Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 110360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
I’d spent years with Sebastian waiting for the kind of love that didn’t have to be announced. The grand declarations. The public displays. The gifts that arrived in little blue boxes.
It was always loud, visible, and somehow more about him than me.
Not that there had ever been any comparison between the two men, but the happiness I felt standing in that barn doorway, everything taken care of by a man who noticed my plate was full and quietly set about remedying that, was unmatched.
I pressed my hand to my face. It had nothing to do with tears this time and everything to do with the biggest, goofiest grin of my entire life.
Particles of hay drifted down from the loft above, revealing his location.
With quiet steps, I climbed the ladder. Though it was Devon, so I was positive he’d heard me.
He was leaning back in a rickety chair with one boot propped on the beam in front of him, phone in hand, his gaze never lifting. “Morning,” he said, calm and neutral. It was the professional version of him that I hadn’t seen much of lately.
I would have questioned the shift if I hadn’t been grinning like a fool.
“You fed the horses,” I whispered.
He tilted his head back, his dark eyes landing on me with a tangible weight that only Devon possessed. “You slept late. Someone had to.”
“You turned my alarm off.”
He didn’t even seem to care that he’d been busted. “You needed the sleep.”
“Brooke’s here.”
“I know.”
“And Zoey. And Jenn and Terry and the girls.”
“Know that, too. It made operational sense. More people in the house means more eyes. Jenn can manage your father, which frees up—”
“Stop.”
He did. Immediately.
“You told Brooke I needed normal.” My voice came out quieter than I intended. “You paid for the flights. Out of your own wallet.”
He said nothing, but his eyes widened a bit, as if he couldn’t believe I had already learned that. It was the most endearing thing I’d ever seen.
With measured steps, I closed the distance between us.
In the most unlike Devon way possible, he scrambled from the chair.
“Lofton.” His voice carried a warning.
Mine did too. “Devon.”
“I’m working.” He lifted his palm between us.
It only made me note his long fingers. God, I bet he was good with his hands. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell Leo.”
He took a step back, then let out a mumbled curse as I countered him with one step forward.
“Look, it wasn’t a big—”
I didn’t delay, not even for a second.
Gripping the front of his T-shirt, I pressed up on my toes and sealed my mouth over his.
It wasn’t raw and needy like the fantasies I’d had of him at night as my hand drifted between my thighs.
It was brief and warm. Close-mouthed and packed with gratitude.
I’m not even sure he had time to react before it was over.
However, when I circled my arms around his waist, pressing myself against his front, he went rigid.
But he didn’t retreat, so neither did I.
“You didn’t have to do any of that.”
His throat bobbed. “I know.”
“But you did it anyway.”
“Lofton—”
“You can hide from me all you want, Devon Grant. But you just showed me your brightest color, and I have every intention of showing you mine.”
He sucked in a sharp breath as I placed one last peck on his lips and then turned away, heading for the ladder.
Thanks to Devon, I had a long day of smiles and laughter ahead of me.
Though, inevitably, night would once again fall over the farm.
And I knew all too well where to find him.
18
DEVON
Lying in bed in Jenn’s old room, I stared up at the ceiling, questioning every single decision I’d made in life.
The good.
The bad.
The astronomically insane concoction of the two that had me hiding from a woman I was supposed to be actively protecting.
Fuck me.
Fuck my life.
And fuck good deeds that led to an ungodly beautiful woman kissing me.
I might have been the first man in all of history to say that last part. I didn’t suspect many men would’ve gone into full panic mode after a kiss from Lofton Beck. Honest to God, I didn’t know I had a panic mode before her lips touched mine.
Oh yeah, remember that whole I hope this doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass thing?
It had. Monumentally. And because it was me, this was the kind of screw-up that came with a soundtrack of ominous drums and a slow zoom on the idiot who thought he had everything under control.
I dragged a hand down my face, exhaling hard through my nose.
All morning—hell, even last night—I had actually believed I was doing the right thing.
Get her people there. Surround her with comfort. Give her someone other than me to lean on.
Create distance.
Rebuild the walls.
Simple plan.
Clean execution.
Except somewhere between “I have a good idea” and “what the hell have I done,” Lofton Beck had turned into a one-woman psychological warfare unit.