Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 105231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
“But I will do my best to make sure you forget her. And that you never go back to see her. Or give her any more of your time or your worry. Yeah?”
“All right.” She really had no desire to return to Albany and see her mother. And it was probably better for her mother if she didn’t either.
“That’s my girl,” he murmured. “Now, eat your breakfast.”
She stared down at the fried eggs, bacon, and hash browns. She wasn’t used to eating this much for breakfast, but suddenly, she found herself very hungry.
Satisfaction filled him as he watched her eat.
God, she was gorgeous.
And his. She was all his.
This is what he’d been missing from his life. This was why he had felt a burning sense of being incomplete. Of not having enough purpose.
The universe had intended him to be this woman’s protector, her lover, her caretaker.
After they finished breakfast, she insisted on cleaning up, then turned to him, looking delightfully awkward.
“What . . . what now?”
“Well, I can think of one or two things we could do,” he murmured, stalking toward her.
She backed up, her eyes wide. But that wasn’t fear in her face, thank God.
Nope. Her mouth had dropped open and her breath was growing faster. She swallowed hastily as she banged into a wall. He placed one hand on her hip and the other on the wall beside her head.
“We haven’t talked about my . . . quirks.” He used the same word she had.
“Your quirks? What quirks?” she asked.
“Well, they aren’t so much quirks as they are needs.”
“Like your need to track me?” she asked.
“Yeah. That’s one of my quirks.”
Hmm. Yeah, she definitely wouldn’t call that a quirk. More like obsessive overprotectiveness. At least she guessed that was what it was and that he wasn’t just a psychotic control freak.
Okay, he could be a bit of the latter too.
“Why do you need to track me?” she asked.
“To make sure you’re safe. This is a compromise.”
“Oh, it is? How is it a compromise?” And she was frankly surprised that he knew that word.
“Because what I really want to do is lock you up to ensure nothing bad touches you. Or keep you with me. How do you feel about a collar and leash?”
“No!” she cried.
“Hmm. No? All right, tracker it is.”
That wasn’t exactly a compromise. Lord help her.
“You like to get your own way.”
Travis grinned. Gosh, he was gorgeous when he smiled. “Now she gets it.”
Leaning down, he kissed her. This time, he deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue into her mouth to play with hers. A moan of pleasure escaped her and he drew back, moving his hand from her hip to rest lightly on the base of her neck.
“I like to be in charge,” he said. “In the bedroom and out, too. I can compromise and back off on the things that are important to you. As long as you know the things that are important to me.”
“Which are?” she asked breathlessly.
“Your safety. Your health. Your happiness.”
Was that it?
When he didn’t say anything more, she found herself biting down on her lip. “What about your safety, health, and happiness?”
“I can take care of myself. And I’m only ever going to be happy if you are.”
Jeez. This man. It would be so easy to get mad at him because he could be impossible.
But it was also so easy to love him.
However, she couldn’t just blurt that out. It was way too early for that in their . . . relationship.
Eek.
She wanted to squeal like a small child because she was in a relationship with Travis Andrews.
Her crush.
Okay. You’re thirty-six, not sixteen.
Chill.
“I need to be in control of those things, okay? If I see that you’re not being safe or keeping yourself healthy, I will step in.”
Caren wasn’t quite sure she’d like him ‘stepping in,’ but she also liked that he cared. “Step in, how?”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure you’re safe, happy, and healthy. However I need to do it. Which you might not always like. But you’ll know I do it because I care.”
“Sometimes I don’t know whether to be mad at you or to melt like a puddle in your arms,” she told him.
He just grinned.
Bloody hell. He could get away with murder with that smile of his.
“That’s why you have rules.”
“And if I break the rules?”
Like not telling him about Aadan.
Shit. Yeah. She would need to tell him. He wasn’t going to be happy, though. However, she thought the fact that she hadn’t heard from Aadan since leaving proved that she was safe.
Surely, Travis would see it that way, too.
Although she could see how Travis wouldn’t want her to go overseas if he knew.
Are you seriously going to keep this from him?
No. She couldn’t. He needed to know. They couldn’t start out this relationship with lies. But she just needed to time this right.