Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
His grip tightened, and breathing was becoming difficult for me.
“Can you do that, or do I need to assign someone else to stay with her? Hale is my friend, and I’d hate for him to lose his youngest son.”
I swallowed and sucked in the little oxygen I could.
I nodded. “Yes,” I croaked out.
He released me, then shoved me toward the door. If I had been a smaller man, I’d have ended up on my ass. I didn’t look back at him as I went to get the hell out of his office.
“If you care for her at all, you’ll make sure to just be her friend. That’s all you can be. At least for now.”
I paused, then nodded again before opening the door and walking out.
Jayda was in the hallway, and her eyes were wide when she looked at me. She’d most likely heard the crashing in the room and come to see if everything was okay, but knew better than to go in there, uninvited.
Are you okay? she mouthed silently.
And again, I just nodded.
Oz was sitting on the porch steps with a bottle of whiskey between his feet and texting something on his phone when I drove up.
Where the hell was Ransom?
Not that I had to worry about Oz flirting with Montana. His crazy ass had fallen so hard for a woman that he’d had to kidnap her and hold her to draw out her brother, who had stolen money from the family. When it was over, he stalked her for months—as in went into her apartment and watched her sleep, went through her phone to read texts, and even cleaned up some. Luckily, by the time she found out about all that, she’d been in love with him. Winslet wore a diamond rock on her hand, and their wedding date was set for the fall.
Oz saw no other women. His eyes never wandered.
I’d always found that amazing, even with Bane and Halo. As hot as she was, I still didn’t get how he was blind to other pieces of ass.
The fact that I was beginning to get it scared the shit out of me.
“Where’s my brother?” I asked, and Oz didn’t even glance up from his phone.
“Had stuff to do,” he replied. “You back? I’m on duty in an hour, and I’d like to see Winslet first.” Then he finally glanced up at me.
“Yeah, I’m back.” I stared at the cabin, not sure I could go inside yet. “Has she been inside all day?”
I could have asked Ransom this today at any time, but I hadn’t. I’d tried to rewire my brain to not care about what she was doing. To not worry about her. It hadn’t worked.
He shrugged. “I’ve just been here since four. She’s not been out since then,” he told me as he stood up.
“Leave that, would you?”
I nodded to the bottle of whiskey. He’d gotten it from us anyway. Probably free.
He put it back down, then headed for his vehicle. I stared at the bottle, trying to decide if I was going to sit out here and drink or go inside and face this. Tell her that last night had been a mistake and we could only be friends.
Leaning down, I picked up the bottle of whiskey and took a long drink, then decided to have a seat. I wasn’t ready to face anything. Not yet.
Forty
Montana
He was back. The smell of bacon wafted into the bedroom, and I heard the television. It had to be Than.
He’d stayed gone all day yesterday, and when I went to bed, I didn’t even check to be sure Ransom was still outside. I was afraid he’d left. There were car doors closing earlier and the sound of a vehicle starting up twice. I didn’t go to look though. If he’d left, I was afraid I’d have a panic attack.
When it got dark and Than hadn’t shown up, I gave in to my tears. Crying in the shower, then curling up in bed alone, I’d finally gotten to sleep.
I wanted to be angry with him for leaving me. But that would make me the girl who thought sex meant I had some claim on him. Or that we had some relationship, which I knew we didn’t.
Trying to shake loose the hurt that he’d caused or at least mask it, I gave myself a pep talk before finally opening the door and going out there to face him.
He wasn’t shirtless this time as he stood at the stove with his back to me. That was a plus, I guessed. At least today, it was. I didn’t need that view. Not when it affected me the way it did.
He glanced back over his shoulder and gave me a smile that didn’t match the apology in his eyes. That, and the regret. I didn’t smile back. There was only so much faking I could do, and that was asking too much.