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)
“Why would I do that?” Ryan attempted a sneer, but it was shaky at best.
“Because otherwise, I will make it my life’s mission to make your life a living hell. Get me? Now go.”
Ryan scrambled into his car and drove off. Matthieu turned and stared at the house.
Right. Time to deal with the spitfire.
22
Maya paced back and forth in the living room.
Shit.
What if Ryan went to the cops? She didn’t really have friends there. Reeves was an okay guy, but they weren’t exactly friends. She had her brother, but they barely knew each other anymore.
When Matthieu came back inside, she spun to him
“Is he gone? What’s going to happen? What if he goes to the police? Will they arrest you for hurting him?”
“You haven’t put any socks on,” he stated.
“Socks?” Why was he talking about socks right now? Socks weren’t important. Him being arrested for assault and thrown in jail was what mattered!
“You’re already in trouble for leaving the house without me, and then you didn’t obey me by going inside, and now you’re still disobeying me?”
“I really don’t think I’m meant to obey you,” she grumbled.
“That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do, little girl.”
Whoa. Okay. There he went with the ‘little girl’ again.
Being called ‘little girl’ should have riled her up. But instead this strange sort of warmth ran through her.
So odd.
Maybe she shouldn’t have waited for him in the living room. Perhaps she should have gotten into bed and cuddled up to Dougie.
And hidden from the frowning man standing in front of her.
“You know, you look upset. Maybe I should give you some space to calm down. It’s time for bed anyway.”
He’d had a bed delivered and installed in the small third bedroom. Which made her feel slightly better now that he didn’t have to sleep on the sofa any longer.
“Stop changing the topic.”
“I’m not changing the topic! You just look like you could use a good night’s sleep. It can’t have been much fun sleeping on the sofa.”
“It wasn’t,” he replied. “That sofa is lumpy and short. But you’re still avoiding the conversation. You disobeyed me. Now, sit down.”
Huh?
Why did he want her to sit down?
“Sit. Down. Now, Maya. Or you’re going to be sitting very uncomfortably tomorrow.”
He turned and left the room, heading into the third bedroom. Which was now his, she guessed.
Her mind was whirling. Had he just . . . had he . . . threatened to spank her?
That couldn’t be right. She must have misunderstood what he said.
Right. So what other reason would he say you’d have trouble sitting tomorrow?
She wasn’t sure but as he returned, she found herself quickly sitting.
Urgh.
Why had she done that? Idiot.
He didn’t look at her as he returned and for some reason that made her stomach tighten in nerves and something else . . . guilt?
But what did she have to feel guilty about?
Maybe because you disobeyed him? And you know that you’re supposed to do what he tells you to do when it comes to safety.
Matthieu crouched in front of her and picked up one foot. What was he doing?
Then she noticed that he was holding some socks.
Socks that had metal garbage cans on them with a green head poking out.
“Are those Oscar the Grouch socks?” she asked.
“Yep.” He brushed off one foot and looked it over. “No scratches. That’s good. You should know better than to walk around outside without shoes. You could have stepped on glass or a thistle.”
A thistle?
Was that really what he was worried about? A thistle?
He slid a sock onto her foot, then gave the other one the same treatment.
“Do you like Oscar the Grouch?” she asked.
“No,” he said abruptly as he rubbed her feet. Oh, that felt so nice. She hadn’t realized how cold her feet had been. Now that they were getting warmer, they were starting to hurt.
“Then why do you have socks with him on them?” she asked, curiously.
“It’s a joke,” he said. “A practical joke. From two pranksters.”
“Um. Okay.”
He sighed. “Ink has these stepsons. I once had to rescue them and they knocked me out and stole my car. Which they wrote off.”
“Oh no.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said mournfully. “That car was a classic.”
“But were the boys okay?”
“That’s all anyone cares about. Those two demons. They’re indestructible. No doubt they’ll outlive us all. If they haven’t destroyed the world by the time they’re thirty.”
She grinned at his description of the boys, thinking that he was joking.
But he didn’t smile.
Right. He was serious?
“They’re just kids, though, right?”
“They’re in college now. And they’re not just kids. They are evil masterminds.”
“But didn’t they give you these socks?”
“Yes, the implication being that I am like Oscar the Grouch.”
Oh. That was funny. But not really the truth. “I don’t think you’re a grouch.”
He glanced up at her with one eyebrow raised.
“Although you do look kind of grouchy right now,” she said as she lowered her gaze to her knees.