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)
Okay, when she’d first met him, he’d seemed so calm. So in control. Now, he sounded anything but calm.
Crap.
Had she done that to him? Had she erased his chill with all her . . . issues?
That’s what she was. She was a chill eraser. All she did was add to people’s stress.
It was a gift, really.
Not a good one, though. One that you hoped came with an exchange voucher.
“I only met you a few hours ago and I’ve already raised your blood pressure, haven’t I?”
There was silence.
Look at him.
It’s the least you can do since you’re probably giving him an ulcer.
Maya forced herself to stare at him.
He was gazing at her thoughtfully. “Yeah, you’ve raised my blood pressure.”
Maya winced. “Sorry.”
Matthieu shook his head. “Do not be sorry. You need me. To help you. To keep you safe. To get rid of your stalker and Vince. You need me and I like to be needed.”
“You do?”
“Yes. I do. So I’m going to go and speak to this stalker of yours and I’ll be making sure that he never stalks you again.”
She opened her mouth to argue and he placed his finger over her lips.
“Nope. I don’t want to hear about how you think I’ll get hurt or some other bullshit. It’s happening. No arguing.”
Who could argue?
She could no longer breathe, so she doubted she could do any arguing anyway.
He was touching her . . . again.
And it was both heaven and hell. She wanted more and yet her brain had kind of imploded. And she wasn’t sure that she could piece it back together.
“No arguing? Good girl.”
Maya narrowed her gaze at him. Then he suddenly stood. “An alarm system with cameras will get installed tomorrow. Then if Vince tries anything again, we’ll be ready for him. Of course, he won’t get close enough to destroy any property or touch you. I’ll get a background check done on this stalker. And then I’ll pay him a visit. Time for you to go to bed.”
Her mind was spinning from the quick change of topic.
“What?”
“I’m going to arrange for your garage door to be painted tomorrow.”
“Oh, that’s not necessary. I’ll wash it off.”
“You will not wash it off,” he said firmly. “You will not go near it. I will get it painted.”
Shoot.
How to explain this?
“And before you start worrying that you can’t afford that, you’re not paying for it. I’ll charge it to your father under expenses.”
Maya should probably protest that. Should feel bad that her dad was paying to get her garage door painted. But it was his asshole police officer that had painted it in the first place, so she didn’t feel too guilty at him paying for it.
If he hadn’t made Vince feel invincible then he wouldn’t have dared do that to her. Wouldn’t have pulled her off the road and manhandled her.
No, her father was forcing her to reap what he had sowed. So it was only fair that he paid for it.
“All right.”
“Good. Now that that is settled, you go to bed. I am going to stay out here on the couch. I won’t be sleeping much so don’t worry about that. Tomorrow, we’ll sort out the bed situation. I can get a bed put into the smaller room.”
She winced. That sounded really uncomfortable. But she simply didn’t have it in her to protest. So she just nodded and headed toward her bedroom. All she wanted right now was to get into bed.
“Just a quick word about the rules. I know you’re tired so we’ll talk about most of them tomorrow. But you are not to leave the house without me. Understand?”
She was going to go to bed and probably fall straight asleep, so that didn’t seem like a difficult promise to make.
After saying goodnight to all of her babies, she stumbled into her room with Dougie and Gummy on her heels. They slept in their dog beds at the end of her bed. Sometime in the night, Dougie would likely get into bed with her.
Dougie wasn’t good with boundaries.
She closed the door behind her then leaned against it.
How was this her life now? How had this all happened?
A few days ago, she was busy worrying about the puppies being exploited and how she was going to find the money to rescue them and also pay her gas bill.
And now . . . she’d been manhandled by Vince, threatened by him, summoned to her father so she could learn that he was being threatened, and met the hottest, sexiest guy to ever exist.
Who was now her bodyguard.
And on the other side of this flimsy door.
What was a girl to do? How could she survive this?
Oh God. What if he knew? Could he know how she felt about him?
Please don’t let him know.
Please let him just think she was a complete nutjob who couldn’t look at people when she spoke to them.