last thing she ever wanted was to upset him.
Was she being an idiot? Here he was, watching over them in his free time, maybe even putting his life at risk. And she was complaining because she didn’t like the way he was doing it.