Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Oh, aye.
Adorable.
“I focused on those muffins so I wouldn’t have more time to internalize the trauma of seeing my brother snogging a friend,” Davi replied while pouring coffee. She finished it and looked at them. “Where are Mum and Ned?”
“Outside,” Dair told her, silently willing her to vanish from the kitchen and reappear outside so he could have Blake to himself again.
“Right. Then that’s where I’ll go,” Davi declared to Dair’s elation, but then she asked Blake, “Unless ye need some help.”
“I’ve got it,” Blake assured her. “It won’t take long. Do you like scrambled eggs?”
“I like anything I dinnae have to cook myself.” Davi waved her mug at them. “As ye were, I’ll keep the parental units occupied. But if it starts getting nasty, ye might want to find a room.”
With that, his sister headed to the back door.
He turned to Blake.
They heard the door close before she blurted, “That shouldn’t have happened.”
He did not like her assertion.
As such, his “Why not?” was curt.
“How long are you here?” she asked.
“How long are you here?” he countered, making the point that neither of them were home because both of them traveled often.
“Chloe wants my help at the store. I’m here until the weekend.”
And of course she’d help Chloe when she needed it.
How could this woman seemingly not know her value?
“We leave two days from now.”
“So, the point would be?” she asked.
Now he was getting angry.
He looked to the island and back to her. “Was it ye I was kissing two minutes ago?”
“It was a good kiss,” she allowed.
“A good one?” he asked disbelievingly.
“Okay, a great one,” she said fast. “But Dair, I—” she cut herself off.
“What?” he asked.
She shifted her attention to the muffins.
“Ye what?” he pushed.
She looked to him and his chest felt like it caved in when he saw her face.
“I’m radioactive,” she whispered.
“Come again?” he whispered in return.
“You saw what happened with Chad.”
“Aye,” he agreed. “What does that have to do with you?”
“I picked him.”
“Lassie—”
She shook her head and cut him off. “No. I’m not…I don’t think I can…I’m no good for anybody.”
Oh, aye.
Now he was angry.
Being angry, and for other reasons, he didn’t temper his movements.
Oh no.
He stalked to her, and she retreated until she had her back to the wall. He caged her in with his body and held her jaw in both hands, dipping his head so his face was right in hers.
“That twat was the cheat,” he ground out. “Not you. He wanted you. He was devastated ye scraped him off. How he thought he could treat ye like that and still keep ye, I dinnae ken. I dinnae care. But his shite has not one fucking thing to do with you.”
“But I—”
He got so much closer, their noses brushed. “Not one fucking thing, Blake. Hear me?”
Even in his hold, she nodded slowly, her violet-blue eyes big and locked to his.
“Your mother is a waste of space,” Dair continued. “Not you. She may not have done anything in her life, but you’ve earned the love and respect of everyone around ye.”
“They’re only—”
His fingers tensed. “Bloody hell, fucking stop it, woman.”
She blinked and grew stiff and angry in his hold.
There was his Blake.
“We’re going out tonight. We’re talking. We’re figuring this out,” he decreed. “I live in Scotland. You split your time between here and New York. But we both have the means to get to each other. There’s always rugby to call, so I’m not as free as you, but we’re both in this. We both want this. So tonight, we’re going to talk about it and sort it.”
“You’re being very dictatorial,” she snapped.
And, aye.
That was his Blake.
Feeling she was back to herself, which was a more comfortable place for them both, primarily her, he moved back a smidge. “Do ye disagree with any of that?”
“Only you telling me it’s happening rather than asking me if I want it to happen.”
“Ye sucking my tongue practically down your throat and catching my lip because I quit kissing ye for half a second told me ye want it to happen, lass.”
He worried she gave herself a brain injury, her eye roll was so dramatic.
Oh fuck yes.
She was adorable.
“You’ll be putting on a nice frock tonight, but before that, you’ll be telling me what your favorite restaurant is in this town so I can make a booking for us, and we’re going out tonight,” he informed her.
“Just a note for your future reference, you’re supposed to kiss a girl after you buy her dinner,” she said snootily.
He smiled. “Hen, muffins and bacon and you worried my sister will be upset we started breakfast without her, I had to kiss ye.”
“That’s a weird reason for wanting to kiss a girl, Dair,” she informed him.
“That’s because you’re so busy self-flagellating, you don’t see your worth. It’s the perfect reason to kiss a woman, Blake. Your hair like that and you in those cute PJs was just icing.”