Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 102361 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 512(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102361 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 512(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Striding away from her, I go out to the truck to get her things and bring them inside. I lock the back door—I now have something to lose in here—and set her things on the dresser in the room she’s in.
She’s dressed in red sweat shorts and a black tank top, and I assume those are her pajamas, so she’ll be comfortable.
Which is good because if I had to strip her down and put her in one of my shirts, I might not survive it. I was inside her over a week ago, and I’ve thought of nothing else since. I handled it so fucking poorly that all I did was piss her off and push her away.
Which, a few months ago, I would have said is exactly what I wanted.
But now that I’ve had my hands on her, there’s no way I can let her go. I don’t simply want her.
I need her.
And I’ll prove to her that I’m not a complete asshole. There’s a lot to learn when it comes to my wildfire. She wasn’t wrong the other day when she said we’re strangers.
We are.
But that’s about to change.
Turning around, I grab a blanket from the closet and cover her with it. Then I leave the room altogether because every cell in my body is screaming at me to get in that bed with her. To snuggle up to her, hold her against me, and comfort her. To be with her.
Doing that without her consent would be a dick move. She tensed up when I simply kissed her cheek. I don’t think she’d welcome my entire body wrapped around her while she sleeps.
Leaving her here alone, however, is out of the question, so I walk out to the kitchen and grab a chair, then return to the room and sit in it, right next to the bed. I’ll respect her space, but I’m not leaving her side.
Not ever again.
“Brooks?”
Someone is nudging my leg. When I open my eyes, I see Juliet’s hand touching my shin where I’ve rested my feet on the bed, and she’s looking at me with a frown on her beautiful face.
My neck is killing me, and my lower back is not happy, but she’s touching me, so I refuse to move.
“You don’t have to stay in here.”
Her voice is a raspy whisper here in the dark. I check the time and see that it’s still the middle of the night. We fell asleep early, so I shouldn’t be surprised that she woke up.
“I’m fine right here,” I reply softly.
“You can’t be comfortable.”
“That doesn’t matter. I want to be near you.”
She lies back on the pillow, watching me in the moonlight. My leg is cold where her hand just was.
“Come here.” She pats the bed beside her. “You should lie down.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
I sit forward, pulling my legs off the bed, and rub my hands down my face.
“Because if I lie down next to you, I’ll want to hold you, and—”
“Brooks. Get your butt over here.”
I watch her for a moment, but her gaze doesn’t falter. I stand and then lower myself next to her, keeping at least a foot between us. Jules wiggles onto her side to face me.
“Thanks for letting me come here tonight.”
“If I’d known what happened, I would have brought you here much sooner.”
She nibbles her lower lip, and I can’t resist reaching out to tug that lip free with my thumb. This is where she was always supposed to be. With me, in this house.
And now she’s here, lying on this bed with me, and it feels completely surreal. Nothing’s ever felt so right, yet unbelievable at the same time.
“Do you want to tell me what happened?” I ask her.
“I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of rushing water. Scared the hell out of me. The pipe in the attic burst, and it ran for so long that it destroyed the floors, both upstairs and downstairs. It’s a mess. I called the fire department because I didn’t know what to do, and Bridger came. Got the water and electric shut off.”
“So you’ve been living there for several days without water or power?”
“Just water. We got the power back on the next day after the water experts came in and drained most of it so I wouldn’t get electrocuted from walking across the floor.”
I growl. There’s no holding it in. The mere thought has me pulled tight in agitation.
And she must sense it because she reaches over and takes my hand, as if she does it every day, and it immediately soothes me.
“It’s going to be a couple of weeks of repairs.” She swallows hard. “And it’s so expensive. I didn’t want to dip into the money Justin left me, but—”
“Whoa.” I tighten my hand in hers, frowning at her. Her eyes go wide, as if she just realized what she said. “Back up, Wildfire. What money?”