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)
He walked through the backyard and came to a stop as he saw the chicken coop.
That wasn’t what he’d expected to find in the suburbs. Although the houses out here did have larger plots of land. Maybe that’s why she’d moved to such a bad area. For land for her chickens.
Were these her babies?
“Maya?” he said quietly as he rocked her back and forth.
She barely weighed anything. Did she skip meals a lot?
That was something else that wouldn’t be happening on his watch.
“Maya, wake up, Bébé.”
Merde.
What was he doing? What was he doing calling her Bébé?
Not only did he have no right to call her baby, but in French? Although his name made it obvious he had a French background, he still tried to keep his voice free of an accent. Having an accent invited people to talk to you. They seemed to think you’d be interesting or have something to say.
Matthieu didn’t have anything to say. He wanted to keep people at bay, not invite them to get closer to him.
“Maya, I need you to wake up now. We’re home.”
“I don’t wanna go home,” she grumbled. “Stepmonster is there.”
Stepmonster? That made him smile.
It was kind of cute and a little bit goofy.
“Your home,” he told her in a soft voice. “Not that house where the stepmonster is.”
“Oh goody. She’s mean. Always calling me fat, saying I’m not good enough. Not very smart, not very pretty, not very anything.”
He stiffened. That complete and utter bitch. He’d seen the animosity between them and gotten a bad vibe from that witch. But had she seriously said those things to Maya?
“You know none of that is true, right?” He had to tread carefully here. He knew that she wouldn’t be saying any of those things if she wasn’t still half-asleep.
“I don’t know. Not very smart, not very lovable. Not sure anyone cares if I live or die but my babies.”
Fuck.
She was fucking killing him here. Matthieu wanted to shake her awake and tell her how wrong she was. That she was absolutely loved.
He glanced over at her chickens. Well, maybe not by those babies. He wasn’t sure they even knew where their own butt was.
And he knew that there were more people out there that cared than she obviously realized. And he was becoming one of those people.
“There are lots of people who care whether you live or die,” he told her.
“Name two.” She stared right at him.
Hmm. This might be the first time he’d actually seen her eyes. They were a pale blue, almost purple color. She wore dark eyeliner and glittery purple eyeshadow.
“You’re pretty,” she told him.
Pretty? Was she serious? He wasn’t pretty. He was masculine. Sexy. He might even accept handsome.
But pretty? Nope.
Then she blinked. And blinked again. And he knew he’d lost her as she tensed and tried to rear back.
Luckily, he was ready for that and tightened his hold on her.
“Whoa. Careful. You’re going to hurt yourself.”
“Oh my God. Oh my God. Put me down.”
He set her down on her feet and held her as she swayed. She glanced around.
“I’m home? How did I get here? How . . . where . . . was I actually asleep?”
“Yes, you fell asleep in my car almost straight away. If I didn’t have a healthy sense of self-confidence I might have been insulted that you found my company so boring.”
He was hoping that she might smile at that, but if anything she looked more horrified.
“I’m so sorry! That’s not true. I didn’t . . . I didn’t mean . . . I . . . I . . .”
Uh-oh.
She was back to stumbling over her words. He knew he had to get her back quick.
“I don’t think much of the neighborhood you live in,” he said sternly.
“Wh-what?”
“I've never been to this area, but I can tell it’s not a safe place to live.”
“It’s fine.”
“You shouldn’t live in a place like this.” He was deliberately prodding at her, trying to get to that temper to stop her looking like her cat had just died.
For some reason, he didn’t like her being sad or upset.
“Hey! You can’t tell me where to live!” she fired back.
There she was.
And just as he’d thought, the horror had been wiped off her face and she was even glaring up at him with a scowl.
Then she seemed to realize what she was doing and glanced away, a hint of red entering her cheeks.
“This area doesn’t look safe to me. And you have no alarm system. Nothing except a gate that wasn’t even locked. Would your neighbors come if you needed help? If you started screaming?”
“Urgh, well . . . um . . .”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. We need to move you somewhere safer.”
“No!”
Oh, her fiery side was back. It didn’t bother him, though. He simply crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at her.