Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 147967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
So he was alarmed to see it happening again today.
Was she overloaded?
Of course she was. Anyone would be.
And he felt this pressing urge to ease her burden. To take everything on so she didn’t have to shut down in order to survive.
“Listen to me, I don’t want you to stress.”
She raised one eyebrow and he knew he was about to get sassy Maya. “Because telling someone not to stress always works.”
It would if she let him take full control. But he refrained from saying that to her as well.
“Well, you weren’t going back there to work, anyway.” He nearly winced after saying that. That wasn’t quite what he’d meant to say.
“Oh, I wasn’t? Then where was I going to work?”
“You wouldn’t be happy working for someone who exploited animals.”
“No, I wouldn’t. But a regular paycheck is kind of a necessity.”
“You’re amazing at what you do. You could get a job anywhere.”
“There aren’t a lot of yoga studios in Billings where I can work.”
“Is that what you want to keep doing? Teaching yoga? Before that you worked as a personal assistant. Was that what you wanted to do? Or is there something else you’d rather do?”
“Rather do? I do things that feed my babies and keep a roof over our heads.”
Yeah, that’s what he’d been wondering. While she’d seemed to enjoy teaching yoga, it didn’t seem to be her passion.
Which was animals.
“Why did you really take that job?”
She sighed, that cool, unemotional mask still on her face. “You know, being so nosy isn’t attractive.”
Hmm. Time to knock that shield a bit.
“Careful, Bébé. I don’t mind a bit of sassy. But you don’t want to go over the line . . . I know just what to do to little girls that push too far. And it involves a consequence.”
There we go. He saw a crack. He knew he was pushing her and it might be a bit of a bastard thing to do when she was obviously feeling lost and vulnerable and was just doing her best to protect herself.
However, he couldn’t help but want her to turn to him for protection.
Shit.
This was what he’d stayed up most of last night thinking about. About whether he could do this.
But in the end, he couldn’t walk away. It wasn’t an option because she already had a part of him.
And he could never be whole again without her.
He was still scared of losing her. Of fully losing himself. But he would keep her safe.
Which he intended to do anyway.
Matthieu was going to finally have a home.
It was terrifying and at the same time, it felt so fucking right.
“I’m not breaking a rule.”
“The rules are changing, Little girl. And there’s a new boss for you. Me.”
More of that shield cracked.
“You can’t just announce yourself the boss of me,” she informed him. “That’s not the way things work.”
“Actually, it is.”
“You’re delusional,” she informed him coolly.
So she had the courage to look him in the eyes now? Yeah, she was firmly behind that mask. But he was determined to completely crack it. At least around him. Around anyone else, she was free to put it up to keep herself safe.
It was going to mean a huge change for him. Maya had ties. She wasn’t going to be happy traveling around the country.
Maya needed stability and a home more than anyone he’d ever met and somehow he had to give that to her.
But one step at a time. First he had to convince her that he could be her safe space.
That she could trust him to look after her.
“You took it because of the puppies, didn’t you?” He couldn’t understand it at first. Why she put up with David the way she did. She didn’t tend to hold her tongue with anyone else, so he hadn’t been sure why she put up with David’s shit without exploding.
Then last night, it had suddenly made sense. It was the puppies.
“I took the job because I needed it,” she said. “I stayed because of the puppies.”
“You saw them and you knew they weren’t being taken care of properly.”
“Sometimes they looked so scared and confused,” she told him. “But I was always teaching back-to-back classes when puppy yoga was on. So I couldn’t find a way to follow David to where they were coming from. And I was concerned he would see me. So when Millie and Livvy offered to help . . .” She shrugged.
“You realize how dangerous that was. These people running the puppy farm could have discovered what the three of you were doing . . . they could have harmed you.”
“I wasn’t in any real danger,” she protested. Then a guilty look crossed her face. “I shouldn’t have let Millie follow them.”
“You should have told me what was going on,” he corrected.
“Well, all’s well that ends well,” she said. “At least, I hope the puppies are all right. I know they got them out, but I’ll need my phone to check in with them. I’ll also need to contact my insurance.”