Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 74554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
I folded my arms across my chest, but gave him a nod.
“Okay. Go ahead.”
“There was a job aspect of this to Kylo. He was sent in here to talk to you, get a feel for you, decide if you were some international gun smuggler. They even floated the idea that it was your grandmother’s operation passed down to you.”
“No way,” I said, laughing despite my desire to keep my guards up.
“It wouldn’t be the first time an older person ran a criminal empire. But, yeah, that wasn’t a route they were actually going down. Anyway, I believe the work aspect started and stopped there. For a while, anyway.”
I offered him a shrug.
“He didn’t ask to use my house, boat, driver, and take you parasailing because of Huck, the club, or their concerns about the arms trade in the area. That wasn’t part of it. In fact, I’m pretty sure Huck was pissed that Kylo was going rogue on the mission.”
“And the stalking?” I asked. “Following me around in a car with binoculars? Watching me go to my shrink’s office? Taking my dog to the vet? Buying tampons at the pharmacy? Watching my every move while trying to act like a good guy?”
“He is a good guy. Who was forced to do bad things. From my understanding, Huck suspected that Kylo was getting too close. He wanted to send Caymen or one of the others out there to follow you. But Kylo insisted it should be him. I believe it was an attempt to protect you and your privacy. However misguided the thinking, he believed it would have felt even more invasive for you if it was one of the other guys.”
That wasn’t untrue, I guess.
“Okay. But… but he knew what he was taking me to that clubhouse to do, and he still…”
I couldn’t bring myself to say it.
I didn’t need to.
Teddy seemed fully capable of reading between the lines.
“I think Kylo set up a day like that to cram in as much good as he could for you. Something positive to remember him by, knowing you weren’t going to want to see him after that talk at the club.”
I was trying to find a way to say how awful it was to use the opportunity to sleep with me when he knew what was about to happen. But Teddy beat me to it.
“If things… crossed a line, I’m sure it wasn’t premeditated. Kylo isn’t a scumbag like that. If anything, I’m sure he intended to keep things PG. Especially knowing how adding any intimacy was going to make the betrayal sting even worse. But, well, things happen.”
They do.
They did.
And I did have some vague memories of begging. On my part. Then the second time, I’d fully initiated that.
Sure, he could have turned me down, pushed me away, kept that distance between us. But we’d been wrapped up. And that tension had been building between us almost since we met.
Was it wrong for him to let it happen when he knew that if I had all the facts, I might make a different choice?
I guess.
But I also wasn’t sure that, had he come to me with all the facts, that I wouldn’t have still made the decision to let things progress between us.
I hadn’t gotten that chance.
That said, did I regret it? If I could go back knowing what I knew then, would I change it?
Honestly, I didn’t think so.
The lies hurt.
But that afternoon with him had been the best I’d ever known.
“I just wanted to come and be a neutral voice of reason. I’m not saying you’re wrong for being upset. But I also don’t want you to think Kylo was some mustache-twirling villain here. I don’t think he intended to fall for you. And then he was torn between his loyalty to his club and his growing feelings for you. Could he have handled it differently? Yes. But this is clearly eating him up as much as it is you,” he said.
“But,” he went on, flashing me his palms, “that is all I am going to say about that. I would love to get in touch with you again. About plants, nothing else.”
“I would love—oh, hey, Traeg,” I said as he came breezing in with bags full of takeaway containers and a pizza box with drinks piled on top.
“Teddy! My man,” Traeger said, switching the bags to the pizza box hand so he could give Teddy a quick handshake. “Were you looking for me?”
“I just wanted to speak to Rue,” Teddy said. “But I will be in touch soon about the designs you sent over. Rue, it was a pleasure.”
With that, he walked to the door.
His driver opened it and the two of them were gone.
“I want to be that cool when I grow up,” Traeger said with a deep sigh.