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)
Her voice hitched, and hearing it, Dair’s chest caved in.
“I also gave her shit about her weight,” she kept at it. “And definitely about her not having a man. And yes,” she hissed again. “I sold that picture and many more to anyone who might buy them. I did a lot of other shitty things too, Dair. That’s me.”
“It’s not.”
“Would you like to know what else I did that’s me?”
“Love—”
“I’d act up. Just to be a bitch. To Mum. To Dad. But also to Alex, who would get in trouble right along with me if I did something horrible, even if she had nothing to do with it, which she never did. And that’s one of the reasons why I did it. I honest to God do not know how she can even stand to look at me.”
“This really—”
Blake spoke over him. “There are still stores I’m banned from in Manhattan because I acted like such an entitled asshole. Then there was that time I crashed Grant’s family’s boathouse and got sued.”
Crashed a boathouse?
She kept going. “And the many times I had parties at Dad’s house where thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of damage was done. Dad spent years cleaning up my messes, which, you should know, included me getting arrested. Twice. Suffice it to say, even my own grandmother couldn’t stomach me.”
“I dinnae need to know all of this, lassie,” he said gently.
Her neck turned abruptly like she was looking behind her, then she came back to him.
“My phone is vibrating. My car is here.”
“You’re not leaving.”
She came at him and didn’t stop, like she could push through him, so he caught her by the arms to communicate she could not.
She kept pushing forward against a man who could manage himself ably in a scrum.
“Settle down, lass,” he murmured. “I’ll go talk to the driver and give him a few quid.”
All of a sudden, she stopped pushing against him and looked him right in the eye.
Hers were still full of tears.
“If you care about me at all, you’re not going to put me through this. Put me through eventually being a disappointment to you. Put me through being the one you teethe on for practice before you find the one for you.”
“That’s not what’s happening.”
“No? So the next time you find out some shitty thing I’ve done, we’re not going to sit down on your couch to have a chat so I can explain myself to you?”
He was realizing he hadn’t simply made a mistake with that.
He hadn’t fucked this.
He’d delivered an injury, perhaps a mortal one.
And it had wounded her.
It was also wounding him.
And if he didn’t fix it, it was going to kill them.
“No, what’s happening is, I’m falling in love with you.”
He thought that would work.
It didn’t.
He knew it when she returned, “You don’t even know me.”
“I know ye, Blake.”
“Really?” she asked and pointed toward the sitting room.
Fuck, he’d fucked up.
Before he could say more, with a vicious wrench, she pulled free.
He got tangled up in his dog, who again didn’t know who to be with, so Blake was out the door before he could catch her.
As gently as he could in his state, he pressed his dog back and sprinted after her, out the door, down the walk, seeing her giving her bag over to the driver who had the trunk open.
She hustled to the side door of the car and was standing in it, head aimed down, when he caught her with both hands.
“Dinnae do this, darling,” he begged.
She lifted her head and gutted him with her expression.
No.
He hadn’t wounded her.
He’d destroyed her.
“Thank you,” she said so softly, he almost didn’t hear her.
Then she lifted a hand to his cheek, and he closed his eyes momentarily at the feel of it.
He opened them when she spoke again.
“Thank you for letting me pretend I was someone I’m not, even for a little while.”
Christ almighty.
He’d entirely fucked this.
“Please dinnae do this, baby. I fucked up. Let’s work through it.”
She sniffed, swallowed, and swept her thumb over his lips, a miniscule, wretched smile on hers before she whispered, “It was beautiful.”
The force of that blow was so substantial, he was still recovering from it as Blake slipped from his hold, folded into the car and pulled the door to with such force, he (and Sorcha, who’d followed him) had to jump out of the way.
He heard her lock it.
His woman had just literally slipped through his fingers.
And he’d not only allowed it, he was the one who made her do it.
The driver shot him a look filled with blame he had no idea Dair richly deserved as he walked to the driver’s side door.
And Dair stood there, powerless, as the man got behind the wheel, Blake stared steadfastly forward, and they drove away.
Chapter 21